DAY six was a bit of a gentler one on the group, a world little bit less corporate and perhaps a little bit life styled. In the morning we went to Tesla, meeting up with Laura’s husband Adam for a tour of one of the only electric carmakers in the world.
I think we were all a little bit apprehensive beforehand, which is reasonable considering the few electric cars we have seen have their dimensions skewed so they are higher than their width, as well as sounding like a blender when they run. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Tesla only makes sports cars. Lowered convertibles that can match Porsches on a racetrack without sounding as if they are moving at all, kind of like the ninja of the market.
They range in price from $99,000 to $150,000, American of course, and they look stunning. They run on something like 900 lithium ion batteries, similar to the one’s used in laptops and iPods, and can get over 300km of a single charge.
There is only one in Australia currently, so all you green-thumbed lead foots should probably watch this space.
We then had to do a little bit of travelling, returning to Berkeley. On the way we passed the Golden Gate Bridge and, true tourists that we are we had to get out on both sides to take some photos.
A physics question we forgot to ask Keith the other day was how exactly they manages to get two ridiculously long pieces of metal held parallel to the ground, only to be attached to more nonsensically large pieces of metal, which sit in the water. Whatever happened to wood and rope?
San Francisco has three bridges, and the view gets progressively more breathtaking as you increase the size, (and the price tag).
We did a little bit of shopping before heading back to the hotel, allowing just enough time to get ourselves scrubbed and dressed for a ''surprise'' dinner organised by Adam and Laura at the SF Yacht Club.
Well when we got there we were definitely surprised, and perhaps a little intimidated. The club was built on the edge of the bay, with a view out over the bridge to the horizon, just as the sun collided with it.
The meal was a seafood buffet, not fish and chips, but crab and oyster and swordfish. Swordfish! (Actually really, really nice). We estimated that we may have blown our budget slightly (sorry parents!) but it was all too worth it to experience something so foreign, that is, except for Gossip Girl on TV.
Tomorrow we are going to jail (Alcatraz). Should be fun.
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