Tier Point Run to San Francisco in Jan 2022: Day 3 – San Francisco

As expected, I didn’t get much sleep.  I was awake at before 2am and I just knew that there was no chance of me going back to sleep. Where did I put that melatonin?

Considering I have only just arrived, I had to start thinking about my trip back home. Two things I needed to sort: timing of the first BART train which I thought was 5:42am.  My flight leaves at 8am so I should have enough time.  The only issue with this is that I will need to check in with AA and they will need to check the covid requirements for the UK and Netherlands.  Alternatively, I’d have to get an Uber down to the airport to ensure I have plenty of time.

The second thing was to do a covid test, which I hadn’t thought about.  I don’t need one for heading back to the UK, but I do need one for going to the Netherlands and since I will be checking in at SFO with the intention of going all the way to AMS, that would suggest I’ll need to do a test.  Therefore, I decided to do one just after 8am this morning – just under 24 hours prior to my first flight departing.

The first Starbucks to open was one just up one street on Geary Street – 5 mins walk away.  It opened at 5am and I was there waiting for it to open.  Walking through the streets of San Francisco reminds me how much of a dump, parts of the city are. There was litter everywhere and a smell which isn’t one you would choose to breathe in!

Back to the hotel and I had to subscribe to Peacock TV so that I could watch the Crystal Palace vs Liverpool game.  NBC and USA channels were showing Premier League games as well, but USA was showing the Arsenal game and I couldn’t find an NBC sports channel.  Good result for the Reds though, even considering the dodgy penalty decision at the end.

Once the game was over, I got myself ready for heading out to take in the sights of San Francisco.  I’ve got all day and I wanted to make the most of it. It was fairly chilly, but it didn’t stop me from putting my shorts on! Technically I am outside of the Billingham Shorts Season (note that’s from start of March to end of November), but I need to allow my legs to experience the San Francisco fresh air!

I walked towards the Ferry Building close to Oakland Bridge.  From there I walked around to Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf.  I walked on past Fort Mason and on towards the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge, but I ran out of steam.  There’s only a certain number of steps a man can take with less than three hours of sleep after 24 hours of travel!

I decided to head back into the city up the steepest street I could find and then headed left back towards Union Square and the hotel.

After getting back to the hotel, I had walked over 8 miles and needed a nap.  I managed to get a couple of hours before heading down to The Cheesecake Factory in Union Square at just before 3pm.  I had a Sante Fe lunchtime salad, a portion of fries and two bottles of Sam Adams’ Boston Lager.  I also may have ordered a take-out lemon raspberry cheesecake – oops.

Back to the hotel and I sorted out my travel paperwork.  I couldn’t check in online with AA, I assume because I needed to provide evidence of a covid test etc. So I would have to do that at the airport in the morning.

Whilst scoffing my amazing cheesecake, I watched SVU on the TV.  Having watched every episode at least twice back home, there’s something very enjoyable about catching up with the detectives that we love on TV in the USA. I was feeling tired when I finally turned off the light at around 7:30pm.  Unfortunately my sleep didn’t last too long – I was awake by 11:30pm so I only got 4 hours kip.

I spent about an hour getting myself tired and then turned off the light again.  I wondered how many hours kip I was going to get this time.  My alarm was set for 4am. I could but hope!

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to San Francisco in Jan 2022