After waking to a foggy morning in San Francisco, we made it to Sugar Café without incident and found it to be slightly more salubrious than Honey Café where we ate yesterday, with a smaller but still more than adequate menu. The added bonuses were freshly squeezed orange juice and a barista serving acceptable coffee – San Francisco café society seems more inclined to demand real espresso than Chicago does. We then retraced yesterday’s steps along Stockton Street through Chinatown, which was no less busy and still seemed to have the same produce on display in the windows – including the unappetising turtle at the fishmongers. Chinatown, San Francisco is like every other Chinatown we have visited in that the need for personal space seems to be neither comprehended nor acknowledged. By the time we broke through to the northern end of the hustle and bustle we had adopted a “when in Rome…” philosophy and were pushing our way through quite undiplomatically.
Max had studied the map of the America’s Cup course and wanted to check out an area near Aquatic Park that he thought may provide a better vantage point than Pier 39 where we were yesterday. We continued straight down Stockton Street; once near the waterfront we passed the Pier 39 Rooftop Lounge, which was offering spectator tickets starting at $300. This ‘rooftop lounge’ was actually a marquee on the top floor of a five storey concrete carpark, situated a block away from the water on the other side of both The Embarcadero and Beach St – undoubtedly it’s height would have been advantageous, but we questioned why anyone would pay $300 for a view not much better than what we had yesterday for free. We were later told that food and drink was included in the cost – as Sarah pointed out, there would need to be a lot of it! We wandered up and down a couple of wharves for a while until we found what appeared to be the perfect location; we had a clear view of most of the course and we could also see the starting area. An added benefit was that there was only one other person there, a Kiwi now living in London, decked out in his Team NZ polo shirt. Shortly after we arrived an Oracle-supporting San Franciscan couple also turned up and were quickly on the receiving end of a bit of banter, but everyone was very amicable and it was a lot more pleasant than the bigger crowd yesterday. Richard the Kiwi was taking a number of photos on his camera with a telephoto lens, he has offered to email Max and Sarah a few so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he is as good as his word.
The racing itself was spectacular, and we were particularly lucky to be as close to the course as we were during the upwind leg of the day’s first race; Team New Zealand had been penalised at the first turn so rounded the bottom mark behind Oracle but won a tacking exchange on the shore side of the course to take the lead just past where we were watching. The wind was blowing at about 17 knots during the first race (though that did nothing to shift the heavy fog that had settled around the Golden Gate Bridge) and lifted to slightly over 20 knots for the second. The US boat may favour heavier conditions; they won the fourth race and now only need one more win to reach zero points on the scoreboard. The reaction of the American contingent that had by now gathered near us would have you believe they only need one more win to claim the cup outright – the regatta has certainly received a lot more press coverage this evening than it did yesterday.
Once the day’s second race had concluded we walked the two kilometres or so to collect our hire car from the closest Zipcar outlet. Zipcar is actually a car sharing company and vehicles can be booked by the hour – Sarah had reserved ours from 2:00pm to 8:00pm. We found the car in the lot, Sarah used her access card to unlock the door and the keys were located inside. Within a short period of time we were driving across the newly opened Bay Bridge (a replacement for the old bridge which was damaged in the 1989 earthquake) towards the Napa Valley. Sarah had done her research and found a couple of wineries that were open until 6:00pm, they were away from the ‘touristy’ areas of the valley so it took us a little over an hour to reach the first one, Peju Province Winery. Wineries in California generally charge for tastings and Peju was no exception – $20 for a taste of four wines, fully refundable on purchases over $35. Yvonne deliberated as to whether she could manage a taste of four wines, but ultimately decided that she should not visit the Napa Valley without doing so – so we all put our hands up and waited to be called into the tasting room.
The tasting room itself was quite spacious; and by only allowing a small number of quaffers in at a time it also had a rather exclusive air. The man behind the bar was another Richard, he was a gregarious and jovial American who seemed to take a shine to us – so our “taste of four wines” soon became a taste of six or seven. Sarah was driving and Yvonne was in no fit state to continue drinking after the fourth taste, so Max’s glass became the ‘slops bucket’ for each vintage as we went – he seemed to take it in his stride. We all ‘saved’ our $20 by making purchases, and walked away with six bottles of assorted reds between us. By the time we left, clinking and clanking, it was nearly 6:00pm – the outside temperature was still about 94F (34C) and Yvonne was feeling the effects of “sun poisoning”, so we passed on any further winery visits and headed back to San Fran. On the way we stopped to refuel – Sarah used the Zipcar credit card, apparently this is all part of the membership and you do not need to pay for fuel unless you travel more than 180 miles in twenty-four hours.
Max navigated, with the help of his iPhone and Google maps, and we made our way back to Chinatown – we surely know this area well by now! We had been recommended to try a restaurant called House of Nanking; Yvonne and Max were dropped off near the restaurant and charged with securing a table while Sarah and I returned the car to its parking lot. Once there, Sarah locked the keys inside using her access card and we walked away – no papers to sign, all too easy! We joined Max and Yvonne and had an enjoyable, authentic Chinese meal in a very bustling restaurant. By the time we left at about 8:45pm a large queue of potential diners had formed outside, waiting for a table to become free.