Day 1 of our San Francisco trip, February 21, 2008, started with a 4:50 am wake-up call. Following a quick overnight stay close to the Buffalo Airport we got going early to reach the destination of our 5-day winter getaway: San Francisco. After a quick stopover at Cincinnati Airport, where we had to run to the gate to catch our connection flight, we arrived in San Francisco at about 11 am. Unfortunately the weather was not very welcoming: it was drizzly, grey and cold. But nonetheless, we bravely made our way with all our luggage into the city, using all sorts of public transit: first the Airtrain, then the BART commuter railway system, then a couple of municipal buses through a fairly rough neighbourhood (the Tenderloin) to get to our hotel: the Queen Anne Hotel, a Victorian-era heritage property close to the Japantown area.After settling in I got a tour from the manager who showed me many of the 48 uniquely decorated rooms and explained that this used to be a girls' finishing...