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Published: June 19th 2007
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Pier 39
That's Alcatraz in the background. This is going to be a longer entry, but I’ll do what I can to make it interesting (unlike much of the rest of this blog).
San Francisco was amazing. We took a bunch of pictures while we were there, and we’ll see how many Sarah will let me put up on the blog. Anyway, I’ll return to our story - already in progress. OK, the lounge car attendant just told me that the outlet I’m using on the train is prone to shorting, so this might be a shorter entry than anticipated.
Day two in San Francisco was pretty packed full. We started out walking through the Yerba Buena gardens near the Museum of Modern art. It was pretty cool walking around in the middle of town and being surrounded by vegetation and life. In fact, I’d say that San Francisco is pretty unique among big American cities in the amount of plant life there is there. Trees everywhere, flowers, gorgeous landscaping - it’s awesome. The thing about it is that all this vegetation, combined with the nearness of the sea, gives the air a fresh smell that you don’t often get in major metro areas.
Zoltar
Sarah getting some advice. He didn't make her big, though. So we walked through the MoMA and saw all the art and pictures and stuff - it was pretty interesting, and I’m sure this section of the entry would be longer if Sarah was writing it. After the Museum we walked out to the waterfront and walked up along all the piers. We stopped by Pier 39 and checked out the sights there, watched a few street performers and watched the sea lions sun bathe on the docks to the West of the pier.
We continued walking west along the water away from Market Street toward Fisherman’s wharf. Fisherman’s wharf was pretty cool - all sorts of life with stands selling sourdough bowls full of fresh clam and crab chowder. Crap, I totally forgot - After leaving the Museum we didn’t walk right to the waterfront, we went to Chinatown. Crazy how it all blends together, but I’ll do a few words on Chinatown. For me it was pretty much exactly what I expected. Lots of little shops selling touristy things, with a few shops selling really nice Chinese products and a bunch of jewelry stores selling what looked to me to be unverifiable and overpriced jewelry. It was
Cherries
There were fresh fruit stands all over the place. This is from Pier 39. quite an experience walking along Grant Ave. and just taking in all the bustle of the street.
We sat in a tea shop for a tea tasting where the guys explain all about tea, how to make it, how long to let it steep and to forth. It was really interesting to watch them make all the different teas and explain what they were for and describe the flavors of the teas - pretty fun. Then we went down to the Waterfront and wandered around, missed the Cable Cars and took the ferry home to Tiburon where we ate at well-known place called Sam’s looking out over the bay back toward the city.
Day Three in the Bay Area was, for me, the best. We started off with a trip to Alcatraz where we did an audio tour and learned a lot about the place. I never knew it was a military fort, and never knew about the Indian attempt to possess the island - pretty cool. The surprising thing to me about the island is just how beautiful it is - lush plant life and a bird sanctuary create quite a striking disconnect and help to explain
why imprisonment there would be so miserable - surrounded by such beauty and able to access none of it.
One of the inmates on the audio tour described what must have been the most hellish experience for a prisoner. On New Years eve, the inmates could hear the yacht club parties, music, people laughing and having a good time. All this was going out right outside their windows - pretty crazy.
After Alcatraz we had lunch at the Boudin bread factory restaurant. Watched the ships going through the Bay as we ate our chowder from Sourdough bread bowls - I ate the whole bowl. Then we started the longest hike - bring up mapquest to get an Idea of what I’m talking about. We started at the northern foot of telegraph hill, and took the stairs up the face of the hill (a couple hundred feet up). The views from Coit tower were well worth the effort, though, as you can (hopefully) see in some of the pictures I took.
From there we walked down Lombard Street to the section of Lombard known as the crookedest street in America. It’s a really picturesque place, though the pictures
don’t really do it justice. Landscaped with hydrangeas of all kinds of colors, it was fun to walk around and take a few pictures. From there, Coit Tower is a tiny blip standing ontop of the distant Telegraph Hill.
From the top of Lombard, we walked down Hyde Street to the Buena Vista where Sarah enjoyed a couple of their famous Irish Coffees. I opted for Gin and Tonic, needing something cool after the hike. From there we made our way back along the Waterfront heading east this time until we got to the Fog City Diner, where we had dinner and a few drinks.
The thing I couldn’t get over about the Bay Area was that no matter which way you looked or where you went you had a tremendous view of something. Either you looked out over the Bay, back at the city, at interesting architecture, beautiful trees, or the Mountains across the bay. Unbelievably gorgeous.
OK, one other awesome thing that happened. We were walking along Fisherman’s wharf and a street hussler approached and offered to shine my shoes (they’re suede tennis shoes, so it was quite an odd offer).
Anyway, he then
told me that he bet he could tell me where I “got” my shoes. He offered to bet $2 that he could tell me, so I accepted. I figured either he’d be wrong and I’d have $2 or he’d be right and I’d be very impressed. He then told me that he was a man and you should never bet a man.
He then said that he didn’t say he’d tell me where I bought them or where I purchased them, but where I “got” them. “You got them right here in San Francisco - they on your feet.”
“No,” I said, “I have them here.”
“Man, you just don’t want to pay me, you know you lost.”
“Learn your language, got doesn’t mean that. I have my shoes.”
“Man, that’s bullshit, your language”
(walking off) “Learn your language!”
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Penny
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Cody????????
Cody Cody Cody.............I see how it is. Sigh, left at home when you went to Hawaii and left at home when you go off on this cross country vacation and now you have a "new buddy"? Argh, I've been replaced! Whats a dog gotta do to get some attention from you two? I'm having fun, too. Ryder has shown me how to drink from the birdbath and tomorrow he's showing me how to drink from the toilet!