On the first day....

So, I woke up mega early and of course the downside of staying in a hostel is that there are a room full of people who you have to try hard not to wake up when you get up.

Even though I got to bed about quarter to twelve our time I was still awake at six and up and about at seven.
So after a bit of creeping about on tip-toes I managed to sort myself out for the day and after a bit of breakfast went out to see where my feet took me.

I have decided to rate each location I stay in by two things....

The showers...where I will take into account power, warmth and distribution.
The standard of the girls at hooters where I will take into account.......well you can work that out.

So, San Diego:
Showers: 5/5 A force to be reckoned with as the blast ripped the skin from my back with the force of a thousand killers whales swimming at once.

So I ventured out and wondered along Fishermans Wharf which I guess is like Blackpool seafront minus the kiss me quick hats. Everything was closed that early in the morning but was nice to familarise myself with the area. It was bloody foggy and as I said before looked like a bad day at "insert grim seaside town in the uk here".
The hostel is right on the waterfront and Alcatraz is just across the water and I have to say although my swimming ability equals that of a lame gerbil, I don't see what the fuss was, anyone could swim that. The prison in Porridge looks more threatening. Wel will see.

So I then ventured into town and the financial and downtown area and had breakfast (awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes) in a 50s style diner called Lori's. Good stuff.

Wondered around the shops for a bit and had a good look around, found an interesting book in Virgin called Coppola by some fella called James Clarke, looks like a good read, I think everone should buy it.

It was still very grey so decided to not risk doing anything too adventurous and went to see Transformers at the cinema. Good film, certainly Michael Bay's best, ok, well maybe not as good as the Rock, but better than his other stuff. My eyes needed a rest after that as it was a major assault on the senses. Coming out of the cinema the sun was out and blazing down but with a nice breeze too. Decided to wonder about a bit more, find a comic shop that had been recommended and I ended up walking about 5 miles to find it.

Shop was a bit naff and not worth bothering with so walked some more and ended up doing a big ol' loop and ended up back towards the hostel. I decided to embrace the geekdom of being in San Francisco and find The Presidio, where ILM are based. Its right by the Golden Gate Bridge and no hassle at all to find. Funny considering that you would think it would all be behind gates but you can walk amongst the buildings all of which are very non-discript and listed by address only. As I wondered about I wasn't sure if it was the place but when I looked in windows each one had a toy tie-fighter or R2D2 in the window and when I looked up in the walkway that spanned two buildings I saw glass cabinets that had unmistakable shilouettes of a Star Destroyer and Velosoraptor. I walked a bit further around the building again with no restriction and found the main enterence with a sure fire give away, still no logo or signage other than a statue of Yoda at the enterence. This was ILM.

Cool eh?

After that detour I wondered back along the beach side which was full of joggers and wind surfers and was all rather nice. Lastly Fishermans Wharf, Hooters, fish sandwich thing, very nice.

Hooters San Francisco: Hmmm, ok, my waitress was called Larissa and was very squeaky and loud. Not so keen, not as good as the shower, which is re-inforced by when she asked where I was from I got a very puzzled look when I said the UK and was still confused when I said England. 3/5

Z'sss now, tired, more tomorrow.

Will add pics when I can get them from camera, may require the magic of an adaptor for the card.