The alarm didn't go off -- a bug with Nokia methinks -- but the traffic noise was enough. We spent an age writing the journals entries for yesterday, a good day, which meant we left no earlier than before.
We tried the third 24hr diner over the road which was a bit more homespun with an Eastern European influence. I mentally chided Helen for not understanding the question of which bread she wanted with her eggs. I then ordered a Beverley Hills omelette (chuck in a bit of everything) and was unexpectedly asked With white sourdough?
After a moment's hesitation I realised I was being asked a key question and promptly (and naturally) answered Yes.
The question was repeated. Oh dear, I guess the correct answer wasn't "yes." Helen offered With white or sourdough?
Ah, Sourdough, please.
As we write the events of the day up I asked Helen what that question was again. Wheat, white or sourdough?
was the clear reply. Oh.
Our mission today is to buy something. No easy task as we don't really know what we want and we certainly aren't sure where to buy it. CompUSA was reputed to have free Internet access. Where that Internet access was wasn't immediately obvious though there were some people strung out using sample iMacs and a few people queueing. We guessed that that must be it. CompUSA is a computer supermarket selling all the bits and pieces you need for computers that are easy to sell [cf. PC World in the UK]. I guess it does fairly well. We didn't use the Internet.
Starting with some sort of a desire to buy a fleece we picked a street and walked down it. No shop selling fleeces. We picked another. Ditto. Oh dear, this could be a rather fruitless day. After a couple of hours of popping into the odd shop and deciding they didn't have anything to sell us we found an Internet cafe and had a brisk session. We tried Macys (department store) to no avail -- sportswear [no chance of outdoorwear] is often seen as casual attire to be worn at the tennis club, I guess -- so ended a footsore slog with some more quality time browsing in Borders.
Time for tea and a quick run round the block but with only US$35 in your pocket and no immediate desire to spend more (a vital Internet task was to transfer some money around) we fell back on one of the diners for a bowl of chilli and a burger. At least it wasn't McDonalds, which don't crowd you out here -- whereas Starbucks does.
A few teary moments as we realise this is the last night -- arguably there's one more but that's an overnight flight. In 30 hours we'll be at Heathrow. That's the rather blunt fact that's not quite sunk in yet. It's so unfair!
Mind you, it'll be nice not to have a police siren's parp break the relative quiet from outside.
HI Grant & Mason, San Francisco N37.78644 W122.40950 Elev. 12m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.