Day 05 - Last Day in Oakland/San Francisco

Today was a work day for everyone else in the household (lucky me!), Dan and Evan each off to entertain a new batch of 4-6 year olds at a holiday day camp for local kids, Pat to work at the Dominican University and Phil to hope that changes some network guy was making over the weekend to the school networks he looks after hadn’t set him back six months.


After breakfast I left Phil to ponder his fate and set off on the walk down around Lake Merritt to the Amtrak Station at Jack London Square where I was able to easily exchange my online voucher for the real ticket needed for tonight’s train. Apparently Jack London Square was a buzz of activity yesterday for the Farmer’s Market but I can testify that it is dead as a door nail at 10:30am on a Monday. I filled in some of the half hour wait for the ferry chatting to a family on holiday from Florida who had lived in Townsville for a year.



Home of the Pointy Headed Man

 The ferry trip across to San Francisco City offered a different view of the bay from that offered by the BART train (it tunnels under it people!). From the Ferry Building I followed the waterfront around to about Wharf 31 before striking inland for the climb up to Pioneer Park where sits the Coit Tower. The queue of people waiting to actually go up the tower was too long for my liking but I had a look at the famous murals that adorn the inside of the tower and admired the view from the park.

Leaving the park I walked down to Stanton Street and embarked on a long stroll along it that took me through the Italian Quarter (where Susanne and I had gelato on Friday) and through China Town to the up market shopping centres around Union Square. Along the way I bought some bananas in a supermarket for $0.49 each. Compared to the price of at least $3.00 each we are currently paying in Australia I could be in danger of over-dosing on bananas here!

At Macy’s in Union Square I couldn’t resist going up to check out the offerings at their cheesecake shop, but I decided that delicious though they were, they would do neither my wallet nor my waistline any good. I continued my walk up to and along Market Street as far as Civic Square before jumping on board a BART train back to Oakland.

I did a bit of a detour around Lake Merritt on the way back to the Williams residence. Then it was a matter of getting packed and organized ready for this evening’s departure. The boys were going out to a friend’s birthday dinner, but I shouted Phil and Pat to dinner at a local restaurant. There were quite a number to choose from but we settled on Indian, where the food was very nice and a doggy bag was required for the surplus. It is a pity that we don’t have the same range of nice places to eat at local suburban areas at home.

After saying my farewells to Pat, Phil gave me a lift to the Amtrak Station, where my train – the Coast Starlight – was reported to be running only 15 minutes late. Which is pretty much on time for Amtrak. A final farewell and thanks to Phil for his hospitality and I was on my way. For about 15 minutes anyway, until we had an unscheduled 30 minute delay “to remove a private carriage” (WTF?). However I just settled down to get as much sleep as I could, hoping that the rest of my trip runs as smoothly and as enjoyably as it has started in Oakland.