Today started with a ham & mushroom egg bagel whilst having a lazy morning in the hotel as we were out late last night then we headed off out about 10am, I didn't realize that I could have got a bus near the hotel that we could have then changed from to the #19 that runs along Polk Street but you live and learn I suppose. What I had planned was to get off the 19 bus at Lombard Street then walk a couple of blocks up the hill to what is claimed to be the bendiest road in the world. This bit was always going to be the toughest part of the day as to no matter what way you approach the top of this hill from its steep and when I say steep I mean at 45-degree angle going up and the cars park sideways. Even if you don't have any problems walking it's difficult to get up it. It turned out that there was no way Jane would be able to make it up this 2 block walk and the only other option is to get a cable car up here and Jane has problems getting on them as the steps are high. No matter there were other places to go today
and it would have added at least 2 hours to our day so we walked down what was left of Polk Street and went into Ghirardelli Square. This use to be a chocolate factory but now a mixer of luxury shopping and high-end restaurants with the upper floors converted into apartments. There are still two Ghirardelli retail shops within the square that is spread over 2 split levels and there is generally somebody at the door giving away free samples so we went in both and got one from each, we then had to go back into the first one again to use the elevator to go down on level so got another sample. I said to Jane we should have bought disguise to keep getting free
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| Aquatic Park |
chocolate. We then left there and when you come out at the bottom you are in the Aquatic Park area so I parked Jane up to catch a bit of sun and I walked it along the Municipal Pier that curves round into the Bay and gives a good view back to the land. From there we went to Hyde Street Pier to see if we could find which building the Earthcam camera is on that we have been watching for many
months on the tablet and we managed to find it. Just across the road is the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and Museum which is free to enter so spend some time in there before having a look in The Cannery which is just down the road but there only seems to restaurants in there plus we got harassed by a crazy guy a couple times so carried on down through Fisherman's Wharf, as the name suggests this is the main fishing area and seafood restaurants which neither of us are fond of but
they have some unique things down here like Musée Mécanique which has gaming machines from the past 100 years or so and most of them still work. Now it was feeding time so stopped at Macdonald's for a quick bit too eat then crossed the road to buy a coat that I had seen on
Pier 39 the other day, with that done we crossed back to catch the F line streetcar back to Market Street. This is never a pleasurable experience due to the number of people that cram into it but they have now introduced an E line that runs all the way along Embarcadero but doesn't go up Market Street. Unfortunately most people can't seem to understand this so have to be told 7 times and when it finally sinks in they won't get out of the way so you can get on so ended up pushing our way through, the idea was we get this one that has only a few people on then get off at the Ferry Building and walk across the plaza, this is where most of the buses start from and catch one of them which worked like a dream. The driver of the streetcar was really helpful got out the drawbridge out so Jane could get off at the elevated stop. As these things were built in the 50s and come in all shapes and sizes they (think of the old Blackpool trams) you can't build a raised platform that can be used by the all so they have their own purpose made platform that they get out of a cupboard onboard and spans the gap to the raised platform, the only downside is that this then reduces the size of the doorway to about 4 feet so you will need to duck down to get off, not perfect idea but I can't think of a better one for historical trams that run a normal commercial service. We could see the next F tram coming up behind so hung around to see how many were on it and they were rammed on tight. The idea of running the E tram was to take the loading pressure off the F line and do what we did. As luck would have it and a little help from the internet and free WiFi there was a #9 bus about to leave in 5 minutes so jumped on that up to Kearney Street then went in the Crocker Galleria for some more of Jimmy John's sandwiches which were quickly consumed along with a beer as it would be rude not too. By now it was about 5pm so after a sit down for a bit until 6:30 we then talk a walk to Giants dugout shop which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, even though the Giants suck AGAIN this year we still would like to get some bits and bobs, unfortunately, this is only a small shop so only carries a
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| Cako cupcake |
limited amount of stock unlike the one at the ballpark so didn't find what we were looking for but it was not wasted trip as one block down on O'Farrell is Cako which sells the best cupcake you will ever eat, even though they can get a bit messy and at $3.50 each plus tax are well worth it. By now Jane's leg was hurting so a little a bit of cunning planning went like this, outside Cako the #38 stops it doesn't go anywhere close to the hotel but if you ride 2 stops in the one-way system then cross the road and catch the#30 two stops the way you just come in a different one-way system it stops just around the corner from the hotel. So now I have my beer in hand in the thermal flask (or big cup) but my have to go out to get some more soon. Today was also Cinco de Mayo but they are having the main celebration to tomorrow down the Mission District in Velencia Street which is closed to traffic from 21st to 24th streets so that where we will be tomorrow.
