My die-hard addiction to NASCAR made it a difficult decision...but the explorer in me won out...San Francisco, here we come!!
Bright and early (but not TOO bright and early!) Saturday morning, Anne and I headed out to explore San Francisco. We figured traffic would be better on a weekend day than during the week.
Well, only marginally. You see, we came in across the Bay Bridge, which is reportedly the busiest bridge in North America. I wish they had told us that BEFORE we crossed it.
Added to that, you have driving through a downtown of a major city to get parking so we could make use of the cable cars all day. San Franciscans aren’t very tolerant of drivers from other places. We finally just gave up trying to switch lanes, and took whatever turns were available to us, and made it to the parking garage we had designated, near the cable car route.
Walking over to Powell street, we found the nearest cable car stop…crowded with people. When a cable car came past with people hanging off the side, shouting “We’re full!!” we figured we might as well walk down the hill to the main turnaround for the cable cars and get on there.
The line down there was huge, but at least we knew we’d get on, where it was apparent at the stops along the way we’d have little luck.
Waiting in line, we watched how they manually turned the cable cars (brute force), which we later learned have been running with the same technology since the 1700s, when the system was first constructed, a technology that had the driver pulling on levers and jumping on foot pedals to brake and drive it. It was really cool. I guess when something works, you don’t change it.
Finally getting on the cable car to take us down (or rather, up, and THEN down!) to Fisherman’s Wharf, we rode the awesome hills…it amazed me how San Francisco is basically built up and over a huge hill. I wouldn’t want to drive my truck, a stick shift, there!!!
At one point, we also had the thought that maybe Dean would have Carl running up and down those hills as part of his exercise regimen….I think Carl’s lucky that the race track is so far from San Francisco, but the track has some pretty impressive hills, too, so I imagine he got some workouts there. This thought was inspired by the sight of a man “running” down one of the hills…it was more like falling and keeping his feet under him at the same time.
After that amazing trip, during which we saw Lombard street, the “Crookedest street in America”, but missed the photo op, we arrived down at Fisherman’s Wharf.
I love touristy areas like that, and add in all that seafood…YUM!!!
We had every intention of doing the tour of Alcatraz, but unfortunately it was sold out, so after lunch at Bubba Gump’s, we settled for a bay cruise out under the Golden Gate bridge (not golden, actually, but painted what they called “International Orange”) and around Alcatraz, with descriptions of the lives of the inmates and workers there, and the few attempts to escape. There were sharks in these waters, after all, and add to that the guards with guns around the island…well, it was never verified if any actually succeeded. As they said, if you DID manage to escape, it wouldn’t be long before you were hunted down and returned.
I found it interesting that one way they tried to keep the inmates pacified was by feeding them gourmet meals. Steak, seafood...they got it, in the hopes that satisfaction with the food would keep some from trying to escape. Of course, teeny cells and only being allowed outside in the courtyard once a week for 2 hours would have been a down side.
One of the highlights of the cruise was cruising by the sea lions that live at the end of Pier 39 on our way out and back…they just laid there and sunned themselves while we snapped our pics…some of them were impressive in size, but all they really had to do was lay there to gather crowds of tourists.
After the cruise, we toured a WWII submarine, the USS Pampanito, which was used after Pearl Harbor in the defense of the US against the Japanese. It amazed us that we had difficulty bending ourselves through the hatches (although Carl would likely have no problem with it, as it seemed much like him trying to get into his car through the window at times!) that 85 men lived on that submarine….AND during one skirmish, they rescued an additional 73 (I think) men, prisoners of war from Britain and Australia, who had been being kept on a ship they attacked…I believe the quote they have is “You bloody Americans, first you sink us, then you rescue us!”
It was very interesting, but by the time we got to the last compartment, the waves outside had picked up, and the cork-like bobbing sensation was threatening to make me a little seasick, without being able to focus on something that was not moving, so I exited topside quickly. I was fine once I could see our surroundings, I just can’t handle enclosed spaces when there’s lots of movement…some sailor I’d make, huh??
After exploring the shops around there, we had dinner in a restaurant, Boudins, that specialized in sour dough bread, which was yummy, then we wandered down the street, watching the street performers along the way. They were everywhere, and some were quite obnoxious, making it obvious they were doing this for “tips” and if we were enjoying their performance, we should pay them for it….which made me NOT want to give them ANY money.
One example. As we walked along, we noticed a crowd gathering, looking across the road, towards what, we couldn’t tell. But, as is the case with humans, if one person stops and stares at something, soon others will join, and we even noticed people on the other side of the street, looking out into the street, to see what everyone was looking at.
At the last second, we saw what the crowd had gathered about…there was a man hiding behind a leafy branch he held in his hand, and everyone on that side of the street didn’t realize it…they thought he was a shrub.
And then he jumped out at them, scaring the bejesus out of them, and causing the crowd on our side of the street to burst into laughter…
As we started walking away, the “performer” immediately ran across the street with his tip jar, yelling “come on, I entertained you, I was funny, and you can’t give me any money?.”. THAT’S what I’m talking about …if he had walked across the street, took his bows, and asked politely for people to donate to his tip jar, I’m sure he would have gotten some money, but as it was the entire crowd ran away as quickly as possible, he was so aggressive.
Riding back on the back of the cable car, we got to see Lombard street from the top, which is not the best view, but short of getting off and walking down it, which we were not inclined to do after all the walking we had already done, there was no way we were going to see it from that angle.
The trip home was uneventful, but I maxed out my 1GB memory card on my camera…thank God I now have a laptop to upload pics to. Of course, the amount of video taping I had done the day before during Tom’s shave, it didn’t surprise me that it was full.
I'm more sure than ever I will have to take an assignment in San Francisco, it's a really cool city.
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