Saturday 3/10/2015.
Today is Winchester Mystery House day but it started off as another waste of time. We tried to get hold of Marcia to see when she was coming down. She’d set off at 5 a.m. and had stopped mid-way, so was still a couple of hours away. This makes us realise just how big America is. In Britain, driving anywhere that is over two hours away is considered a day trip and requires a lot of consideration as to whether it’s worth the journey.
We walked to Safeway a few blocks away to get Red Bull, cornflakes and squash. Squash doesn’t exist in the USA so we bought a six pack of cranberry and raspberry juice instead. We were going to buy crisps, but their single packs are almost as big as our multipacks, and the fruit is enormous! The peaches were the size of our hands! We half-expected James and his motely crew of insects to come marching out of them. We didn’t want to risk biting into the peach and accidentally gnawing off Miss Spider’s legs.
These clearly were GMO fruits, so we weren’t sure how safe they were to eat. We’d heard that American food portions were large, but when one plum could patch up the Hoover Dam, there’s issues. We’d picked up apples but they wouldn’t allow them in self-serve so we had to put them back. Probably just as well. If we’d eaten them, we might have gained super powers. There’s a fine line between superhero and supervillain, and we are one missed bus away from total villainy.
We returned to our apartment to access wi-fi and arrange to meet Marcia on Market Street. After half an hour there was still no sign of her. We went in search of some wi-fi and found a Starbucks. Cat’s phone, Stormborn, refuses to connect to any wi-fi but the apartment’s, which is really annoying. Nowadays, this seems bizarre, but in 2015, even having a smartphone was a luxury to us. We resisted getting one because we didn’t see the point. Now we feel lost without one. Neen managed to get on the wi-fi and directed Macia to Starbucks. She arrived at 12 p.m. It was later than we’d originally wanted to set off, but she’d come a long way and was doing us a massive favour, so we were just grateful she was there.
The Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester Mystery House is amazing! Just as great as we thought it would be, which is a relief, because normally things we’re excited about don’t live up to our expectations. Stuff that we’re not excited about it, or don’t expect much from, often turn out better. Like Vegas. But the house was incredible. We did the grand estate tour so we got to go around the house, the garden and behind the scenes in the outbuildings and basement.
Our guide, David, was hilarious. And there wasn’t anyone in our group we wanted to feed into a woodchipper, which never happens. Maybe we could be superheroes after all. We visited 110 of the 160 rooms but weren’t allowed to film or photograph any of them, which was frustrating. When entering the servants’ quarter, Cat felt a weird wall of energy as she walked through the doorway. The room was empty, except for a photograph of the staff on the wall. David pointed to a man in the photo and told us he haunts the basement. Then in the next room, Cat had another weird feeling, but other than that, we experienced nothing spooky.
Behind the Scenes
Unfortunately, on the behind-the-scenes tour, there was a family we could have cheerfully fed to piranhas. Except they don’t eat people. We learned that in Vegas. They annoyed us before we’d even begun the tour. They definitely would have awakened latent supervillain powers. Maybe we didn’t need to choose between heroes and villains. Maybe we could be both.
It’s always a family with kids that ruin tours for us. Yes, we know that a childfree life does not equal a childfree existence, but it would be nice to have adult only options. Like adult only tours, adult only planes, adult only countries. We were somehow with a different group, which was a shame. Not sure how we managed to lose our tour group, but it’s a gift we have. We were allowed to photograph and film on this tour, but we only filmed shots, not the actual tour. Afterwards, we filmed outside and did our information piece.
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Marcia wanted to check into her hostel in Marin Headlands, which was across the Golden Gate Bridge. We wanted to see the bridge, so went with her. We reached it close to sunset, so the sky was turning golden. It was so cool to drive across the famous bridge. We could see Alcatraz! The hostel seemed lovely. It was partway up a hill and resembled a summer camp, with beautiful views of the Golden Gate park. The bridge was lit up on our return journey.
Food Fight
We tried to find somewhere to eat and chose a place called Pena Pachamama which did homemade vegan ice cream so we headed there. We couldn’t find a parking space so ended up driving around for 40 minutes, with Neen getting hangrier by the minute. It wasn’t worth the hassle.
It was mostly vegan, but nothing we liked to eat. We ordered the ice cream and hazelnut chocolate mousse. We tried a limeade made from agave. It was sharp but drinkable, but the more we drank, the worse it got. The ice cream wasn’t too bad, despite the fact we don’t like nuts, but we could only manage one spoonful of the mousse. Fortunately, Marcia was happy to finish our mousse for us. There aren’t many benefits to being friends with us, but if you like food, getting to finish ours must surely be a perk. We were happy to get a tram back to our apartment, but Marcia insisted on driving us back. Neen had wanted to go to the Castro to visit the gay bars, but by the time we got back, she was too tired.
We agreed to meet Marcia at Pier 45 at 2 p.m. for Alcatraz. The apartment owner, Jeff, is happy for us to leave our bags in the apartment on our final day, so we won’t have to lug them around. Roll on Alcatraz.
Learn the truth behind the Winchester Mystery House.
Read Day 1.
Read Day 3.
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