Day 5 of October

Day 6
Monday, September 24th

  Can you say air conditioning?  Yes our hotel room came with it, but before we went to bed, Bill turned it off.  I'm not sure what time I woke up drenched in sweat, but I blindly went looking for the on switch to the air conditioning.  Ashley thanked me profusely in the morning for saving us all from suffocating in the heat.  We talked Bill into going for a work out in the morning, so we could get ready at a leisurely pace, and have the continental breakfast.  When Bill returned, we packed up our stuff, loaded the car, and headed to Venice Beach.  An hour later, our friend, GPS had gotten us to our destination without any detours.  We drove staight to the beach and the closest parking lot. 

Unlike the last time we visited Venice Beach; it was about 8 years ago and we spent 30 minutes or longer looking for a "cheap" parking spot.  This time, both  Ashley and I were ready to pull out some American cash, just so we could park close, or at least fast.  The characters at Venice beach were much more entertaining than the characters at Disneyland.  My friend De would be so proud of me.  Two different musicians on the street tried to sell me their CD's and I resisted.  One guy's name was Du Wan.  I kept saying "you the one, Du Wan!"  I don't think he thought it was funny.  The funniest site on the boardwalk was all the walk in clinics for medicinal marihuana.  The "doctors" or advertisers where dressed in green doctor scrubs with a big marihuana plant on the front of their shirt.  They just kept repeating that it was now legal.

We left the beach with plenty of time to catch our flights.  With my organizational skills put the test, I had made sure that Bill and my flight to San Francisco left around the same time as Ashley and Ethan's flight to Calgary.    We returned our car to the rental company and caught the shuttle to our two different terminals.  We were doing the rest of our trip solo. 
  It was a short flight to San Francisco, and an even shorter BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) ride to downtown San Francisco.  Calgary really needs to get this type of transportation set up to our airport.  The most confusing part of this trek was getting a cab from downtown San Francisco to our hotel which we figured was about 12 blocks away.  We finally flagged down a cab and thankfully we didn't let this first impression influence our thoughts about citizens of San Francisco.  He wasn't very friendly; he had never heard of our hotel; he got lost getting there and Bill had to give him instructions; and it turns out he conveniently forgot to turn on the taxi meter.  When we arrived at our hotel, he realized his "honest" mistake and somehow figured out it was probably a 10.00 ride.  Then, he didn't even get out of his car to help with the luggage in the trunk.  I think he might have actually had a second thought afterwards about maybe overcharging, because he followed us into the hotel and asked the clerk for change for a ten.  She didn't have any, so he just left.  Lesson learned, by us.  We had an easy check in, so we headed up to our room, threw the suitcases on the bed and headed out to a nearby pub for a bite to eat.  The hotel had recommended which area we venture into this time of night.   
  It was an early night for these two tired tourists, but I did go to bed with one nagging thought in my mind.  Before we left Los Angeles, I had seen on the news that there had been an earthquake up north, off the coast of Alaska.  The news broadcasters were discussing how an earth quake far away can have the affect of causing earthquakes anywhere.  Where were we again, Oh Yeah San Francisco - can you say 1906!!!!!!!  Then as I am adding this blog, I google earthquakes in San Francisco.  Who knew there had been 84 of them since the end of September, 2012.  Don't believe me, check out the website below.  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/FaultMaps/San_Francisco_eqs.html
Thank goodness I wasn't smart enough to do this while we were actually staying in San Francisco.  There is also another website that shows what would happen if the 1906 earthquake happened in 2012.  One thing I did learn on a tour we were at, and I don't know if it was fact for sure, but in 1906, after the Earthquake and the big fire that followed, the city usually referred to the disaster as the fire of 1906.  Why, because the "insurance company" Lloyds of London, did not have coverage for Earthquakes, only fire, and the city needed financial help in rebuilidng.  I thought that was an interesting (truly political) way to get the money.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2196268/What-1906-San-Francisco-earthquake-happened-today-Photo-trickery-shows-hit-city.html