Location: San Francisco Area
Attractions: Pat’s Cafe, Lombard Street, China Town, Cable Car Museum

Our last day of vacation before we spent the day flying back to Iowa. It’s always bittersweet when a vacation ends, isn’t it? We found a great place for breakfast called Pat’s Cafe. It’s a cool place that you can buy artwork right off the walls. The food was absolutely amazing. We all really enjoyed it. The service was pretty good as well and I’d classify the place as a charming little restaurant.

• 

• 

• 

We were dry on our walk to Pat’s but as soon as we left, it started raining… again. I joked with my buddy that we met earlier in the week that we should have rented a boat instead of a car with all the water in the streets. But again, we made the most of it. We put our hoods up, for those of us who had hoods, and we walked to Chinatown for some coveted steamed buns. Our travel buddies had them before and were pretty excited to find some and have us try them out. Before we found them, we wanted to find a bathroom, which was no easy task in Chinatown. We ended up in a strip mall and as we walk towards a dead end, I noticed a gentleman had dropped his key under some equipment and was struggling to get it back. I offered to help, as I have long arms and then asked about a bathroom. It turned out that the very key he had dropped was a key to the bathroom. He unlocked a door and let us in. We. Were. Horrified. The grossest bathroom I have ever been in. There was a large, outdoor trashcan covered in flies, filthy fixtures, no toilet paper and no soap. Luckily I had some napkins in my backpack so Jill didn’t have to drip dry. We did the deed and got the F outa there. Jill had some hand sanitizer in her purse so we didn’t feel completely germ ridden when we left. We soon found the steam buns, bought a bunch, and started heading back.

On our way back, it started raining a bit harder so we ducked into the Cable Car Museum to dry off, or just not get any more wet, really. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it. It was great, for a free experience in San Francisco. There were old cable cars on display and I was starting to piece together how these cars worked and what an insane operation it all was. The cables that run under the streets that power the cars were all powered right there. When we left, we were determined to get on a car and experience it first hand. The one we got on was packed and we ended up standing in the back with the brake operator. He was a very kind man that gave us a further education on cable cars. He called them the first Telsa vehicle, meaning that they don’t operate on gas or fuel, but are powered by electricity.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once we got back to our hotel, we played a little shuffle board in the Zephyr Game Room then jumped in our vehicle to head to our close-to-the-airport hotel. We settled in, and then found a place to eat and watch the Warriors in the NBA finals. The game was good and the food was okay. The beer…it was flat and the services was just okay. It was fun to watch the game with the locals though. They were all pretty vocal about the game.

Once we left Houlihan’s, we headed back to our hotel and decided to play some pepper (a card game) for a bit. Jill and I started out with a fierce lead, but just like every other game we played against the Stilles on vacation, the Kleins ended up losing. Oh well. Everything else was perfect and we had a great vacation.