h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Our next stop is San Francisco," Scribbles told me over huevos rancheros the next morning. "The trick will be getting there."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"A direct flight from here is not possible. A connecting flight through Mexico City would take about ten hours. But a flight from San Diego would take only an hour and a half."

"So how do we get to San Diego?"

"We can take a taxi to the border, walk across into the U.S., and take a 35-minute trolley ride into San Diego. Then we can fly to San Francisco and ride their famous cable cars."

"I guess trolleys are today's transportation."

"You got that right!"

With temperatures in the 70s, the taxi ride and ten-minute walk to the border were fairly comfortable. Three and a half hours later we emerged from the airport in San Francisco, eager to enjoy the ambience of that famous city.

A familiar face greeted me at the airport. "Miss Seng? I thought you were in Hong Kong?" I exclaimed.

"That was my sister, Dorothy. I'm Glinda."

I guess I know what old Mr. Seng's favorite movie was, I thought to myself.

My day in San Francisco was thoroughly enjoyable. We rode the cable car, and then walked to Grant Avenue, where we had dim sum at Oceans Four Restaurant. Then we rode the bus to Golden Gate Park, where Scribbles confided that his original plan would have had me jogging around the perimeter.

"The only jogging that will be done will be that of your memory," I said tartly.

"You could visit the Japanese Cultural & Trade Center and pick up souvenirs at Mikado," Glinda Seng suggested as we sipped tea at the Japanese Tea Garden.

"I think I'll pass on that," I said. "I would be afraid of foul play."

There are references to *two* movies in today's installment.

I have been to San Francisco, and loved it both times. "Flower Drum Song" is one my favorite musicals of the 1950s. It's quite dated by now, but "I enjoy being a girl" was the closest thing to rock music that Richard Rodgers ever wrote. Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" and Gus lee's "China Boy" are very enjoyable accounts of growing up Chinese in San Francisco.

One of the most enjoyable things about San Francisco is just walking around downtown and listening to the music from the piano bars.

[Amy P]

I have never been on a trolley bus but I have been on DLR (Dockland light railway which is a cross between a tram and a train.

They have brought back trams in Blackpool and in Croydon.