Tram On, Tram In

Waking up with a vague sense of disappointment that we hadn't managed to offer our new guest a brilliant first night, Tom put it down to bad planning, and set about properly researching our stay in San Francisco. With the other two still in a deep slumber, Tom cracked open the laptop and feverishly started planning. After a few hours, he had come up with the groundbreaking idea to put Spot into storage and stay in a hostel for a few days. The plan was ratified by the boys when they woke up and Tom promptly celebrated by finally releasing his chin from the tyranny of his out of control beard.

After a brief trip to San Rafael for Mike to visit another studio and drop off a portfolio, we headed into downtown SF to check into the International Hostel. The next stage was to put Spot into a long-stay parking lot. We fought our way through hoards of noisily picketing Hilton hotel workers on strike next door, then drove the unsuspecting Spot towards the valet service car park. Before he knew what was happening, we'd taken our bags, thrown the valet the keys and slipped out unnoticed. We were now free from the burden of having a vehicle in the city.

Mike had unfortunately ended up with a few days of work to do during our stay, so while he set himself up in a nearby sports bar, Tom and Will went out to explore the city. They returned hours later with 3 day tram passes for everyone and stories of crazy characters wandering the streets. The tales were not unfounded. Within minutes of stepping out of the hostel, we were navigating between a never ending obstacle course of slow moving, mumbling people. We made it to one of the city's famous cable cars, hopped on board and started a thrilling ride up and down the 45 degree hills and 90 degree bends towards Chinatown. 

These wonders of engineering are trams that are pulled around the streets by a network of concealed underground cables, allowing them to climb the steep hills. The musty smell of old oil and machinery filled our nostrils as we stood on the edge of the tram and clung onto the rails for as it lurched into life. The trams stop at every major intersection - clinging to a folded visitors map, Tom calculated that we had arrived, gave the call, and we all jumped off.

We entered the warren of Chinatown streets, found a lavish restaurant and settled in for a sumptuous banquet of fine Chinese cuisine. This was the welcome Will needed! We reflected on a successful day over a few Tsing Tau's and imagined what adventures were to come as we headed down the west coast.