Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part One

It's our last day in San Francisco already? But we just got here!

We packed up our stuff (including the huge bag of chocolate I bought on our first day...and am still working on finishing over a month later) and headed down to the lobby where I enjoyed another delicious blueberry muffin. We had to leave our bags with bell services since we weren't picking up our rental car till that afternoon. We had to wait for a bit, but eventually someone showed up, we checked like 5 bags, and headed back outside into the 50 degree weather.

Finally no fog! Beautiful.

We'll be back here later - The Cannery.

Our goal? To ride the damn cable car finally!

The Powell/Hyde cable car started (or ended, depending on how you look at it) right near our hotel, so we took a ride over there. I wanted to go first thing in the morning because I had seen longer lines later in the day. It was nice and quiet over there. We bought our tickets, which amounted to $5 each way for each of us. Expensive, right? Well, you can get a pass for cheaper but there was no point in us doing that at this point. There was a car about to leave, and we could have gotten on if we wanted to stand, but we decided to wait for the next one. Standing on the cable car...not the safest looking thing to do. Those things pass very close to cars and other cable cars! But...we'll get to that later.

Took this video while we waited:





So we waited awhile for the next car, and we were the first ones on. The car filled up pretty quickly because a line had formed behind us and so before we knew it we were heading up the hill and riding the cable car!





I was filming as much as I could and enjoying the view until the second stop - that's when this guy got on and stood right in front of me. He couldn't stand in front of someone not clearly filming? Thanks a lot, buddy. Anyway, I tried my best to film around him. He got off at like the second to last stop.





Riding the cable car was really cool. I don't know how the brakemen control those things. Cars zoom around them, and they have to stop at traffic lights - it's pretty crazy. I think the video tells the story better than words could. But we rode the cable car all the way to the end, which was Union Square. And you have to get off at the end of the line.

The line to get back on the cable car? SUPER LONG.

And we were a long, long way from Fisherman's Wharf.

Oh well! Might as well make the best of it. We wandered around Union Square, and ended up in the huge, beautiful mall. This was probably the nicest mall I've ever seen. It had escalators that kind of curved around like spiral staircases. And it was packed full of high end stores, of course. There was also a really nice looking movie theater. And there was a gorgeous dome. It was pretty big, and we explored the whole thing but didn't go in any of the stores.

The beautiful dome.

Once we were sick of that, we started thinking about how we would get back. There was no way I was waiting on that long time. So we decided to walk a ways back up the cable car line, and just catch it at another one of the stops. We wanted to check out Lombard Street anyway, which is right along the cable car route.

So we started walking. In San Francisco. And have I mentioned how hilly it is in San Francisco?

A beautiful city it may be, but a walkable city it is not.





But we toughed it out. And we walked up about three or four stops. This British couple joined us in waiting for the cable car. One came along after a few minutes, but there wasn't a lot of room on it. We let the British couple go ahead of us since we saw another one was coming right behind it. So we got on that one instead. I got to sit, but Brian had to stand and hang on for dear life. He wasn't too thrilled with this, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.





But there was a problem! We were on the Powell/Mason line! Oops! Wrong line! Brian discovered this - I had no idea. We came to a stop where we could transfer, so we hopped off and waited for the right cable car line. This car was crowded too, but we were able to stand inside - at least there was no hanging off the side this time! We listened to a family from San Francisco chat with a family from Canada. It was funny, because the San Francisco family were acting like such tourists - they had small children with them, I'm thinking maybe the kids had never been on a cable car before?

At no point did anyone ask to see those extra, expensive tickets we had paid for. What up, California? And this wasn't the last experience we had with that.


The stop for Lombard Street came, and we got off. Lombard Street is really cool. There are houses right there, and people literally have driveways right on the street. I wouldn't want that to be my driveway! The view from there was awesome, and there are stairs leading down, so we walked down the street. Lots of people were driving down at the snail pace of 5 mph. Lombard Street is part of the much advertised 40-something mile drive through San Francisco.

Check out that view!

Yeah, it's just a little windy.

Me taping, what a shock!

Lots of cars coming down!

After taking some pictures and video, we decided to head back down the hills towards the Bay and find somewhere to have lunch. Along the way, we saw a truck that had run into a pole (the truck was hardly damaged at all - it wasn't a bad accident or anything) and there were a couple of police and firetrucks around. So, I took a picture by the firetruck. One of two accidents we saw in California, and the only one I wish I saw.


The walk back was nice. The streets in San Francisco are so much quieter than any other city I've ever been to.

Do not do this in New York City unless you want to wind up in a hospital.

Once we were back in tourist land, we headed to this place called The Cannery. If you guessed that it used to be a cannery, you're right! Anyway, now it's a bunch of shops and restaurants, but there really isn't much there. It's kind of a shame, because the building is really cool. We went in a sock store, but didn't buy anything. According to the directory, there was supposed to be a hot dog place in there somewhere, but we didn't see it. Maybe it closed. We kind of just wanted to grab some hot dogs, but since that clearly wasn't going to happen, we decided to go to The Buena Vista, which had been recommended to us. It's the first place in the U.S. to serve Irish coffee.




It's right by the cable car stop, so we headed on over. I don't remember exactly what time it was - kind of early for lunch - maybe somewhere between 11 and 12? Anyway, the place was small and it was packed! We walked through the whole thing and there wasn't a seat to be had - even at the bar. It's kind of a casual place, and there's really no one there to seat you. It's really pretty inside though. We weren't sure what to do, and we were just kind of standing there when the bus boy found us a table - a table for six! But we sat down anyway. And I was cold! So I just ordered some hot tea and a grilled cheese. Brian had the Irish Coffee and I forgot what he ate - maybe a hamburger?

Anyway, we were sitting there for a few minutes when an older man and his grandson approached us and asked if they could share our table. Of course we said sure. We had a table for six, and we were only 2 people after all. Anyway, the man was very nice and his grandson was adorable. (I think he was about 4.) He was from CA - just outside San Francisco, and we started telling stories about New York and such. He was very emotional about 9/11, and talked about how much he admired the NY police and firefighters. Since his grandson was visiting and they were planning to ride the cable car, Brian gave him our tickets that no one had taken on our return trip.

Mmm...Irish Coffee.

We had a very nice meal. The little boy, Casey, was very well behaved. The older man got an Irish coffee too and he got crab cakes that he offered to share with us, but we don't eat crab. Anyway, when our check came, the older man grabbed it and insisted on paying! We tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistant. He told us in exchange we could just buy a drink for a cop or firefighter from the Hurley family. It was so nice of him! Needless to say we thanked him profusely and headed back out to kill some time before we picked up our rental car.

So we wandered down in the direction of Ghiradelli Square, but we stayed at sea level. No more hills for us! There was this historic bathhouse place, so we walked inside. There wasn't much in there - just a pretty mosaic on the wall and a nice view of the Bay outside.

Shot this out there:




I thought we could walk down these steps and head to the path that runs along the Bay, but there was like a senior center down there with a bunch of older people exercising. Um, nope! Can't go that way! So we went back outside and found our way to the path and just walked along the bay for awhile. It was really nice. I miss San Francisco! It's such a fantastic city - I can't wait to go back.

The Rock

After that we found our way to this free ship museum. I know it sounds boring as hell, but it actually wasn't that bad - and there were benches! They had an interesting section on shipwrecks (there have been plenty off the coast) that I spent time reading about. When it was nearly time to pick up our rental car, we headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and had the valet call us a cab. (Using this interesting whistle... I had never seen anything like it. But then again I don't really ask valets to call me cabs in large cities.)

Just one more thing I want to say before I forget - at some point I decided I wanted to get the paper - you know, the San Francisco Chronicle. I decided I wanted the newspaper from every city I visited. Well, that dream died right in our first city. I could not find one! I tried a couple of drugstores (they carry the paper here in NY!) and even our hotel gift shop, but they did not have it. Unless I wanted USA Today I was out of luck. Very strange. Oh well.

Next!

Oh god, we really do have to drive here!
Another lovely mall...
The clothes here are better. They just are.

Day Two ~ Part One

If you're ever looking for other parts of this report, you can view them all by scrolling to the bottom of any entry and clicking on the trip report tag.

The next morning we got up around 8 and took showers. Then we started thinking about what the hell we were gonna do.

Remember how earlier on in this report, I mentioned how I didn't plan this trip as much as I would have liked?

Yeah. This would be a great example of that.

After we got ready we headed down to the lobby and I bought a blueberry muffin and a juice from the little cafe downstairs. That muffin was goooooooood. Brian just had some cereal we had brought. There was a concierge desk in the lobby that had a rack of brochures nearby, so we perused it and found some tours we were interested in. We were kind of trying to save money (at this point in the vacation, anyway...) so there were a few that we thought were too expensive. But we did find a tour we thought looked good, so we decided to just walk down to the office listed on the brochure and check it out.

Using the iPhone maps, we found the place. It was a few blocks away. And...it was basically a hole in the wall place that wasn't even open yet. So I was kind of annoyed that we had just wasted our time walking all the way over here for nothing.

A shot we took on our journey.

So we started heading down back towards the Bay (hey, it's downhill that way, can you blame us?) and we run across this tour company office. There are a bunch of people inside waiting for buses and such, and I send Brian up to inquire how much it would cost to do a city tour. They were offering a few different tours, so we decided to take the cheapest one - which was a hop on/hop off city bus tour. I forget what time it left - 9:30 or 10 - but whatever time it was, we had a few minutes to wait, so we milled around and sat on the benches until it was time to board the bus.

I did not take my jacket with me today (I had meant to, but I forgot) and I was a little chilly. So when we got on the bus, we did go to the top level (it was one of those double decker buses) but we sat under this covered portion. It had rained yesterday, as you may remember, so things were a bit wet up there, but under the covered portion it was fine. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect on this tour, since I had never been on anything like it, but I was hoping to see a good chunk of the city.

In this case, I must say, not planning ahead definitely worked in our favor.

On the bus we had a guide who told us all about the different areas. His name was Stephen and he was British and very informative. Brian really took a liking to him, and so he never wanted to get off the bus and get a different guide.

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which I was super excited about. I have a weird obsession with the bridge - it always looks so great in pictures!) so I couldn't wait to see it in person up close.

It was a little foggy that morning. Here was our ride over the bridge:






I was totally excited to be going over the bridge! I know that must sound lame, but to me the bridge kind of summed up San Francisco for me. (From my tourist standpoint, anyway.)

On the other side of the bridge there's one of those scenic points where people park and take pictures. It was a very large area, and the bus stopped there for a few minutes so we could take some pictures.



After our photo stop, we got back on the bus and went back over the bridge to San Francisco again. We went by the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. There was stuff in the park I wanted to see, like the Japanese Tea Garden, but there just wasn't time this trip. Along the way I took some video of the many gorgeous Victorian houses in San Francisco. They are also very expensive if you want to buy one! If I ever get super rich, I'm totally buying a Victorian here. I just love Victorian houses.



We also passed by Alamo Square, where the house from Full House is located - it's part of Postcard Row. I don't know why I don't have a picture taken of the houses, but I wasn't in charge of the camera, I was in charge of video, so I got some of that instead.



Next we saw city hall, which is the area where they finally stopped the fires after the earthquake in 1906.



After that it was on to Union Square! The bus stopped for quite awhile so we had some time to really see things - at least from the bus! This is the premiere shopping area of San Francisco - tons of high end stores, and in the winter they even have a (very crowded) ice staking rink.

A shot of Union Square - complete with a beautiful Christmas tree.

It was getting kind of cold on the bus at this point - for me, anyway. In order to see better we moved to the uncovered part of the bus. Brian let me have his coat. I still don't understand how he can have short sleeves on and be fine, and meanwhile I'm freezing my butt off.

Next we cruised by Chinatown and Little Italy. More places I wanted to check out, but we didn't have the time.

Chinatown Gate.

That's Lombard Street up there in the distance.

So we cruised around downtown, and then we headed back towards the Bay. We stopped at Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours leave for, and they were sold out until Wednesday! (This was Sunday.) We would be back later to take our tour, and we were looking forward to it.

After that was the last stop on the tour - Pier 39. This is a very touristy area full of shops and restaurants. We got off here because we had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe and they also give a AAA discount. Yeah for discounts!

The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away. I had never technically eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe before, believe it or not. (I say technically, because I went to one once at Foxwood's for a special corporate event and the food sucked.) Our server was really nice. They didn't really seem to have any awesome rock memorabilia that sticks out in my mind, but we enjoyed the music videos that were playing on the TVs scattered around. (Even though I totally don't wanna watch Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane" while I'm trying to eat. Yuck!)

I don't remember exactly what I had, but it was some kind of salad, and it was very good. I don't remember what Brian had, but it was either chicken fingers or a burger most likely. That's all he eats! After our meal, we used our coupon to get a free lanyard and we got a free sundae with the AAA discount that Brian enjoyed. Then we headed out back onto Pier 39.

It was crowded! This was definitely the most crowded area of the city we had experienced so far. There were people everywhere. As we walked along, I stopped a tiny puppet store and just HAD to go in. I'll admit it - I'm a fan of puppets. I used to collect them when I was a kid and they all had elaborate names (most of which I unfortunately forgot.) and sure enough I found a puppet I just had to have - a cute little rabbit!

There was a carousel right by the puppet store. I kind of wanted to ride it, because I love beautiful carousels, but I decided I'd better save my money.

Next I wandered into a candy store and bought a really expensive coconut cluster candy. It was like 3.50 or something. It was good, but not really worth that much. Brian had wandered into the Del Sol store - I was kind of surprised to see one in San Francisco. It's not exactly sun central there. But I guess one pops up wherever tourists tend to gather in large groups.

We didn't do too much more at Pier 39. We wandered into a couple more stores, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed back to our room. It was really crowded, and I wanted to rest a bit before our Alcatraz tour.

Huge Christmas Tree at Pier 39

COMING UP...

More hills?!

"I am not getting in there."

Getting all bundled up at the unhappiest place on Earth!