Day 18 - Sat 01 Nov 2008

After waking at a surprisingly early time for me (8.30am!; yes that's early for me) I did a quick channel-hopping on the tv to grasp what programmes they have in the States and to see what they have to put up with.

Suffice to say, its the first time I've seen a James Bond movie - GoldenEye to be precise - being shown on a national television station at that time of day. There were also many channels about the upcoming general elections, which include all sorts of Propositions to vote on as well as the comparatively "easy" vote for John McCain or Barack Obama. Unexpectedly enough, there were also a fair few channels advertising sports equipment and diet / skincare products - all invariably being endorsed by stars such as Cindy Crawford.

As when I was in New York, when I visit a city for the first time I tend to want to explore it on foot, even if in the case above it led to an eventual six to seven hour walk! I personally think its the only way to really discover and get to know a town or city fully and it tends to give one a much clearer idea of the geography of the place and a sense of scale that you don't initially realise when using public transport, particularly any Underground system. However, once the geography "above ground" is understood more clearly I tend to start using the public transport to get around, which in a way helps to "join the dots" too.

Today, a walk (via the local laundrette to deposit all of my dirty clothes where a "wash and fold" service for $14 was provided), northeast up Market Street to then cut north through Chinatown and North Beach (by going up the northern stretch of Broadway) saw us arrive at Fisherman's Wharf before lunch with it hammering down with rain all morning.

At Fisherman's Wharf a walk further westwards to Hyde Street Pier, coming across the only floating National Park as its where several historic ships are docked. Given the horrendous weather, however, the Golden Gate Bridge (to the west) was just a faint outline in the distance and Alcatraz Island (to the northeast) seemed to be many miles away sat in the middle of the Bay. A look around and on the old ships may have been an interesting experience but given Anthony's umbrella he'd bought earlier in the morning had already broken on him and even with my waterproof jacket doing a grand job at keeping me dry, my jeans were getting soaked and so a lunchtime stop to eat was required. Moving off the Pier and heading back east along the seafront we came across a friendly restaurant called Pompei's Grotto, apparently serving up a variety of foodstuffs.

Given a friend at the wedding had recommended I try some clam chowder I plumped for a lemon sole with vegetables which came with a bowl of clam chowder as a starter, which I really enjoyed. In terms of comparison to other foods, I'd liken it to having a similar consistency to chicken soup and it tastes similar to it too. The sole was ok, though I'm not too keen on the tendency there is here in the States to fry / grill their fish; steamed tastes better in my opinion, reason being that I don't believe fish should be "crunchy" at all, which invariably is how fried / grilled fish turns out.

However, the dessert of warm chocolate sundae with cream and vanilla ice cream with hazelnut I couldn't complain about in the slightest, whilst a bottle of the local Anchor Steam beer ensured the meal went down smoothly.

As we'd slightly dried out when in the restaurant but the weather wasn't particularly easing off, we decided to walk back to the hotel to re-energise before a night on the town. Along the way, we walked up one of the hills in the centre of the city, where at the junction of Lombard Street and Hyde Street we came across the "peak" of the hill at which point there's a slight anomaly in the road; as its a 40 degree slope going downhill its a one-way road and for safety reasons it snakes from side to side so as to slow traffic and is known as "the crookedest street in the world" because of these eight switchbacks down the hill.

After arriving back at the hotel and spending considerable time drying everything out using the hotel-provided hair drier, we went to the concierge-recommended John's Grill in the Union Square area but unfortunately it was closed due to a private party however Les Joulins - a live jazz venue - was open across the street and as a big lunch had been consumed earlier on, a Seafood Platter was ordered along with a Budweiser. The food was really very good, the white wine sauce that was coating the Platter being the sort that you request extra portions of french bread and butter so as to soak it all up.

Afterwards we walked to a club not far away from the restaurant and after bargaining half price entry for $10, which I personally thought was a bit excessive but was still $30 cheaper than Ruby Skye - the club I preferred but at that price ($40, about 27 GBP) it wasn't really a feasible option just for an entry fee.

With hindsight and after three drinks, Anthony eventually came round to my way of thinking that the club really wasn't particularly good; I'm sure it was good-quality hip-hop and reggae music being played but its not quite the sort of music for me to want to get on to the dancefloor as its generally too slow a beat for my liking.

We stopped via Ruby Skye at around 2pm to see if the entry fee had been reduced at all but despite the 4am closing time the entry fee was still an extortionate $30, which was even more surprising given the number of people who appeared to be leaving the club at that time of night.

The short walk back down Powell Street - where the cable cars run in the daytime - and then down Market Street completed the evening.