Emeryville – San Francisco
Today’s objective was delightfully simple: to relocate across the bay to San Francisco and get settled in for the longest and most luxurious hotel stay of the trip. Although there was no pressure to make an early start, we went down at a reasonable hour for a basic hotel breakfast of coffee and an English muffin with cream cheese and sausage. The coffee was so bad that we then took a short walk to acquire a more acceptable version from a nearby branch of Peet’s.
After showering, packing and even a chance to catch up with my notes, we caught an ‘Emery Go Round’ free bus to MacArthur BART station in Oakland, where we connected onto a service to Powell Street Station in downtown San Francisco. It was then a short walk to the InterContinental San Francisco on Howard Street. We checked in and dropped our bags, as our room wasn’t due to be ready until 3pm. Heading back out in search of lunch, we soon found ourselves just around the corner from the Holiday Inn Express on O’Farrell Street that had been our base during our last visit to the city in 2019. We liked the look of Miyabiya Sushi & Grill, and decided on a Japanese lunch of miso soup, mixed tempura and delicious eel.
After lunch, we made a little Black Friday shopping expedition to the Westfield mall, where I bought a new sweater in Nordstrom.
At this point, it was time to return to the InterContinental, get access to our room for the next four nights and relax for a bit in our new surroundings.
Later, we made an evening trip to the Castro neighbourhood, riding the Muni train both ways, for evening drinkies and a spicy Sichuan dinner at Mama Ji’s.
