Redemption

With Presidents Day making for a nice long weekend, I found that IHG award nights in San Francisco were offering pretty solid value. Combined with the 20% discount from a redemption back in January, I went ahead and used points for two nights at the InterContinental by Moscone, for a total of 56,000 points.

If you know Chestnut, you know the style when it comes to redemptions: go straight for the big move, strike when the timing is right, and make every hit count.

Southwest + BART

I got up early and headed to the airport for the first Southwest flight of the day from LAX to SFO. The reasons were simple: first, to save time; second, early flights tend to be more punctual; third, fares are cheaper; and fourth... there is no fourth. That fourth one belongs to Arsenal...

Narrator: Chestnut, why are you this corny again?

Floating slowly into view in the distance was a giant four-engine aircraft: Qantas’s A380. These days, A380s are getting rarer and rarer—every sighting feels a little more precious.

Since I checked in right at the 24h mark, I ended up with boarding positions B11 and B12.

A question for the Southwest pros: does Southwest basically reserve the entire A group for elites, co-branded cardholders, and the like now? Even checking in right on time, I still couldn’t make it into A group...

I have to say, Southwest’s seat pitch is pretty decent.

Someone once said to me: look, Southwest doesn’t even have PTVs. How cheap is that?

My response was: you’re missing the forest for the trees. The airlines throw you a tiny perk, and you’re delighted, while giving up something much more important. Don’t you realize that with fixed seat pitch, adding PTVs makes the seatback thicker and seriously eats into your personal space? Who cares if there’s no PTV? Just load a few episodes of anime onto your phone and you’re all set.

As a longtime avgeek, I’ve seen way too many cases like this—people losing out without even realizing it, and still feeling pleased about it...

The flight was short. The flight attendants had barely finished handing out cookies and drinks before they had to start preparing for landing.

Before long we arrived at SFO, only to discover that our aircraft was about to turn right around and operate the next flight back to LAX. Truly a workhorse of a plane, working nonstop.

Thanks to this 737-800 for the ride—bye!

First, I picked up my luggage and took the AirTrain over to the BART SFO station.

It’s a pretty heartwarming scene—when you and your other half lean on each other like this, it’s proof of love!

Narrator: How does Chestnut suddenly turn into such a sentimental warm guy sometimes? It’s honestly hard to get used to...

Chestnut: That’s because you don’t really know me [manual doge]

When I got to the BART station, I noticed BART had introduced new train cars. And just to be clear, this BART is SF’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, not Burter from the Ginyu Force in Dragon Ball.

Quick quiz for everyone: what are the names of the five Ginyu Force members? Answer: Recoome, Burter, Guldo, Jeice, and Ginyu!

Narrator: Chestnut, why did you suddenly get corny again? What’s with this back-and-forth?

Chestnut: Let me say it for you—you were about to say it’s like malaria, right?

Narrator: Oh come on... yep, that’s definitely you. Dad jokes plus offbeat humor catching everyone off guard!

Chestnut: Obviously. You have to be unconventional—people who only play by the mainstream rulebook are long gone.

After boarding, I found the inside of this BART train quite clean. It was nothing like the last time I came to San Francisco, when I happened to run into a BART strike and the train cars smelled strongly of urine.

Yep, I’m just that unlucky. I happened to show up right during the strike. Don’t ask me why; I have no idea either...

After a fast ride, we arrived at Powell station. Time to get off!

Check-in + Breakfast

After less than a 10-minute walk, I arrived at my destination: InterContinental San Francisco. It’s the blue-glass building next to Moscone Center.

After Check-In, I got the room keys, so here they are for the traditional “opening shot.” There’s not much to say about them, though—they’re the standard IHG room keys with that familiar generic global look.

One side note: during Check-In I tried chatting with the front desk to ask for a Corner-View room, but no luck. Reason: OOS!

That said, thanks to last year’s Diamond status, I still got complimentary breakfast, and the front desk gave me two breakfast vouchers.

I checked the time and saw breakfast service hadn’t ended yet, so I decided to fill up right there at the InterContinental.

The coffee and fruit plate looked quite artsy.

That was basically the breakfast spread—perfectly decent, though nothing especially memorable.

After eating, I dropped off my luggage and got ready to head back out. The room looked like this—size-wise, pretty average overall.

A Big Transit Day on Day 1

First, I kept riding BART across the bay to Berkeley.

Right after exiting the station, I saw this famous spot. I have to say, that Kaplan sign is really hanging in there.

After a short walk, I arrived at UC Berkeley and its famous clock tower.

As a chemistry person, Lizi had to stop by and check this place off the list.

The legendary campus gate.

An impressionist-style ultra-low-resolution bear sculpture.

Only after zooming in could I tell what it was—this is for catching wasps!

What is this for?

I saw this near the campus gate—OPT application photo services... wow, that is rough. Couldn’t they at least do a little Photoshop themselves?

Then I went back to the BART station and rode back to Embarcadero station.

Embarcadero—so that’s what it’s called. Learned something new!

This fountain... wow, my standards just hit the floor. The water even looks like it smells bad.

Terrible luck: the Ferry Building was under construction.

A mechanical flip-board schedule display—such a nostalgic childhood memory.

Next to it is the Bay Bridge. This is the western end of I-80. If you just keep driving east on I-80, you can get all the way to Lizi’s old stomping grounds—Kent, Ohio.

I also checked out the nearby Street Car Museum. Admission Fee? Free!

It cost five cents in 1912, and now it’s $3! That’s 60x inflation over a century.

After leaving the Street Car Museum, I took this Street Car to Fisherman’s Wharf.

The In-N-Out at Fisherman’s Wharf probably does pretty solid business. My guess is it’s one of the better-value dining options around here.

That’s one nice thing about fast food: prices are relatively stable nationwide, so you’re less likely to get ripped off just because you’re unfamiliar with the area.

Next up was the Golden Gate Bridge, which meant taking Route 28.

I have to say, this bus stop sign was really something... Google Map showed it right here, and Lizi walked around the intersection twice without seeing it. In the end, I realized it was just painted onto the utility pole like this. Truly a minimalist but not simple bus stop sign!

Route 28 is probably the only line that goes to the Golden Gate Bridge Visitor Center, so ridership was quite strong.

Standing here reminded Lizi of the old north and south bridgehead bus stops on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. I transferred there many times too. But later on—probably after 2007—those bridgehead stops were removed altogether. Kind of sad, really.

It was a bit cloudy, but later I realized Lizi’s luck was actually pretty good. A lot of people come here and only manage to get the fully fogged-in version of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz.

Time to walk onto the bridge.

The bridge plaque on one of the piers.

Downtown San Francisco.

A shot of the bridge toll plaza.

As everyone knows, the Golden Gate Bridge has one-way tolling—heading north out of the city is free, while heading south into the city is tolled.

Next I took transit back into the city, but I accidentally boarded Route 28 in the wrong direction and ended up going south... so I had to get off at the first stop and transfer there to Route 1, a bus line with less frequent service.

Because we moved so efficiently, we unlocked an achievement—three free transfers in one day (system rule: transfers within 120min are free).

We headed back to the Ferry Building for dinner, and by the time we finished eating, it was almost dark.

The Bay Bridge at night.

This was dinner—Senor Sisig, with a pig-slaughtering Logo!

A Little Surprise at Night

Back at the hotel, I took a photo of the Intercontinental plaque in the nighttime lighting.

By the way, what’s the deal with that Energy Star thing on the left?

The bunny was still sitting obediently on the bed, but then we found a little surprise—they left us two chocolates.

We went down to the pool for a little while to relax our tired muscles after a long day.

After coming back and taking a shower, I snapped a few photos of the bathroom.

The shampoo and body wash were in those very sneaky large bottles.

Looks like hotels are getting smarter these days—not giving you the little bottles so you can take them home.

Final Thoughts

I was tired, really tired, so it was time to sleep.

Don’t bug me, nobody tipped me, so please don’t rush me for updates!

What’s meant to come will come on its own; what isn’t meant to come won’t show up even if you wait a lifetime!