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Published: December 15th 2010
Grey and overcast with intermittent showers and light showers...
Breakfast was at Boudin's as shown in one of the accompanying photos. Sandy had the 'larger' breakfast. Seems take any ordinary meal you can think of and toss it in a hollowed out sourdough loaf and your onto a winner.
The plan for the day was Exploratorium and then into Chinatown...that was the plan anyway.
Decided to walk from Pier 39 along the waterfront to Aquatic Park and then over the hill into Fort Mason and along the Marina to the Exploratorium...turned out to be a 'just because you can see it doesn't mean you can walk to it' event. Well almost. First hint it was a decent walk was from the African American wharfie who hung up on his Mum to give me directions...sounded like Mum was giving him a serve and he needed an excuse to hang up.
Asked again what 'language' I was speaking and when told him we were from New Zealand said, "man, ain't it summer there, what the hell you doing here in this?" to which I referred him to my wife. We asked for confirmation of the way we were headed for
the Exploratorium and he gasped, "Your walking? Seriously?". He said there were buses and we could see that, but a walk along what the guide books referred to as 'cliff tops' seemed like a good way of seeing some more of the Bay. He thought 40-45 minutes would do it. That didn't seem to bad.
Have to say the people here, apart from the drunks and the stoners - and even the stoners are okay when loaded, are very friendly and extremely helpful. People have gone out of there way to offer directions and not the ones I am generally used to!!
The 'cliff tops' turned out to be a small rise around a bluff at the end of Aquatic Park. Good views today as there was less fog but it was very dark and bleak so not much chop for taking photos in the main. From the top of the bluff could see Alcatraz to the right and the Golden Gate to the left.
Went through Fort Mason Park...more of a paddock someone mows occasionally - and then down to the marina. Stopped in at Safeways supermarket to pick up something and confirmed with the checkout
operator that we were headed in the right direction for Exploratorium...her response, "your walking? well okay then". 5 minutes later, walking down the road casually taking an occasional glance at the map when a guy approached us to see if we needed directions. Asked about the same location, got the same response!!
Along the way were very well presented Town houses and we ended up walking through some of the side streets on our casual pedestrian sojourn. This would seem to be the right side of town, or at least one of them. No issues here with uniformity as there was everything from Tuscan villa style through to Alice in Wonderland and a lot of very stately homes...but enough of Town and Garden. Suffice to say it was a nice part of town. The Howick of San Francisco no less perhaps!
15 minutes later we got to the Exploratorium. This structure is apparently the sole survivor from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and is cast in a neo-classical style adorned with a large dome surrounded by a classical array of frieze. There are also some Corinthian columns there...yep! Its pretty impressive, if just a little confusing in this location.
We went into the exploratorium planning to do a couple of hours and head off to Chinatown. We left shortly before closing at 5pm!. It is easy to see why this is San Franciscos number one rated childrens attraction. There are no fun rides, video games or amusement park type entertainment...just hundreds of hands on interactive science experiments which captivated 6 and 8 year olds and entertained those in their 40's also. Fantastic stuff with something for everyone. Displays on sound, light, electricity and just about anything else scientific or mechanical gets some minor degree of explanation. I now have a much better idea about the workings of a combustion engine! Everything is interactive and unbreakable.
Came out of there to light rain so caught the bus back to Ghirardelli and walked on to Fishermans Wharf. Dinner at a seafood restaurant on one of the piers. Same one kids where the kids ate at the outside cart yesterday. Again great food and reasonable. Crab cakes for $17 but with the choice of either shrimp cocktail or chowder and served on wild rice with vegetables, kids went for fried prawns..again, but also with chowder, fresh vegetables and fresh bread.
Too cold for buskers and even Treeman was hibernating!!
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Andrea
non-member comment
great update
Hi guys, thanks a lot for taking the time to update us on your adventures, much appreciated! The boys are very interested too - mainly in the photos ;-). I guess walking and Americans does not mix!! Take care - looking forward to the next blog.