San Francisco Days 1 & 2

Okay, it has been four days since our last post and we need to update everyone on San Francisco and Napa Valley. This post will only address days one and two in San Francisco, which should be plenty. We touched down at Noon and the flight was great. Baggage pickup was uneventful and then we moved on to transportation. We decided to take the train because a cab ride was going to be expensive (and as we'll soon find out, very dangerous). We got to our stop (Powell Street) and the station smelled like urine. It was really bad. I was actually quite astonished at how dirty San Francisco was. We figured being in the "Green" capital of the world we would see an environmentally friendly place - quite the contrary. Aside from the absence of cleanliness, however, the town was very active and entertaining.

We first checked into our hotel (Hotel Palomar), which convinced Kim and I that boutique hotels are the way to go. We have stayed in a few and this one was like all the others - great. The room was small, but it was very nice. The staff was also very friendly and helpful (although they always seemed to run out of coffee in the lobby when we went down to get some).

Our first order of business after unpacking was to buy tickets for a night tour of Alcatraz. This proved to be difficult. We called on the 7th, the next soonest day they had a night tour available was the 26th - the day we arrive in Nebraska. Okay, so how about a day trip. The next soonest day they had an opening was the 18th - the day we land in Honolulu. Hmmmm. How about a combination Alcatraz and Angel Island tour - availability on the 13th, success! So we decide to stroll on down to Chinatown instead.

Chinatown was fun to walk through. There are what seems to be hundreds of little shops all over the place. Kim was on the hunt for a "Coach" bag (often times spelled "Goach"). There was little success in this area and she left empty handed. We did, however, make our way to House of Nanking. We were told this is the place to eat in Chinatown, they were right. What they lack in ambiance and customer service they make up tenfold in quality of food. We ordered egg rolls, sesame chicken, and sizzling beef. When they brought out the food there was no doubt in either of our minds that we'd need some to-go boxes. Thirty minutes later there wasn't a drop of food left on any plate (we were hungrier then we thought). So we strolled back to the hotel and plotted our evening endeavor.

We decided to make our way down to the tourist trap known as Fisherman's Wharf via the cable cars. Cable cars are an interesting means of transportation. They literally work on cables alone. There is a car on the street that holds the passengers. Underneath the street are miles upon miles of moving steel cable that a mechanism in the car clamps down on to move forward. As we found out, however, when there is too much weight on the car the clamp tends to slip and the car slides backwards down the steep hills in San Francisco causing everyone on the train to panic and the conductor to pull like a mad person on the breaks. We all lived.

Before making it to Fisherman's Wharf, however, we hopped off the cable car at Lombard Street to see the famous "crooked road." This was something else. First off, we got a kick out of seeing the various homes that lined the street and how the garages/driveways were arranged. Next, we got a kick out of watching the people drive down the road and the various comments from their rolled down windows - the favorite being, "It feels like I'm driving a giant go-cart!" From here we decided to walk the rest of the way to Fisherman's Wharf.

Upon arriving at Fisherman's Wharf we were inundated with three things: drag queens, juggling clowns, and silver painted men. This place was different ... "not that there's anything wrong with that" (for all you Seinfeld fans out there). We wondered the Wharf for several hours just taking in the sights and getting ideas for what we want to do in the coming days. A bay cruise and bicycle rentals were tops on the list. The rest of the night was relatively uneventful as we simply strolled the Wharf, took in the sights, and made our way back via the cable cars.

The next day we woke up and hit the ground running. First stop, Grace Cathedral. This place was amazing. If we had a church like this we would be there every day. The place is massive, very regal, and breathtaking. While we were there we had the honor of listening to this 12 year old who was playing the 7,500 pipe organ (one of the largest in the world apparently). Kim and I took a seat and listened for about fifteen minutes as he played, it was amazing. Next we walked the labyrinth and snapped some more photos.

We then walked down to the cable car museum. This is where we learned how the cable cars worked and saw the main engine room that ran all the cables in San Francisco. This was a fun learning about engineering experience. The one thing that struck me was an article they had posted from the 1940's talking about how the mayor back then wanted to close and dismantle all the cable cars because they were outdated. This really struck a cord with me, first off because I am glad his idea was shot down, but secondly because it illustrates something I wish we would see less of - trashing something historic and beautiful simply because it does not mesh well with modern design. What if the Sistine Chapel was destroyed because it clashed with modern local architecture or the Great Wall of China was dismantled because it was simply a nuisance? Because America is such a young country it is devoid of the many nostalgic icons found in other countries and a great effort should be made to hang on to those symbolic pieces which embody its historic beginnings. Okay, enough rant, more trip synopsis.

After the cable car museum we walked the rest of the way to Fisherman's Wharf to purchase tickets for a bay cruise. This was an hour cruise that took us under the Golden Gate Bridge, past Sausalito, and up to Alcatraz Island. The bay is beautiful. We took more pictures here then we know what to do with. And Alcatraz is an imposing looking island. After debarking we strolled Fishman's Wharf during the day, ate at Boudin's (famous for their sourdough bread), and watched the sea lions at Pier 39. We also checked out the USS Pampanito which is an old submarine from WWII.

We decided to walk home and on the way got a craving for pizza. However, being in a new town we couldn't simply order Papa Johns, we wanted something different. Instead we stopped in at a "hole-in-the-wall" place that smelled great from the outside. Thankfully, it tasted great once inside as well. This is where we met two "gender illusionists" (their term, not mine) who insisted that our waiter "was not cute enough to be a waiter." They have their standards. These "guys" were very funny and uncomfortably well dressed.

After dinner we made our way back to the hotel to get our rest for what would prove to be the most exhausting day of the trip to date.