As we got closer to the university we started passing Fraternity Houses. I wanted to ask where Animal House was (cultural reference for the older readers) but Rhonda kept me in line. We were both a bit surprised how many there were (easy to spot because of the large Greek letters on the front of the buildings) and how grand they were. Three of the frat houses are below.
The university was pretty much like any other university, so we didn't stay long, but turned downhill and walked along a street lined with shops and cafes - very handy for the students. We then wandered along other streets as we worked our way back towards the hotel, seeing an interesting variety of shops, restaurants and sights. I like the photo of the vehicles below. At first glance it looks like a four-wheel drive vehicle parked between two small cars, until you realise that the car on the right is a Range Rover, which qualifies as quite a big vehicle in Australia. The 4x4 is a Ford F250 - hard to imagine why anybody would need such a big truck, but the Americans love them.
We also saw some street art, a photo of one striking example is below. Made us both realise we haven't seen a lot of graffiti here. We also haven't seen a lot of garbage in the streets, cigarette butts or dog poo (which is surprising because the people here love their dogs - bit like the Brits). Just goes to show that you can have clean streets if you try.
That pretty much finished our second-last full day. We were booked for another Segway ride on Friday, and very much looking forward to it. The day dawned looking quite overcast, but we have found out that San Francisco is actually rather cold, even in summer. One of the staff at the Segway office told us that people make the mistake of thinking that when they come to San Francisco they are visiting California, when the reality is that San Francisco is its own frigid little island (it's not actually an island, but close enough). At Golden gate Park they hadn't seen sunlight for four days, but if you cross the bridges to the north or east it's sunny and quite a bit warmer, like being in a different climate. The Segway tour was brilliant, our guide, Kelly, was very knowledgeable and told us lots of interesting things about the areas in the park that we visited. Some photos are below.
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| Yes, gum leaves, from the trees behind the Segway office |
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| Our guide, Kelly, looking effortlessly cool |
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| Us, looking effortlessly uncool - the jackets stopped us from freezing |
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| Still uncool |
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| Dahlias |
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| The lookout tower at the de Young Museum |
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| Statue of the first head gardener of the park, he was head gardener for something like 50 years |
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| Interesting plant |
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| Memorial to AIDS victims and their families and friends - very tranquil and quite moving |
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| There's a street sign in the foliage, proving that councils everywhere need to trim the trees back a little to make signs visible. Rhonda kept me from breaking off the obstructing branch |
We'll get croissants for breakfast from a bakery just outside the hotel car park tomorrow, then it's the journey home. Before we go, however, some final thoughts about our experience.
1. We needed Jan to be in Washington and San Francisco to look after us - we missed her guidance and advice.
2. With television, less really is more. So many channels to watch, and so little worth watching. It was frustrating, without a good TV guide, to find which channel name corresponded with which number, and what time the shows were starting. We always seemed to miss the start of things.
3. Advertising seemed to be focused on:
a. Providing tax advice to people owing more than $10,000 in back taxes,
b. Promoting drugs which were highly likely to reduce the impact of one chronic condition or another, while potentially killing you in a variety of unpleasant ways (the need to fully disclose potential side effects was commendable, but alarming).
c. Persuading you that junk food was delicious.
d. Persuading you to watch junk food for the brain.
4. Public transport in the US is so much better (more convenient and cheaper) than it is in Australia (especially Canberra).
5. Homelessness is very confronting and society (that's all of us) really needs to step up and sort it out. I fully appreciate the complex nature of the problem, but we need to try harder to deal with it.
6. Eating out is quite cheap here, because you often only need to order one main meal between two of you.
7. We have felt safe everywhere we've been, and the locals have been generally very friendly.
Hope you've enjoyed sharing our journey. 'Bye for this trip.
