SAN Francisco, home of cable cars, Alcatraz and a food item so decadent it lives up to its name: Millionaire’s Bacon.

It’s cooked for hours in a slow oven under brown sugar and spices, and becomes a crispy coated, sweet, sticky, bacon experience.

SAN Francisco, home of the most insane drivers I have ever encountered and of the great movie car chase in Steve McQueen’s “Bullitt”, where speeding cars went through the streets, including downhill on a very steep gradient that flattens out at each cross street. I know the movie didn’t influence local drivers – it couldn’t, they’d be dead in minutes.

To clarify a little, they have a four-way-stop-sign system that works well, but it has to because those corners – and there are hundreds of them – bring a whole new meaning to “blind spot”. If you’re going uphill, your blind spot at one point entering the intersection extends from directly ahead of you right around to the passenger side.

Going downhill it’s worse. Imagine being the rearmost passenger at the beginning of a roller-coaster ride, where the carriages in front drop away and you see nothing but the sky for a moment. Transplant that experience to being in the driver’s seat. It’s a lot slower, granted, but you’re hoping – over and over as you go downhill – that any car that went through before you hasn’t stopped.

As for going around corners? That’s a story for another time. The memories are still too raw.

But San Franciscans more than make up for their cautious nature on slow streets when they hit the freeways. It’s crazy out there. Especially after dark. Somehow, our rental came through unscathed, which was remarkable as I felt I was driving with my eyes shut from fear a good quarter of the time. My therapist says I will eventually make a full recovery.

SAN Francisco, the home of the greatest travel myth ever put forward to unsuspecting tourists. The so-called Golden Gate Bridge. Four days we were in town. And this alleged bridge was not visible for even a moment of them.

My theory? The actual bridge came down years ago, so the locals laid down an impenetrable layer of permanent fog over a roadway and tell tourists there’s actually a bridge in there somewhere. It’s genius!

They sell souvenirs, run ferries “under” it where you don’t see anything but fog.

Canberra should do something similar over Lake Burley Griffin. Or between Weston and Tuggeranong and just tell the tourists it’s a bridge over the world’s deepest-known gorge.

AND finally to American politics. Hillary Clinton has become the “presumptive nominee” for her party while I’ve been here. She’ll be up against Donald Trump in November’s election. A lot of people here seem to think it’s the modern equivalent of being offered a choice of vacation to either Sodom or Gomorrah.

All I’ll say is there’s a gift shop in Los Angeles selling toilet paper with Hillary on some rolls and “The Donald” on others. And sold out of Trump in next to no time!

Chris Coleman is the drive announcer on 2CC.