As today is our last full day we just decided to chill out around City Hall, it was supposed to have cooled down today, but it didn't feel any different than yesterday, it's still hot and really humid. All of the things we wanted to do today were in easy walking distance, but being out in the heat every day for the last 10 days is starting to its toll on us I think and by the looks of it, it will probably be only about 10-degrees cooler at home.
Although we had pasted it many times as we come out of the hotel is The Well's Fargo History Museum, which became the first national bank in the USA during the gold rush era. We went on one in San Francisco a few years ago and they are really interesting places, they explain a lot about how money and gold were transported around the country and I found out where the word riding shotgun came from, another good thing is you tend to be the only people in these museums.
A short walk from there around the corner you come to Macy's department store. The first entrance was the strangest place you come in as you have to go up to level 2 in the elevator, but when you get into it there just letters for each floor like ST, LR and so on and not in any order. After pushing many buttons we just ended up back on the same floor so come out and went in around the corner.
This has to be one of the grandest shops you could ever go to compete with one of the world's biggest pipe organs, it's hard to explain so your best just looking at the photographs of it.
Next was a quick trip around City Hall to the visitor's shop to buy some nicknacks then the plan was going to Wendy's for some lunch, but apart from there being nowhere to sit it was a bit of a dump. Plan B was to backtrack past Macy's to McGillans Olde Ale House which is well hidden down a back ally. I found this place by pure chance whilst planning places to eat and drink on Google Maps and you would never know it was here otherwise, it's that well hidden just off the main road. For $28 we got a lovely turkey and mash, 2 pints of IPA and a couple of Cokes.
After that, we were all stuffed and done in so decided to head back to the hotel as it's still too hot to wander the streets.
The plan was to have a sit down for a bit then go for a stroll, we knew there was going to be some heavy rain about 4 or 5 o'clock, but when I checked AccuWeather it had now turned into a cat 3 storm and they duly informed me that it would strike in the next few minutes. Almost like magic the sky went dark, the wind went insane and the torrential rain started. Thundering and lightning soon followed, then bits of signage from buildings started coming past the window, as we are 8 floors up that's not the normal thing you would see going past your window. Then there was a plastic chair in the road that seemed very happy to slam into people's cars and I couldn't see the parasols from the hotel roof patio anymore so perhaps somebody is impaled with one now!
Once the rain stopped after about an hour and the wind died down I took a walk to take some photos, one thing I bought a while ago was a bracket that would hold my phone on a small tripod so stuck it in a bag and bunged it in my back pocket. I thought it was odd that nobody had given me any hassle and it was only when I took it out of my back pocket in the elevator, I may have found the reason although it was covered by a long shirt most of the time.
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| In a bag |
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| Not in a bag |
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| In use |
And I suppose that's where today ends now, time eat everything we have in the fridge and sup the last remaining cans of beer. Check out is 11am (EDT) tomorrow, so there is time for some breakfast before we have to get 30th Street Station, due to the engineering works going on, its probably easier to get local transport there rather than get regional rail one-stop as we still have enough credit left on our Speta Key Cards to do it.
