Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/60

 40 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA a suite with din'ng-room and butler's pantry, but no meals, at San Francisco's trio of hotels which offer, besides customary service, the luxuries of gymnasiums, sun courts, and roof gardens, of club and tiffin rooms adorned with fine woods and tapestry and bowered in palms. The day rate for room and board in comfortable city hotels is from $3.00 to $4.00. Nearly all the better houses have a free motor 'bus at the railway stations. Some influence pat- ronage by paying the cab fare of the arriving guest. One of the notable hotels in a State remarkable for its hostelries is the one recently constructed at San Diego by the son of Ulysses Grant who, when President, signed the transfer of 47,000 acres of town lands to San Diego. In later years Gen- eral Grant's widow and sons made profitable in- vestments in San Diego real estate. The U. S. Grant Hotel is the symbol of their success and an augury of their faith in the city which keeps the gate of our southwestern seas. There are other excellent hotels here. The San Diego has lately been built at a cost of half a million dollars. For many years this city, the oldest of Califor- nia's municipalities, was known for but one hotel, and that lay half an hour away on a sandy prom- ontory edging both the sea and the bay. No less