Fortunately, breakfast was served quickly and checkout was just a matter of handing the key cards back to the receptionist. The Milwaukee Multi-Modal Station is only a 10-minute walk away from the hotel, so I got there in plenty of time and got in line, and I did get a good seat near the front of the train, although the conductor announced that we were expecting to fill right up with more people at the airport just down the line, and indeed, somebody say next to me for the rest of the journey to Chicago. I think that people fly to Milwaukee and then take the train to Chicago to save money.
Talking of saving money, I split my flight for this jouney to go via Portland, Oregon. It's quite a long flight, 3hr30, then a 1hr30 flight down to San Francisco. As we neared Portland on this flight, I was looking up which gate we were going to arrive at and the departure gate for the San Francisco flight - and found they were the same! We landed at Portand, I said goodbye to the cabin crew, got off the plane, sat down at the gate, went to board and the lady at the gate noted "weren't you just on the Chicago flight?", got on the plane again, said hello again to the same cabin crew, and sat down in the seat next to the one I'd just been in before. This is the first time I've ever been to Oregon - but my experience of it was limited to the area around gate E4.
The flight to San Francisco was much quicker, so we didn't get any food, but we did get the drinks service. Fortunately, my hotel in San Francisco is within easy walking distance of Powell station on both BART and Muni Metro - all the stations along Market Street are dual Muni Metro-BART stations.
My very expensive room is on the 32nd floor - however, it wasn't all that much more expensive than anywhere else I could find in San Francisco, so I thought I'd have the nice place that was easy to get to, not just for the metro and BART, but also for the cable cars.
My room has a balcony. I can see all the way to the bay in the East. With such great views to the East - I can even see AT&T Park in the distance, but it's easier to see it at night when the signs are lit up.
I went down to breakfast in the morning and asked for a table for 1. The lady, in her broken English, explained that it was a buffet and it cost $39, plus tax, plus gratuity! Since that would come to over $50, I told her to stuff it. I told her that I could buy a good three course dinner for $50.
It turns out the hotel has a second little bistro in the lobby that serves breakfasts - so I've had a bowl of oatmeal for a more reasonable $8, plus a coffee.
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