So today is our last full day in good old San Francisco and it was time to have a chill out day. So we left the hotel about 10:30 and walked up Powell Street passed the cable car turnaround so watched that for a while then walked up the hill to the big posh Walgreen’s to get a couple of hoodies that we had seen in there, these ones I really liked and they had my size. Even though I spent over $70 dollars on them they still charged me 40 cents for a bag, I think it's a legal requirement there that you have to pay for bags and they don't do plastic ones either so after an hour the handle broke but I had a spare with me. By now it was lunchtime so just around the corner was Lori’s dinner so we went in there for some lunch. I wanted to try the meatloaf so that's what we both had. It was nice but I think it was a bit overpriced for what you got and there seemed to be some little black files zooming round like you get in the pubs here that started to piss me off but on the plus side they did do Blue Moon ale in bottles. It wasn't very busy in there for a lunchtime so perhaps it's gone downhill since we were last in there the previous year.
When we came out of the diner the temperature has gone up to about 27 degrees and it was a clear blue sky so walked back the way we come then crossed over the road the into Union Square, the last time we were here they still had the ice rink built but they remove that in the first week of the new year, I think they were taking the last parts away when we first arrived. Union Square is the sort of place where you can just around and take in the atmosphere so I got a coffee from one of the two shops there and just sat for a while watching the world go by.
After sitting here for the best part of an hour we walked over to the far side of the square to go to the Cheesecake Factory. This place is like a fancy cake shop but the main reason was the view. The Cheesecake Factory is located on the top floor of Macy’s and they have an open air balcony with a view over Union Square from 12 floors up you got some really good views from up there and Jane got a couple of badges as well. When we came back down there is some construction work going on just outside where they are building the new subway station and they had tried to move a bucket for the excavator but unfortunately they knocked the fire hydrant over in the process so there was water spraying about 40 feet into the air. It was really quite funny to see considering they have a water shortage here for the last few years. By now it had drawn a big crowd and everyone's was taking photographs, I even got some video of it. It was getting late afternoon now and we were both feeling a bit worn out so headed back to the hotel for a nap.
After an hour or so I couldn't sleep so decided to go for a walk an along Market Street one last time, I hadn't planned on going far but ended up back at the Ferry Building then started walking towards Pier 39 with no plan in mind, it was a nice late afternoon so I thought I would watch the sun set behind the city. Eventually, I came to the cruise ship terminal and there was a large ship docked so I go some photographs of that, you could get reasonably close to it as well. But now it was nearly dark so walked back the way I had come and took some photographs of the Transamerica Pyramid with the sun by down behind it from Pier 7. With that, I thought I'd go and have a drink in a pub somewhere but all the ones I came across seemed to be really busy so I ended up walking all the way back to the hotel then cutting down some side streets to the discount booze shop. So now I was back at the hotel for the last time on this vacation, time to drink some beers. Turns out it wasn't the last time I would be going out here as around 9pm we were both hungry so it was the long walk back up the hill to Uncle Vito’s pizza house for one of their 14 inch mountain pizza for $12 dollars. It was yummy. Now we had been fed and watered it was time for bed as it was going to be a long day tomorrow going home.
