After recovering a little from the double-whammy of hangover and tummy bug in Wuhan, R and I headed to the airport. We had planned a quick sojourn on the west coast of the USA before I returned home to do some work, and R bounced to Washington DC for World Fantasy Con.
Everyone watching the game…
San Francisco was a really interesting place. We arrived just in time for Halloween and for the home team to win the World Series baseball competition, which meant the whole city had a weird vibe mixing celebration, dressing up and drunkenness!
On our first night we wandered the city taking in the atmosphere, and having a drink or two in the bars which were all open and all showing the game. Partying started after the win, which for us meant listening to police/ambulance/fire engine sirens all night.
Our touristy efforts were mainly centred on Fisherman’s Wharf, which was home to some of the biggest seagulls I’ve ever seen! Makes ours look positively dainty. We walked down there through Chinatown, which was great. On the wharf, we found a couple of places that would do gluten free seafood dishes, so R tried the obligatory chowder, and I had a crab meat pasta, before catching the streetcar back to Union Square.
Flight of “tasting” shakes
On another day while shopping at Macy’s, we stopped for a meal at the burger bar, which was awesome. Great burgers, but the standout for us was the huge paddle (flight) of thickshakes! I had thought we would get three small ones to share between us, but what I didn’t realise was that the flight actually had a pair of the three tastings (and “tasting” meant about 300ml!) We were totally broken by the shakes and had to go sleep off the sugar coma instead of doing too much shopping.
One night we met up with a mate, J, who took us to an amazing seafood restaurant, which had huge sea-themed decorations. We had a seafood platter (of course) which almost defeated us!
While in SF, we also wanted to try some of the local wine, so found a restaurant which offered flights of local stuff. Both flights were lovely, but we didn’t want to be dragging too much wine home, so we didn’t take any with us.
On-sale Vogs from Haight-Ashbury
We didn’t only eat and drink our way around SF, we also did a bunch of shopping. I bought some Fluevogs on sale (hurrah!) we hit the bookshops and Amoeba Music, the huge CD shop, in Haight-Ashbury.
The view from the train
We’d decided to catch the train from SF to LA, to avoid another flight, and to see a bit more of the countryside. This was great — since we’d booked a cheap sleeping cabin, we had meals thrown in, and so the staff put you into a booth with enough other people to fill. We talked to a bunch of other travellers, mostly locals but a few other international tourists. A few of the locals gave us great info about tipping, like that even if the meal is free, you still should tip as if you’re paying the regular price for it. Thank goodness we found out, otherwise we would have had waitresses cursing us up and down the coast!
Two Weeks Away 