San Francisco Day 1 & 2

We arrived in San Francisco after a 6-ish hour flight. I had been coughing the entire time in the plane. During the last 20 minutes, a lady came over to give me some coughdrops and it turned out she was a doctor in San Fran. She was so kind and offered to give us a ride to our Airbnb if we needed. We assured her that we already booked a rental car. So far, Americans have proven to be very friendly and down-to-earth (the exception being rude security guards and power-crazy immigration officers in New York). We chatted for quite a while then set off to find our rental car company. 

We had booked the second smallest car (as we were told it's quite dangerous to drive in US highways with the smallest range) but were upgraded to a honking huge GMC 7-seater. If we wanted a smaller car, we would have to wait a further hour. We didn't want to wait so we took it. I could not see the road from where I was sitting, it was so huge. It was my husband's first attempt to drive on the other side of the road. It was nerve-racking and almost immediately, we took a wrong turn. When we got onto the highway, we exited twice immediately as well because the exits in the US were on the right. Upon entering the highway, we needed to cut to the left quickly which we didn't. But the American highway planners gained our admiration because we could always remedy any wrongful detour by reentering the highway within a few metres. After driving up and down the intimidating but beautiful curves of San Fran, we decided the GMC was way too big to handle or park.

My nerves were almost shot at maintaining an extreme level of alertness to the car always swaying too close to the right (symptom of British drivers). Thankfully, a nice lady at the rental car centre allowed us to keep the upgrade and gave us a Chevvy Malibu instead which was still plenty spacious but more manageable in length and height. It was so interesting to see how spacious American cars are. I had trouble reaching my husband's neck to give him a massage which I normally do when he drives long distances. 

Our Airbnb hosts were a family of 3 and they were very kind, welcoming us with a card and a bar of Ghirardelli chocolate. They had a booklet of things to do and eat in San Fran. They suggested getting dinner from a Burrito truck which they frequent almost every evening. We did that and crashed into bed soon after that.

The next day we decided to Uber downtown. The Uber driver was incredibly friendly. She asked us if we wanted to charge our iPhone, offered us Clif bars and chatted a whole lot with us. We Uberpool-ed so she picked up another passenger on the way which turned out to be an aspiring actress who insisted that we visit Muir Woods before we leave which we did on our way out of San Fran.

We had lunch at Boudin Bakery- the famous clam chowder in a sourdough bowl & bought two cans of it home with us as souvenirs.

We then strolled over to Pier 39 to see the seals.

I was surprised to see so many seals upclose. We watched them push each other off the platforms, it was really quite entertaining.

We saw Alcatraz from a distance.

Then, we headed to Sotto Mare to takeaway the 'best damn cioppino' for our dinner. I wasn't well so I couldn't stay out too long. That seemed to be a blessing in disguise because of the well-known long queues and wait-time to get in this tiny restaurant. We went there at an off-peak time i.e. 4pm. Even then, we only got served after 20 minutes because they cook it fresh. This was the priciest meal we had in the States which lasted us till the next day's breakfast. It made me miss eating fresh crab and prawns very much. I was very spoilt growing up in Penang. They are lousy with seafood back there.

My husband went out later that day to catch the gorgeous sunset at the nearby Twin Peaks which has the most picturesque view overlooking the city.