Do you know the way to San Jose? I’ve been away so long, I may go wrong and lose my way

There will be a quiz in the blog tonight, so please pay attention.

Today was our first full day in San Francisco.

As per yesterday’s post, it seems it never rains in Southern California. The day started bright, clear and sunny.

And quite cold, compared to the 32 degrees that we were having in NY. Today’s maximum was forecast to be about 19 degrees, so we dressed accordingly.

Our planning wasn’t as good as it could have been … mainly because we were pretty tired after a 27 hour day yesterday, so we left the planning until today.

There are a number of things that we are quite keen to do in San Francisco, and some are pre-booked. We hadn’t yet got our Clipper Cards (that allow us to travel on the SF public transport system), so we thought that we’d take a drive instead.

We were quite keen to find an outlet mall and do some shopping. We knew that there was a large mall (like DFO for our Brisbane readers) somewhere down near San Jose.

A bit of Googling and we determined that it is the Great Mall Outlet Center at Milpitas .. about a 30 minute drive south.

So we asked Gina for directions to the Mall.

You may not know Gina. Gina is the name of our GPS. She is very polite and very precise but she has a few … character flaws.

Probably her greatest flaw is that she thinks that her job is to just give me some support, because she assumes that I have a basic knowledge of what I am doing and where I am going.

Gina is very wrong about that.

Not only do I not know what I am doing or where I am going, but I am also driving on the wrong side of the road and it is freaking me out.

Only yesterday, I needed to do a U-turn at the end of our street, which ends at a T-intersection. I stopped the car, thought through what I needed to do, and where I needed to end up, and completed the manoeuvre successfully. Whew!

So today we are on the US 101 South, doing close to 70 mph (that’s “miles per hour” for you young ’uns) in a 65 mph zone, and cars are flying by me like I am standing still.

I can only assume that posted speed limits here in California are a recommended speed, rather than what is actually expected.

Fortunately there are often at least 6 lanes, so I can happily plod along in the far right-hand lane, while these other maniacs try and break the sound barrier 5 lanes away from me.

Another of Gina’s character flaws is that she is unfamiliar with the metric system, used almost everywhere in the world except the USA.

So we finally got off the highway and are on surface roads, and Gina gives these ridiculous instructions like “bear right onto the C348 in 1000 feet.”

How far is 1000 feet?

Actually it’s not that hard to work out when you think about it. There are 30cm in a foot, so that is 30,000cm.

There are 1000cm in a metre … no, that’s not right, 100cm in a metre, so divide 30,000 by 100 to get metres …

And Gina breaks into my thought process with “please make a U-turn” …

Sigh 🙁

Anyway, we finally got to the mall nice and early to beat the crowds, and beat the crowds we did!

We arrived an hour before the mall opened.

Sigh 🙁

So we went for coffee. Now at home we actively avoid Starbucks because … well, because we have certain coffee standards, and Starbucks do not meet the standard.

We were a little limited for coffee options at the not-yet-open mall. Actually we only had one option – Starbucks.

And sometimes bad coffee is better than no coffee. TOTIL will be horrified when she reads this, but that’s the way it is.

And here is the funny thing .. it wasn’t too bad.

After coffee, we found that the mall was actually open, but most of the shops were shut. So we had a nice wander around, getting our bearings and planning our attack on the shops.

Now, I did say that there would be a quiz tonight, and here it is.

Look at the pictures below, and tell me …

… who do you think is having the most fun?

Along with my Universal Law of Shaving, there is another piece of wisdom that I would like to impart to our young male readers.

There are three little words that make our significant others go all weak at the knees. Those three little words are “seventy percent off”.

So TOTIL was happy, and I carried the bags.

Actually, we got some good bargains and picked up a few things that we both really needed, so it wasn’t all bad. It was a nice day out.

On the way back home, we stopped for a little cultural enlightenment.

First we found …

… the Facebook offices, and then we found …

… a building with Google written on the wall. We had hoped to find the Googleplex but think that Gina gave us bad directions.

Or it is entirely possible that I asked the wrong question.

After that little bit of culture we headed back to SF to see the Painted Ladies .. a number of painted and restored old houses near the city.

So that’s about it for tonight. We got home at about 6.30pm and met our AirBNB host John.

Parking near where we are staying (Daly City) is challenging because – like NYC – one side of every street is closed for 2 hours every week for street cleaning. So we had to find a parking space on the “correct” side of the street … just like everyone else in the neighbourhood.

Tomorrow we are off on another drive down a bit further south, to Monterey and maybe Big Sur … it all depends on what time we get going in the morning.

Today was supposed to hit a maximum of 19 degrees. Down at the mall it must have been closer to 30 degrees.

When we got back to town and looked at the Painted Ladies, it can’t have been more than about 12 degrees.

Tomorrow I’ll take a mini-wardrobe to ensure that I have suitable attire for all possible weather conditions.

At least I won’t need an umbrella though, because it … “seems it never rains in Southern California …”

That’s all for tonight.

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA