Pub crawl

Day two or R’s visit and we headed down to the tourist mecca that is Fisherman’s Wharf.

To get there involved a cable car ride, something I insisted R try, since one cannot come to SF and not ride the rails at least once. Maybe it’s the boy in me but I defy anyone not to hang off the side of a trolley car run with 100 year old technology heading down a 45 degree slope and not feel a thrill. I imagine steam train enthusiasts get the same sort of feeling but we were better dressed and more socially functional.

While we were waiting in the (long) queue to get on the cable cars we met up with a trio of West Country boys who were in the line in front of us. They were in good spirits and explained that they were long time tourists here; every year landing on the east coast and driving across the country to get to San Francisco via various friends.

However, be careful of whom you talk too. One turned out to be a bit nutty, telling us how Jesus had cured his kidney disease and how he longed to move out here permanently if only god would call him. Nice chap, but nuttier than squirrel droppings in some respects.

Now basically San Franciscans seem to have decided to concentrate all the tourists in one place, either to avoid confrontation with the locals or possibly in the hope that Al-Qaeda will set off a truck bomb and just get grockles.

So we wandered among the tourists, many of whom were dressed as thought the world was blind and spoke as thought the rest were deaf. We saw the sea lions (smelly but fun) and old ships tied up on the wharf before heading off to an official pub crawl.

An official pub crawl seems like a contradiction in terms. Usually pub crawls are impromptu events; a gang of mates getting together and painting the town red, or at least an interesting shade of diced carrot.

Here you got a wrist band which gave you reduced price drinks in various bars. After following the pack to a succession of increasingly crowded bars we decided we were too old for this stuff and headed to my local for a final pint before bed. Tomorrow R had to be off home and I had a major conference to prepare for.