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Published: July 20th 2012
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After 2 days of walking everywhere, Alisa and I decided it was time to rent a car. Between her back troubles and my blistered feet, it was high time. We also decided we'd be able to cover a lot more ground during that time by being able to drive to random locations that were too out of the way to walk to and would have required public transit to reach.
SOOOOOOOO worth the money! We had Enterprise pick us up at our hostel in Fisherman's Warf (we had to switch hostels today) and drive us to the car rental place. We paid up and signed our lives away and then threw all of our stuff into the trunk of our Hyundai Accent (cute little white car) and were off.
I was driving and Alisa was my fabulous navigator. I'm not so good with maps and after driving in Tegucigalpa for 2 years, we decided this was a good choice in roles.
Our first location was Coit tower. To get there, we decided to go the route where we would drive down Lombard Street (the crooked one we walked down yesterday). Fun times. Coit tower itself was alright. We
had read about a museum but there was no museum... only historic murals painted around the walls. The view from the top was 360 degrees and you could see the whole city this way. Not sure it was worth the $7 entry fee though. They also had one of those street toilets that is self-cleaning. It wasn't working though. (We saw 2 or 3 more throughout the day and decided that using one of these must also be added to the to-do list).
After Coit Tower, it was off to Alamo Square which is the park across from "The Painted Ladies" which are the old Victorian houses shown in the opening of the TV show "Full House". Alisa and I danced around in the park singing the song (okay, so I did most of the dancing). We then were off to find 1709 Broderick Street to find the real Full House house that is shown in the opening. We found it but it was random with no one else around. We weren't sure we had the right place other than the string the owner had tied across the steps leading up to the front door so that no one
would go up them, and the lady pulling down the blinds in the top window as we took photos. Sure she's not thrilled to be living in the Full House house. If it were me, I'd have signs posted, saying: "This is the Full House house!" and charging people admission to peek in my front door. hahahaha.
Next, we head to Haight and Ashbury - the famous intersection from the 60s. We didn't spend much time in this hippy neighbourhood. We more or less just drove through it.
Then it was off to find a bakery called "Hot Cookie" in the Castro District. We were told they had phallic cookies as well as the "best snickerdoodles in the world". We did find this place and they did have awesome cookies. They also had a Wall of Fame with tons of half naked people showing off the Hot Cookie underpants. lol. The service was a little stiff. No pun intended.
After Castro, we head to Mission district. Our goal here was to find one of 2 Honduran restaurants that we had read about online and eat some yummy Honduran food. We did find one called "Los Catrachos" (what
The Painted Ladies
aka the Full House houses Honduran people call themselves) and ordered baleadas (homemade floor tortilla filled with refried beans, crema, cheese, eggs, chorizo, avocado, etc), tajaditas (fried green plantains with cabbage and beef and sauce on top), and jugo de melon (fresh melon juice). SOOOOO GOOD! The server was also so intreagued with us speaking Spanish and the fact that we had lived there. She was from Choluteca area and has only lived in San Francisco for 6 years so was happy to talk about her country. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.
After that we drove around the Mission area for awhile, taking picures of the murals on 24th street then stopped at Dolores park where tons of sunbathers were lying in the park. It was like a grass beach with everyone lying out, and some in bathing suits tanning! We then walked a block or two to the Mission Dolores church. We didn't think it was worth it to pay the money to enter (especially since it was closing in 15 minutes) so we just took pretty pics from the outside.
Then it was back in the car and heading off to the next location. We headed for the Golden Gate Park.
We wanted to see the Japanese Tea Garden. It was also closing in about 15 minutes but the lady said it takes about 25 minutes to walk around and we could stay inside a little longer. We decided to pay the $7 to enter, but again, I can't say it was totally worth it. It was a lot smaller than we imagined. Pretty, but nothing extraordinary.
We also went to see Huntington Falls (a small waterfall on a little island at one of the lakes in the park), and both windmills that were VERY large and look like the old dutch ones you see in pictures.
It was then time to head to our new hostel that we're checking into for the next 5 nights. We pulled over to the side of the road with our hazzards on (downtown hostel is in a very busy part of downtown with no parking) and unloaded our stuff into the hostel as quickly as possible, then got back in the car to drive it to the drop off location back in Fisherman's Warf. We were SOOOO glad to have rented a car for the day. We did so much that we
Castro District
AWESOME cookies at Hot Cookie! would not have been able to cover otherwise.
Once we dropped off the car, we decided it would be a good time to take the cable car back to downtown. This fulfilled one of my dreams... to hang off the side of a cable car while singing the theme from Full House. Yes, I was obsessed with that show back in the day and am seriously considering buying all 8 seasons on DVD.
We're now checked in at the same hostel chain (Hosteling International) but at their
Downtown location . We have a private room at this one (which we are so happy about) and really like our room. It's small but it has a bunk bed with a double at the bottom and single on top. We also have a closet and a sink, so we're able to lay out our stuff (instead of keeping it locked in a little cubby under our bunk bed) as well as brush our teeth and stuff in our room. We still have to share bathroom and shower, but even that is a single room instead of a giant bathroom with stalls. We're glad we started at the other one with the
dorm room and have moved up in the world with this room.
The plan for tomorrow is to meet up with my friends Jennie and Eric (with whom I taught my first 2 years in Tegucigalpa) and their two kids. Should be a fun day. I'm so excited to see them again. They were teaching in Columbia this past year so it's been a year since I've seen them. Jennie and I taught fourth grade together. I missed her dearly my third year.
We've done so much and yet still have the best to come: Chinatown, Alcatraz, Muir Woods, and Napa Valley. Looking forward to what's still to come!!!!
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