Had things gone smoothly I would have left San Francisco this morning to go and pick up my car. However issues getting a hold of the required cash delayed my departure until tomorrow. After sorting out my car payments in the morning I decided to spend the rest of the day doing the touristy things that I'd not yet done.
Today was supposedly the hottest day of the year so far. The temperature has been up around 15 to 17 degrees up until today when it reached 25. I left the hostel dressed in jeans as usual and had to come back and change into shorts. It was the first time that it's really felt like summer.
I caught the cable car from the city centre over to Fisherman's wharf. It was pretty unnerving on the steep slopes.
At Fisherman's Wharf I decided to finally have something unhealthy and got a milkshake from In-N-Out burger. It was so sweet and so thick I could hardly drink it and I felt sick straight away. It probably would have been nice if it had been half as sweet as it was. I had watched That Sugar Film on the plane (which I highly recommend!) so I couldn't help but notice how lethargic I felt for the next few hours. I guess I'm now inoculated against buying excessively sugary food for a least a little while.
Next stop was Lombard Street (the famously windy one). Getting there involved walking up an incredibly steep hill, a task made harder by the gross milkshake. The street was pretty cool. The view over the city was great and the flowers and greenery beside the road stood out. The place was crawling with tourists. People were standing in the middle of the road and cars were stopped everywhere with people trying to take photos. I can't complain though seeing as I did the same thing!
The view from Lombard Street
No one seemed particularly concerned about standing in the middle of the street
The heat and the milkshake then combined to force me back to my room to laze around for a while. The last time I visited San Francisco we had had a really nice family dinner at a restaurant called the Tadich Grill, reportedly the oldest restaurant in California dating back to 1849. My parents had given me so money especially so I could eat at the Tadich Grill again and that's what I did. Eating alone is not unusual and I was sat next to a bunch of other people who were there by themselves. I had one of their classic dishes, the Dungeness Crab Cakes, and my first American wine, a Zinfandel.
This was my first restaurant dining experience since arriving. First of all I was giving a fairly large serving of Sourdough and butter which was complementary. I was almost full after finishing this. The two (slim) people on either side of me first polished off the bread, before getting reasonably sized salads, and then a full main also (which for some strange reason is called an entree here...). This was also my first experience of paying a bill (or the check as they call it) and tipping. I think I did everything correctly but it still felt weird to leave nothing but a signature.
Tomorrow I sort out a few small things before catching the Caltrain south to pick up the car!