Tourism galore!

The goal for today was to see as much of the city in as little time as possible. Call it ‘speed-tourism’ if you like. San Francisco’s warmest day in a while began for mum and I with a famous cable car ride from the Powell Street station up and down the hilly terrain to Lombard Street. The steep streets didn’t stop there of course, as Lombard street is the most crooked in the world. It wasn’t much of a challenge to descend the stairs, but it was fun nonetheless. A quick breakfast, and visit to Lombard Street later, proceeded the long walk to the Golden Gate bridge. It was at least an hour between first glimpse and reaching the start of the bridge, and the views from different angles were all uniquely impressive. After many, many photos of the bridge, we walked across then kept going to a town known as Sausalito. From here, a ferry was caught back to San Francisco that offered a great view of Alcatraz and over the city as it passed.

An afternoon meal took place at a nice seafood restaurant somewhere between Pier 39 & Fishermans Wharf (mmm, clam chowder), and then the exploration continued. This time, by walking the streets until we saw the Apple Store on Chestnut Street. Can you really say you came to San Francisco for WWDC without visiting all of the local stores? The look and feel of this store reminded me a lot of the Bondi Apple Store in Sydney.

A bus ride later, it was time to visit Moscone West again. It’s since been dressed up and is all ready for the big event. Between yesterday and today, two massive Apple logos have gone up onto the glass along two sides of the conference centre - quite a sight. Apple also have put up five banners on a street opposite, displaying the text “WWDC” for all to see.

Fun fact of the day: For about half of today the roaming on my iPhone changed from the carrier AT&T 3G to T-Mobile 3G. The experience on T-Mobile was ridiculously sub-par.

Fun fact #2: At the time of writing (10:52pm), my Apple Watch is reporting 35755 steps taken. Insane! 

Tomorrow’s agenda: Meeting up with some fellow scholars for breakfast in the morning, before heading down to the scholars orientation. Hoping to get the opportunity to meet some Apple executives at the orientation. Will keep you posted, so stay tuned!