(All photos for these days are available on flickr.)
I got into San Francisco late-ish on Sunday night and immediately went to the hotel. The roads from Santa Cruz were more hill-y and wind-y than I’d realized, and while I was white-knuckled driving the speed limit, there were cars vrooming past me so fast I felt the car shake. I just wanted a bed.
The hotel was gorgeous. It had an antique-style decor, complete with gated elevator. The room was about the size of my last studio apartment, with closets that could be small bedrooms if buildings could zone them without windows. I loved it.
I will always take public transit over anything else, if I can, and was disappointed that San Francisco, like most cities, is moving to app-based fares, and I couldn’t easily find a place to buy a Clipper card to add to my collection of vacation transit cards. I then had a late start in the morning because I had trouble locating the correct bus stop. The one just down the block from the hotel said it was closed and to board the bus at another stop. I walked around for at least half hour looking for one that was the route in the direction I needed. Eventually the bus came, and for fucks sake, it dropped off and picked up passengers at the very stop I originally went to.
First I went to the original Philz location in the Mission district; I could easily go to a Philz shop at home, but this was the original Philz! The coffee and the plant-powered breakfast sandwich made me happy. I had a leisurely sit outside in the sunny afternoon.
Vacation yarn is the best yarn, so next stop was ImagiKnit where I bought Twirl yarn in Carmel Sunshine — each yarn is named after the animal the fiber came from!
I took the next bus over to Golden Gate Park, but I should have looked up some information sooner, because the carousel is closed on Mondays. I grabbed a coffee and walked around the park anyway because it was lovely. I didn’t explore the whole park because I wanted to go to Good Vibrations before they closed, to visit the Antique Vibrator Museum. What an amazing experience! Seeing the devices paired with their advertising was really something, since those older models weren’t explicitly marketed toward sexual activities.
I had a quick dinner at Rad Radish and went back to the hotel. The next day, I had absolutely no pepper. I hoped a shower would wake me up, but it only made me sleepier. I’d wanted to do more sightseeing, but a three-hour nap took over instead. I checked out Nourish Cafe for dinner, and the "tuna" sandwich definitely hit the spot. Still didn’t give me any pepper though.
I packed up most of my things so I wouldn’t have to do too much the next morning, and went to sleep earlier than I usually do, even taking the time difference into consideration. Luckily it was pretty decent sleep, and when I woke up on Wednesday, checked out of the hotel as soon as I could, and booked it over to the Legion of Honor museum to start the official Lincoln Highway portion of the trip!