Wrapping up San Francisco

Sorry for the delay in issuing this page. Things didn't quite go to plan at the end.
Sue has started her wind-down from her time at UCSF.

On Wednesday we went cycling in the Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle park, without mishap! To celebrate we had a drink at Mucky Duck bar ( http://www.muckyduckpub.com/ ), then for dinner we went to a Vietnamese restaurant on 9th Ave - New Andy's Cafe and Deli. The serves were large but delicious. After starters of 2 fat 'spring' rolls each, Sue had a rice hot pot while I had large shrimp on noodles. The prices were cheap - good for the budget watchers!

Thursday: I went to the Post Office then walked into Golden Gate Park, through the sunken music shell area

to the Observation Deck in the DeYoung Museum ( http://deyoung.famsf.org/ ).

It was a great day for the views, from Pacific Ocean 

to the city.

The view included the tops of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge

and some churches, such as St. Ignatius:

After Sue finished and had said her goodbyes,  we went to catch a tram to the city to visit the Museum of Asian Art. There was some tram problem, so it took over 40 minutes for a tram to come. Fortunately that meant that there were two in quick succession, so we waited for the second one. We alighted at Van Ness and walked up to the Museum, past the performing arts centre, the Bill Graham centre where Bob Dylan supported by Mark Knopfler was to perform that night, past the Town Hall where the Mountain Dew Skateboarding  and moto-cross championships were being held over the weekend. Alas, the Museum was closed! We eventually found someone who told us that the late Thursday night openings had finished for the season. We decided then to catch a cab to the renowned Cliff House hotel ( www.cliffhouse.com ). Here we dined in Sutro's Restaurant, named for the original owner of the hotel and the magnificent baths he built there in the late 1800's. According to one of the old advertisements in the WC, an Australian swimmer challenged an American swimmer to a 220 yard race in August 1898.

Friday: We had run out of bread and cereal so we went to the Rain Tree Cafe on Irving Street ( see http://www.yelp.com/biz/rain-tree-cafe-san-francisco for reviews ). Sue had French toast with a poached egg and some bacon, while I had 2 fried eggs with chopped potatoes - the new hash browns? We returned to the Studio to plan the rest of the day and were surprised by the cleaner. The owners had expected us to leave today, whilst we thought that we had another day! We promised to be packed by 2:30 for the cleaner, and out by 4:00 for the incoming guest. We managed to do the former, then left our cases in the hallway while we went to the post-office to send home some unwanted but heavy paperwork. We then returned to the Studio and awaited a cab - 40 minutes! The cab took us to the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the San Francisco airport, where we stayed the night in an Executive room on the 8th floor.

Saturday: After dinner and lunch at the hotel we checked out and headed on their shuttle to the airport, having realised at lunch that the flight was scheduled to leave about an hour earlier than I had originally been designated before we left Australia. The ticket said that we were to depart on the United Airlines flight from Terminal 3, so that was where we asked the shuttle to drop us. There did not seem to be a bag-drop counter for us there so we asked the Information guy. He told us that we should take the elevator up to the Skytrain and got to Terminal 1 to check-in. After re-arranging some luggage there, as my big suitcase was way overweight, we went through the security check fairly easily, although we had to take off shoes, belt, cap, remove the wallet and coins from our pockets, put the computer in a separate container, then stand in the full-body scanner with our hands in the air. I didn't hear the security person say I could step out, so she was a bit tetchy when she said it the 2nd time. By this time I was a bit frustrated and left the coins in the bucket. She offered them to me but I said she could keep them (not what I was thinking, but you can't afford to be rude at all). Sue was already through so she accepted the coins - it was less than a dollar - she could have contributed them to the poor box!

We then had to go to terminal 3 via shuttle which we were to catch at Gate 71A. This was clearly marked, with some roped off area near the 2 travelators, but no attendant. I eventually spied an attendant about 20 metres away and asked where to go. She said downstairs, and checked our boarding passes. As we approached the bottom of the stairs another attendant indicated we should hurry to catch the shuttle. As my right knee had almost given out on the 2nd or 3rd step there was no way I was going to hurry, and I told him so. We finally boarded the shuttle which took us underground to Terminal 3. We went to the gate to wait. We bought some water to tide us over until we reached Ontario airport in southern California. After a while we checked the gate notice and were thus informed that the flight had been delayed until 7:00 p.m. as there was no crew! We went to grab a bite to eat at one of the eateries in the terminal, at a section that we had bypassed by coming in the shuttle. In the end we left over an hour later than the original scheduled departure time for our 1 hour flight.

At Ontario airport we caught a shuttle to the car rental area and collected our Hertz car - a bright red Mazda 6 auto with GPS. We headed to Loma Linda along the I-10 freeway (East), arriving about 10:p.m. We then had to locate the key to our apartment, then the apartment, unload the cases, then go to find somewhere to eat. Being after 10:30 by then a lot of places were closed. We eventually found a hamburger place called In-n-Out ( http://www.in-n-out.com/ ), which was doing a roaring trade, even with small children! The burgers were about $2 each, so you can imagine the quality!! We finally made it back to the unit by midnight, looking forward to the sleep-in Sunday.

To be continued at philronaldson-llula.blogspot.com