“Emperor of Heaven, Emperor of Earth, there’s a child at home who cries through the night. Wayfarer, recite this three times, and they’ll sleep soundly until daybreak.”
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Cable Car
Since we were only given two breakfast vouchers, and one had already been used the day before, Lizi decided to save the second voucher for the morning of day three and go out to find breakfast on day two instead.
We decided to take the Cable Car to Chinatown first. On the way, we spotted the overhead wires for the trolleybuses, so I snapped a couple of photos.
Quiz for everyone: how does a trolleybus get through this overhead wire switch?
We arrived at the Cable Car terminal. There are always tons of tourists waiting around this big turntable, so there was nothing to do but line up patiently.
After waiting more than 20 minutes, we finally got on board. Here’s a rear-facing view from the car.
Most people probably know how a Cable Car moves, right? I’ll explain it a bit later.
One look at this grade makes it obvious why Cable Cars took off in San Francisco more than 100 years ago: back then, Cable Cars were about the only vehicles that could handle hills like this with relative ease.
In fact, that’s still basically true today. The transit lines that really go up and down these hills are either Cable Cars or trolleybuses, while buses powered by internal-combustion engines do have to work pretty hard on slopes like this.
Time to get off.
We passed this on the way: the YWCA.
The building in the distance that looks uncannily like North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang is the Transamerica Pyramid.
For breakfast, we picked The Spicy Shrimp, which had been recommended by friends in the group chat.
We ordered a few dishes at random. The prices were low and the portions were generous.
Cable Car Museum
After eating, we headed a short distance west to check out the Cable Car Museum.
The entrance is here. This place was actually the Cable Car barn a century ago.
Now to answer a question I raised earlier: a lot of people know that Cable Cars run the way they do, but not exactly why, so as a railfan, let me explain.
These huge winding machines are the power source for the Cable Car system. They keep steel cables several kilometers long moving continuously beneath the streets of Downtown, and the cars use a grip to clamp onto the cable below the street for propulsion.
Cable routing diagram:
Cable grip.
We also made the trek over to Lombard Street to see the famous scene for ourselves.
Caltrain & Stanford University
After grabbing a coffee and taking a break, we rode the 30 bus to the Caltrain station and took the train to Palo Alto.
Here comes the 30!
By the time we got off, we noticed that the 30 was already running in battery mode with its poles lowered.
San Francisco Station.
When boarding, I noticed something familiar about the lower level of the car. Wait a second—isn’t this a Bombardier bi-level coach from Metrolink? After asking some Bay Area railfans, Lizi’s guess was confirmed.
Outside the station we spotted this: an EMD AEM-7 electric locomotive formerly owned by Amtrak, nicknamed the “toaster.”
But Caltrain’s electrification fell far behind schedule, so buying these two locomotives turned them into expensive white elephants.
We arrived at Palo Alto station, got off, and took a picture of the train departing. The locomotive on the point was an F40PH, a true veteran of U.S. passenger railroading, probably close to 30 years old.
The feeling was wonderful—kind of like unexpectedly riding an orange DF4B-2XXX-hauled passenger train back home. Childhood memories came rushing back!
One thing’s for sure: railfans are never alone. I even spotted another railfan in the photo.
After a 20-minute walk, we arrived at Stanford University.
A few casual shots. 
On the way back, we saw this: two griffins standing as guardian statues at the entrance to the spirit way, with the Stanford family mausoleum at the far end.
This is a sad story:
Stanford University founder and railroad tycoon Leland Stanford died of heart disease in 1893; and 9 years earlier, Leland Stanford Jr. had died of typhoid in Italy in 1884.
At the end of the story, Mrs. Stanford, Jane Stanford, died of strychnine poisoning in Hawaii in 1905. Who poisoned her remains unknown to this day, making it an enduring mystery.
The Stanford family had no heirs left behind... After so many years, the statue still tells this sad story here...
But maybe it is not necessary to be too sad. The countless graduates of this university are also, in another sense, descendants of the Stanford family, and in this way they achieved immortality!
It was about time, so I slowly headed back to catch the 5:48PM train back to the city.
Caltrain’s TVM and Clipper card reader. This Clipper reader has a very distinctive design: when someone walks by, it makes a “Biu” sound to remind you not to forget to tap your card.
But Lizi thinks this design is basically an unnecessary extra step, because the reader’s sensing range is limited. If you walk close enough, you probably were not going to forget to tap anyway; and if you are the type with “goldfish memory” who completely forgot, you probably would not walk over there in the first place!
It reminds me of something one of my college professors used to say: good students do not need me to manage them, and bad students will not improve even if I do. Therefore—the conclusion is that I do not need to manage students at all!
The station building at Palo Alto station—can you guess from the style which railroad company it originally belonged to?
That’s right, it belonged to Southern Pacific.
The train pulled in, and ridership looked pretty solid!
Nothing much to report along the way. By the time I reached the terminal, it was already dark, so I snapped a photo of San Francisco station at night.
Then I crossed the street to take the newly opened T line back to the hotel.
Someone big in our group chat saw this photo and said: Lizi, how did you end up wandering over to my front door?
Me: ...?
Got off at Moscone Center station.
After exiting the station, I saw another Route 30 trolleybus getting the “dewire-and-punish” treatment.
And Route 45 getting the same “dewire-and-punish” treatment.
A little surprise for the day: they gave me a bottle of water.
And then two pieces of chocolate.
A quick shot of the nighttime view toward the bay from the window.
Last Breakfast
I slept until the next morning. Same view, different time.
Went downstairs for breakfast and used up the second meal voucher.
Heading Home
After breakfast, I packed my bags, and when it was about time, I took BART to SFO again.
SFO’s APM.
Security at SFO was much stricter than at LAX. It took more than half an hour to get through... Good thing I left early, so there was no need to panic.
This looks very cozy!
Sat down for a cup of coffee.
After finishing the coffee, I spotted this thing—a CAFE-X robot barista. No idea how good its drinks actually are, though.
Come to think of it, it looks like someone placed an order and then forgot to click Pick-Up, so there was a cup of coffee just sitting there spacing out at the top inside the center window...
Time to head to the gate.
Lizi’s ride: a 737-700...
By the way, when I booked the ticket, this flight was originally listed as a 737-MAX8, but by the time boarding rolled around, it turned out to be an antique-level 737-700 instead. So let me just share one undeniable truth here... when you fly Southwest, the aircraft type is really hard to predict: sometimes you book a MAX and end up not getting one; other times, people who are trying every possible way to avoid it may end up getting switched onto a MAX after all.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to one sentence—everything is arranged by fate!
Our itinerary was Los Angeles first, then Las Vegas, and then Pittsburgh.
Another brutal mileage-run-style flight day that left us completely exhausted.
Boarding now, gogogo!
You can tell from the nameplate that this 737-700 has been around for quite a while. Later 737s were all produced at Boeing’s Renton factory.
Once inside the cabin, it confirmed Lizi’s suspicion: there was that distinct “airplane smell” (the kind older planes tend to have), and even the sealing strip in front of the overhead bin had come loose… yeah…
Summary
With points suffering from such severe inflation these days, that wave of 20% Off redemptions in January was actually pretty decent, and a rare bright spot from IHG lately. That said, don’t get too excited. I believe this occasional rebound in value is only temporary. The overall long-term trend is still getting worse and worse, so at this point we’re just taking it one day at a time.
- The total for two nights was 56,000 points, averaging 28,000 points per night, which is an excellent value.
- The location is solid. For people like Lizi who don’t want to rent a car, you can get there with BART plus some walking.
- Breakfast was decent but unremarkable. Lizi feels hotel breakfasts in the US are all more or less the same few items anyway; after having them enough times, they stop feeling special.
- At check-in, I tried chatting with the front desk to ask for a Corner-View room, but failed badly. If any readers stay here in the future, you can try your luck—judging from what I saw online, the view from those rooms is quite good.
- Because the hotel is so close to Moscone Center, it will definitely be packed whenever there’s a conference there, so try to avoid staying during those periods.