City by the Bay, part 5

Climb every mountain, or street in San Francisco

This will be our last full day in San Francisco. We want to walk the twisty section of Lombard Street, and the online travel guides I’ve seen suggest that you walk from the top down, where Lombard meets Hyde Street.. 

I check with Google, and because our hotel is just three blocks away,  at Lombard and Van Ness, the only route it will give me is a walking route. No bus route runs along Hyde, though a cable car does.. "Quit being a wimp" Maps seems to tell me. "Man up and walk it." 

From our hotel to the twisty part is all uphill. And I mean uphill, steeper than any hill we’ve climbed yet. I take my action cam with me to record the trek. When we watch the video later, we find it’s 16 minutes or so long, Take off the part where we wait at the light to cross the street and about a minute’s worth after our arrival, and we needed a good 12-13 minutes to walk those three blocks. The views from the top, by the way, are spectacular.

Top: View from the bottom at the intersection of Lombard and Van Ness

Middle: Two blocks up, looking back (we still have a block to go)

Bottom: Looking toward downtown from Hyde and Lombard (All photos
by Sharon O'Connor)

This part has been dubbed the world’s crookedest street -- although it isn’t -- and it was immortalized in the old movie Bullitt, with Steve McQueen. The trek down the hill is aided by a reasonably graded set of stairs. You could actually begin at the bottom and have a fairly easy climb to the top with those stairs.

Traffic was relatively light compared with what it’s supposed to be on weekends, and there was no shortage of Mustangs (McQueen’s vehicle in the movie). Lots of people crowded the bottom of the hill, all with cameras or cellphones taking pictures.

Our walk to Lombard and Hyde, sped up. Real time video here

Descent. Several cars recorded making the turns. (Regular speed)

A cable car route passes by a couple of blocks east of the bottom of the hill. We had planned to hop on it, but the route ends two blocks away from Lombard, about two blocks short of Fisherman’s Wharf, so we walked down. At the end of the line, the car is driven onto a turntable. A worker pushes a lever allowing the car to be sided onto a short stretch of track, and then one or more men manually push the car around to face the other way for its trip back into town

.Turning the cable car

After watching this process, we return to Jefferson Street, planning to pick up an electric street car to our next destination, a science-oriented attraction called the Exploratorium. I check with G Maps, which tells me we need to go back a block to a pickup spot. But looking at the map the hotel gave us, it appears we could just go to the nearest stop, steps away, on Jefferson and hop a streetcar there. It should circle the block and take us right by our destination. 

There are two streetcar lines, E and F. The streetcar that pull up at our nearest stop is an F-line car, and I ask the driver if we can get where we want to go by hopping on that car. He tells us no, but he’ll take us to a stop where we can catch an E-line car that will take us there. I take it from his answer and manner that we can only take the E line, but I’m confused because the lines share the same track.

We have to walk to another stop from where he drops us off, and by the time we arrive, the E-line car is leaving. And the next half dozen or so cars that come by are all F-line. So we walk back to the stop Maps had told us to go to, but we have to wait through three or four more F-line cars before an E. Arrgh. Bet if I hadn’t asked we’d have got there eventually.

Once an E-line car shows up, we hop on and head for our destination. The Exploratorium comprises several sections, some inside, some out. The main building is essentially a big warehouse with experiments for visitors to perform. Although this part is supposed to be split into six themed sections, you only know when you pass from one to the other if you see the section number on the wall.

Unlike most museum exhibits, there is no flow, no set of signs that lead you from one demonstration to the next. Instead the experiments are scattered about on the floor, and you wander from one to the other. Some were interesting, others less so. One of the ones we like is the Slinky escalator. You start the Slinky doing it’s thing on a tilted, motorized belt, then adjust the speed of the ramp to keep the toy flip-flopping along. I can’t set the speed to keep the toy going in place, so it tends to creep up the ramp, causing me to slow it down and make the toy start walking down the ramp.

Playing with the Slinky escalator

I eventually tired of the whole thing, needing more structure, more learning instruction. Sharon was receptive to leaving, so we walked to the Ferry Building Marketplace, a huge historical building that used to be the focal spot for visitors arriving in or leaving San Francisco by ferry.

With the rise of automobiles and the creation of the two main bridges, the building lost its importance. But it was rescued to become a shopping area and a mecca for the artisan food community. We ate lunch at a fish market -- very good -- and wandered about for a while, stopping at a place that made cheesecakes, including packages with three bite-sized cakes that we indulged in. Yum. 

Top: The Ferry Building Market. A popular place to be

Bottom: Bicycle rickshaws are all over the touristy parts of Embarcadero
Street and the wharf areas, which are fairly flat. And they constantly solicit
pedestrians

We grab another streetcar -- F-line back to Fisherman’s Wharf -- with no trouble at all. When we arrive at the appropriate stop, Sharon rushes off the car and begins looking frantically around.

“We have to get to the water,” she says, fretting because she can’t see a way there. I want to know why, and she finally explains she had seen a number of sailboats with identical sails. I note that we are near the area where we’d boarded the tour boat a couple of days earlier, so we’re near Pier 39 and the sea lions. 

We scurry down to the end of the pier -- the seals were being quiet at the time -- and join a crowd of people who’ve gathered for the same purpose we’re there. A fleet of one-design boats are sailing around Alcatraz Island. We’re not sure if this is a race or what, but I quickly count 25 boats immediately visible. We know more are out of sight, so I guess 30-40 boats minimum are involved. It’s an impressive sight.

Sailboats and pelicans

From here we go have a soda, then catch a bus back to the hotel -- we’re just not up to anymore walks up hills this day. But our day isn’t over.

Sharon’s been wanting to be at bayside to take some sunset photos. So after resting up a bit, I ask if she still wants to go. I can be really dense. But I’m thinking that sunset will be the same time it is at home. It isn’t; it’s 10 minutes earlier. By the time we arrive bayside, the sun’s already down -- and has been awhile. Still, it’s twilight, and with the proper camera settings, we should be able to snag some interesting pictures. 

So we take some shots -- Sharon gets talked into taking pictures of a young woman who was struggling to take the selfie she wanted -- gaze at the scenes, and head back to the bus stop, where we have the same driver who’d dropped us off. He remarks that we didn’t spend much time in the area. He’s right, I’m sure, but it seemed like a fairly long time to me.

By the time we're back at the hotel, we agree we've had a good day, and though we haven't exhausted the sight-seeing opportunities, we've had a good visit and are ready to go home.

City by the Bay, part 4

Geeking out and misusing technology

We start the day a bit later than we did the one before, which coincidentally, started later than the one before it. May be a pattern forming. Also, as I dress, I find that my clothes fit more loosely. Hmm.

The plan today is to head to Golden Gate Park and go to the California Academy of Sciences. If we have time left, we may wander about some of the park. The first part of the plan will work out.

Interior of the California Academy of Sciences. I don't have
an exterior shot, Why not? I'm really sure, so the simple answer
is because neither of us took one.

The reason the second part doesn’t work out is because this is a fascinating place for science lovers. It combines a rainforest, an aquarium, a planetarium, natural history and a living rooftop, among other things. The rainforest was closed, but we still had plenty to explore.

A planetarium show was included in the admission, and we had a few minutes before the show started, so we wandered around a bit looking at some of the exhibits.

T-Rex skeleton near the entrance. (Photo by Sharon O'Connor)

Pretty sure this is a whale skeleton

A number of student groups had invaded the academy, and several organizations had set up displays, mostly climate and ecology centered, and pretty much geared toward the students. We picked up a free, LED light bulb at one of the displays while wandering around. Strangely, I seemed to know more about the relative virtues of incandescents versus fluorescents and LEDs. than the woman manning the booth.

Most of the exhibits are interactive in a variety of ways. One exhibit that fascinated me contained heavy, colored nylon strings, about the size of standing bass strings, in front of LCD displays. Each of the four strings was a different color and tuning, and plucking a string would cause the display to show a fact about that display’s topic. Each factoid remained on screen as the next string was plucked. If you strummed all four at once, all the information would display in rapid succession.

The planetarium show took us on a tour of the universe, with an emphasis on star formation. Interesting, immersive film, but not much new info for a former science teacher and her husband. When the show ended, it was time for lunch.

We actually ate lunch in the museum cafe, and like most of the meals we had, our food was locally sourced, organic, etc. It was also good, though I suppose it can be hard to mess up a pulled pork sandwich. A woman sitting behind Sharon with her baby provided me with a lot of entertainment while we ate.

We went to the aquarium after lunch, and though it covered much of the same territory as the Aquarium of the Bay, I enjoyed it more for some reason. Somehow the layout and presentation of information captured my interest better. No tunnels though.

In the reef section

An alligator snapping turtle. This guy was huge. The shells on these
animals can reach almot 3 feet. This specimen was every bit of that.

At a tidal pool display you were allowed to touch the animals -- gently, with one finger -- and like many aquariums they had a pool with skates and rays you could interact with. A couple of the rays would turn sideways along the rock edges and flap their fins against the rock. Not sure what that was about.

Looking at one of the exhibits, and a guest drops in.

We went to the “living roof”, which contains a number of features designed to reduce energy use and provide some illumination and energy to help run the academy. All kinds of plants grow on the roof, and excess rainfall is channeled away from the roof for later use. We finished with the mineral and gem exhibit.

The living roof. It covers 2.5 acres. The sign says the idea was to capture
the concept of picking up the ground and putting a museum underneath. (Photo
by Sharon O'Connor) Scroll to the bottom for more random pictures.

We’d eaten up most of the day and decided to return to the hotel, so I pulled up the bus route. GPS is one of mankind’s great inventions, but like any tool, it’s only as good as the person using it. I misread the map -- mostly because I assumed we need to go back the way we came, and led us out the wrong side of the park -- in the opposite direction of where we should have gone, in fact.  Sharon pulled out the map the hotel folks had given us and figured out why we weren’t finding the bus stop and then used it to figure out the best route to take. Once that was accomplished we grabbed an appropriate bus and headed back.

The route took us through Haight-Ashbury, the hippie haunt of the ‘60s, and past Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which was a flashpoint of the ‘70s in United Methodism with its support of the gay community and other liberal causes, but we only viewed them through the bus window. Our stop was less than a block from the hotel, so no steep climbs today.

Still, we tried to watch some streaming TV -- the WiFi was that good -- but I kept falling asleep during the shows and waking up for the endings. The night before, we’d tried to watch a movie I’d downloaded, and I nodded off frequently through that as well. I’ve gone back and watched some of what I missed, and everything made so much more sense. Go figure.

Only one day left. Right now it doesn’t feel like enough.

Parts of the park near the academy the we didn't get to see. Above,
the Music Concourse. Below, the deYoung museum, a fine arts museum.

Penguins, because who doesn't like penguins?

City by the Bay 3

We didn't leave our hearts, but they have plenty around town

On Tuesday we activate our three-day bus pass, which will last us for the rest of our stay. Once upon a time in Abilene I used the city bus system because we only had one car, and Sharon sometimes needed it. That experience did not exactly prepare me for using the Muni.

For one, Google maps didn’t exist. Now, you tell Google where you want to go, tap the bus icon, and you receive precise directions on which bus or buses to take, when the bus will arrive, how long your trip will be and where to get off.

For another, multiple buses run the routes -- at least the more traveled ones -- and you rarely have to wait long until a bus comes along. Also, you can only get off the bus at designated stops -- Abilene buses would let you off at the next block after you signal for a stop -- but the stops were always pretty close to our final destination. 

Today we’re going to the Golden Gate Bridge, and we make it our first stop because we want to walk for a while on the bridge. Another small craft warning is in effect for the afternoon, which means the walk will likely be more pleasant in the morning.

One suggested activity is to rent a bike, cross the bridge to Sausalito, and take the ferry back. My eye doctor told me that would take a significant part of the day, and we want to see some other sights.

Iconic view of the Golden Gate Bridge with a redhead walking by. Colors
aren't quite a match. Statue to the left is the bridge designer.

The plan is to walk to the middle of the bridge -- not quite a mile -- and come back. Bikes and pedestrians share the same area, with a lane for each. The two lanes are about the width of a car lane, with occasional spots a bit wider. And it’s two way traffic, which creates a need to be aware of your surroundings as more people show up and crowd onto the bridge.

The view from the bridge is spectacular. Several turnouts appear along the way, and I could hang out at one of those for hours, watching the boats and ships go by. At one point Sharon notices that a ledge below us is nearly covered with change. Whether tourists are throwing coins down there or losing money some other way isn’t clear. But the same area has caught numerous ballcaps, no doubt blown from their former owners’ heads.

Bridge tower from the walking/biking path

Some of the multitudes of crafts we see entering the bay. I looked
the weird orange things up -- they're Sail Drones, self sailing craft
used for oceanographic research. Given that they're supposed to be able
to sail themselves anywhere, I'm not sure why these were being towed.
Maybe just a faster way to bring them in because they only sail at 3-5 knots.

Further across, Sharon thinks she sees a small pack of dolphins in the water below. I manage to get a picture, and when we look at it later, the critters look more like seals or sea lions. After blowing it up on the computer for a better look, I’m leaning toward seals.

What do you think? Seals? Otters? Something else?

While walking back to the visitor center, we see a bridge patrol car move in front of the northbound traffic and begin weaving across the lanes causing quite a backup. I meant to ask why they would have done that but must have been distracted by a shiny object -- or maybe the giant brownie I bought at the cafe for a snack. At any rate, the question went unanswered, along with one about the money..

Another area our hotel hosts suggested we visit was Union Square, so we figure out the buses to take and head that way. We plan to grab lunch, check out the shopping and grab a cable car back to the bay.

The actual square is an island in a sea of tall buildings. One corner seems occupied by the hop-on/off bus companies, whose sales reps are kind of annoying. but the rest of the area contains a couple of cafes, lots of places to sit and relax, some interesting plants and a couple of Hearts of San Francisco painted heart sculptures -- a series of them scattered around town. Seems like a popular thing to do. I’ve seen painted cows, dolphins and a couple of other things I can’t think of now. Tony Bennett painted one of the hearts displayed at Union Square.

Union Square

Tony Bennett's heart

Two things stand out about the square. First is the giant Nike ad that overlooks the northeast corner -- the infamous Colin Kapernick ad. Don’t know if the company thought it would be well received there or if it was trying to tick people off.

Please, no comments. This is not an endorsement, just an illustration

The other was how quiet it was once you moved away from the bus people. This despite the number of people, and the amount of traffic. It was weird, but I guess the surroundings or the plant life or something soaks up the sound.

We find a restaurant nearby that offers American comfort food with a modern twist -- according to its own description. Sharon orders a wrap, and I pick one of their specialties, chicken pot pie. I order the small one and am glad I did when the server brings it because it’s pretty big. And to my taste buds, it is delicious. A light, flaky, almost croissant-like crust with a filling to die for.

Lots of stores and attractions are located in the blocks surrounding the square proper, but now we’re here we decide to skip the shopping and head for the cable car stop. The car is nearly full, but there’s room inside, not ideal for viewing, but the operator is a riot.

The cable car we rode. We want to go again and ride on the outside
but somehow never managed to pull that off. (Photo by Sharon O'Connor)

The view from our cable-car stop. Hills? What hills? (Photo by Sharon
O'Connor)

Just as we begin the trip, he begins yelling at a woman on the outside of the car, saying he was near-sighted and had forgotten his glasses. Could she read a sign for him? She didn’t seem to react so he tried again. Again, she didn’t respond, so he says, “The sign says don’t lean out of the car!”

A bit further on he starts shouting at someone on the street who wants to board. “No drinks! No drinks!” When the man hops on, the driver says, “Man, you dirtied up our city.” The man ignores the driver. I don’t know what the passenger did -- maybe tried to ditch his drink in a trash can, missed, and didn’t bother to pick it up before boarding?

Still a bit further on the driver spots a man selling nectarines from the trunk of his car, which is parked at a corner we have to stop at. He yells out that he wants a nectarine and asks the passengers on that side of the car to relay the message to the vendor. Someone finally does, and the nectarine is duly passed to the driver. He offers to pay the vendor, but the offer is rejected. He tells the vendor he’ll see him again the next day, if he’s there.

At still another point in the trip, he lets the car go flying down a hill and shoot up the next like a roller coaster, then breaks into a laugh and points to one of the passengers saying, “This lady had a tan when she got on today.” He is inordinately pleased with this joke and starts teasing the woman directly.

Operating the car requires a full-body effort on his part, both arms and leg come into play as he rings the car’s bell, pulls and pushes its levers, and stands on a big pedal that seems to be part of the braking system. Fun to watch.

We reach the end of the line and head back down to the piers. Pretty much each day will end down here. We love watching the activity on the water.

Another daily routine involves stopping in at McDonald’s to take a load off and drink a cheap soda. This one has a couple of the do-it-yourself, touch-screen ordering kiosks, which are apparently not widely available overseas. Many of the foreign tourists watch customers operate the kiosks with a kind of fascination, chattering and pointing at the device, and then opt to order at the counter.

We walk down to Hyde Pier, which is part of the National Park’s national historical maritime area. Several historic ships are anchored there, which you have to pay to view up close, but the park also offers several free exhibits. One involves a man working on restoring a wooden boat using traditional techniques. Today he is ramming caulk between the planks that make up the boat’s hull. Tedious for him but interesting for us to watch.

Hyde Pier, part of the Maritime National Historical Park. The boat
behind the sign is the Eureka, a steam-powered, side paddle-wheel ferry
built in 1890

After viewing the free exhibits, we decide to walk back to the hotel again. Those hills seem steeper, but we know we can climb them, so they are also a bit less intimidating.  This night’s sleep will be a good one.

City by the Bay 2

That big, red thing is kinda famous, according to the recording

We plan to take a sightseeing tour of San Francisco Bay and then visit Aquarium of the Bay. Online advice suggests taking the tour either early in the day or later in the afternoon to avoid crowds. Both are located near Fishersman’s Wharf, several blocks east of Ghirardelli Square. Our bus passes are good for three days, so we’re saving them for our last three days in town.

Let me say that although we take our vacations in September or October to avoid big, tourist crowds, apparently this part of September (second week) is still full-on tourist season. And it’s not just older people who have no children in school. Our fellow tourists are all ages and seem to come from everywhere. Our hotel sounds like a veritable United Nations at breakfast, and the same is true when walking the streets. We chat with a Slovenian couple, a family from Yorkshire, England, an Aussie couple and a few other folks with accents I can't identify and fail to ask about.

I check the weather forecast and see that there’s a small-craft warning for early afternoon continuing through 9 p.m., meaning the winds will be sort of high, so we decide to take the first tour of the morning. We arrive early and stroll the pier, taking more pictures and listening to the crowd of sea lions that have taken up position at the end of the pier across the water. Between them and the seagulls, the noise level is pretty high. Lots of people fish from the pier, but I don’t see anyone actually catching anything.

Fishin' and visitin' on a beautiful day/

Sea lions at Pier 39.

We board at the appointed time, joining what is indeed a smallish crowd. We take up position near the bow, pretty much by ourselves, but once underway quite a few folks come join us, pushing to the front for the best positions. Still, there aren’t too many passengers to prevent us from being able to move side to side and have decent views of everything being pointed out on the PA.

At one point on the way out toward the Golden Gate bridge, we’re joined by some dolphins, but they don’t stick with the boat and race on ahead. The tour narration makes quite a point about the uniqueness of the bridge and the various complications involved in building it. It is indeed a sight to behold, and like most famous, iconic places, is more impressive in person than in all the pretty pictures you’ve seen.

The narration went on an on about this bridge, like it was specialor something.

Fort Point, built during the Gold Rush era. It was slated for demolition 

when the bridge was being built, but the bridge designer wanted to save it 

and included a framing arch in the bridge design to save the fort.

We’ll go past Alcatraz on the way out and the way back, coming closer on the way back. (No, we didn’t take a tour of Alcatraz. Why? Because we didn’t. Same is true for any other attraction you don’t see mentioned later. We were tourists, but we didn’t try to see or experience everything, so some popular sites weren’t visited.)

Gentlemen, welcome to the Rock.

I believe that about covers it.

I can’t tell you much about most of the narration because I didn’t listen closely. I was there to take pics and soak in the sights, meaning I missed a lot of (probably cool) history. We didn’t see fog on this trip, but a haze seemed to hang over the city and bay most of the time, lessening visibility unless you were close. We sailed to the other end to see the Bay Bridge then headed back to the dock. By the time we returned most of the gulls had left, and most of the sea lions were asleep. 

See what I mean about the haze?

It was close to lunchtime by the time we returned, and Pier 39 was close by, so we decided to try a seafood place there. Several options were available, and we elected to go to the nearest one, Fog Harbor Fish House. Turned out to be a rather swanky place, where the food on the lunch menu cost nearly twice what we would ordinarily pay for a meal. But hey, we were on vacation, and everything seems expensive in San Francisco, at least in the touristy parts of town we frequented. Sharon had some sort of fish, and I had a shrimp dish that was so loaded with minced garlic that my mouth tingled by the end of the meal. It’s a wonder Sharon hung around me for the rest of the day. Days later I think I’m still exuding garlic, but that might be my imagination.

I found the Aquarium of the Bay to be vaguely disappointing in ways I can’t really express. But it was a cool enough place, especially a glass tunnel area on the lowest level that mimics the bay environment near the docks.

Hard to tell from this pic, but these jellyfish are huge.

We saw sharks and rays and all manner of fish. At one point I was quite surprised to turn and see a monster fish floating near the tunnel wall, staring at me at eye level. That guy was as big as me.Here's a vid of him swimming past a bit later.

The other display I really enjoyed was the river otters. The pair in the tank were quite lively and entertaining. One of them quite enjoyed doing back flips in the water.

Because we were right at Pier 39, we decided to check out the rest of its offerings. Pier 39 is a quintessential tourist area, and the travel guides often tell you to skip the concourse for that reason. The masses clearly ignore the advice. We spent quite a bit of time browsing the shops before deciding to head back to the hotel.

At this point, we are much farther away than the seven blocks it takes to arrive at Ghirardelli Square, but we plodded on, stopping occasionally at souvenir shops along the way.. The hills seemed a bit steeper this time, but we managed anyway. Sleep came easily this night.

Off to the city by the bay

Of chocolate and, well, who cares about the rest?

Our day started off with a potentially bad omen. I had set an alarm to wake us at 6 to finish the packing and head to the airport. Not much room for error in that alarm though. But I did something wrong, and the alarm didn't go off, or I slept through it. Woke 15 minutes late, which pretty much killed the padding I'd built into the schedule. I roust Sharon and we jump into hyperdrive, managing to leave at the end time I had figured for. Of course being Sunday, traffic was light, and we arrived at DFW in excellent time. We've been marked for precheck and speed through security. And our gate is just a short distance from the security exit. Ah, thanks be for providence. Nothing spectacular about the flight, though when we took off and they're retracting the landing gear, we hear noises like something falling off instead of the usual thunks. The plane didn’t turn back, and no announcements were made, so we assume everything’s AOK. We'd booked a ride share from the airport to our hotel, and our route provided us with quite a little tour, passing through industrial areas and an area with a good deal of graffiti on the buildings and an assortment of “colorful’ characters -- including one guy standing in the middle of the street doing something that might be considered dancing. At check-in, the ladies working the desk show us how to use the buses and cable cars to get to many of the popular attractions and give us a map with the routes. We’ve prepurchased a three-day pass for the muni transit system, and what with the map they provided and Google maps, we manage to travel where we want to go with only a couple of hiccups during our stay. One of the things the ladies mention is a chocolate festival put on by Ghirardelli in Ghirardelli Square, which is just a few blocks from the hotel. We put our stuff in our room and decide to walk there, having read how walking friendly San Francisco considers itself. That’s fine for the walk to the square because it’s all downhill, ending at the waterfront, which is pretty flat.

A section of the bay just off Jefferson Street and north of Ghirardelli Square.
You can't see them in this picture, but people are swimming around the buoys
in the middle of photo. A semicircular pier to the left helps create the opening
into this area. The National Park Service says the pier, built in 1929, is falling
into disrepair and is in desperate need of help

The walk back, on the other hand, begins with a hill much steeper than anything we encounter in Burleson, followed by another hill a little less steep -- about like the worst hill in our part of Burleson -- followed by an uphill climb that’s manageable but only because we’ve been doing aerobic work at the gym for the past couple of months. The street in front of the square is full of people checking out a line of booths that stretch the length of the square. Some give away chocolate, but at others you have to have a ticket to enjoy the treats. Tickets range in price from $35 for four tastings to $120 for access to everything. A couple of booths are dedicated to selling hot fudge sundaes and do a brisk business. And one or two booths are manned by companies other than Ghirardelli.

The chocolate festival in front of Ghirardelli Square. The company
was founded in San Francisco in 1852. 

We take advantage of the free booths, look at the rest, and then visit the shops in the square. The Ghirardelli shop stocks everything the company makes and also provides a variety of ice cream treats. One of them sounds pretty good -- chocolate sauce with cherry ice cream topped with more chocolate sauce and whipped cream sprinkled with mini dark chocolate chips. Those familiar with my warped taste buds may be surprised to hear that I suggest we split one of these wonders. My aversion to foods that taste really sweet has lessened in the past couple of years, so I decided to take a chance. The whipped cream hasn’t much flavor, taking on the character of the dark chocolate chips. The ice cream has a pleasing cherry flavor and contains big chunks of cherries. By the time we near the bottom, Sharon says I can have the last of the ice cream, and she’ll eat the rest of the sauce. Seemed fair to me. We stroll around looking at the other shops, stopping in on a couple. Then we decide to head back to the hotel, but on the way we notice a maritime museum building. Turns out, the building is part of a larger maritime historical park run by the National Park Service. We find that it is open and free, so we take time to view its displays.

This building is called the Bathhouse Building. It was built by WPA
workers in the '30s

The museum concentrates on ships connected to San Francisco -- what a surprise, eh? One curious piece is part of a ship excavated at the site of the Transamerica Pyramid when it was being built. Back in the late 1800s part of the bay had been filled in over a bunch of derelict ships, hundreds of them. The piece of hull on display was part of a ship that still had precious cargo aboard. The other display that fascinated me concerned a Japanese man who became the first from his nation to sail solo across the Pacific. His boat is on display, a ridiculously small looking craft whose size I never found out, though I later read on Wikipedia that it's 19 foot long. Looks a bit bigger than that to me. He’d been unable to obtain permission from his government to make the trip, so he had no passport, no visa, and no money. He snuck out of the harbor and sailed anyway. He was arrested on arrival in San Francisco for being an, ahem, illegal alien, but when the mayor heard his story, he was freed, given a 30 day visa and the key to the city.

The boat Kenichi Horie sailed solo from Japan to San Francisco.
His trip took 92 days.

Won’t go into the rest of the displays -- you’ll have to see them yourself -- but it was well worth the time. We also took some time to just take in the sights bayside, taking a bunch of pictures, including our first ones of that somewhat well known bridge that spans the opening to the bay. We finally made the trek back up the hill to the room and called it a day -- a good first day for us.