San Francisco
We had our complimentary breakfast at the Marina Inn. Not a very good breakfast but at least it was something to eat, wouldn’t want Min to get grumpy!
The first item for the day after breakfast was that we had to move car from the street to a parking lot. Parking in San Fran seems to be a problem as there are many more cars than spaces; also many hotels don’t provide parking. Still $22 was not much extra when we considered that we got the rooms for $45 a night near the centre of San Francisco.
We had a very big day planned with a tour on the ducks and then hire bikes and ride across the golden gate bridge. First though we did a bit of looking around the Fisherman’s Wharf area. Min and I both found leather jackets that we wanted. They were at least half the price we would have paid in Australia. There were a lot of touristy shops selling crappy souvenirs, so we really didn’t see much else we wanted to buy. Fisherman’s Wharf seems to be the tourist area of San Francisco so I am sure that there are nicer parts of the city if you are only there for a couple of days this is the place to go to get tours and hire bikes etc.
The first part of our day long adventure was a ride on the Ducks with Captain Jeff and toured through north beach down town then around the stadium and the bay. The Ducks are amphibious vehicles… well trucks really first built for WWII and they can move on land and sea, though to be fair not very well on either. They’re big and unwieldy but they give you a great couple of hour’s tour of San Francisco. Captain Jeff was fun and a great tour guide and the best part was we got Quackers. Quackers are a bright yellow duck bill shaped noise maker… needless to say Min loved hers.
Once we were done with our whirlwind tour of some of the central suburbs of San Francisco we needed some sustenance, so we ate ice-cream at Ghirardelli’s where (According to our tour guide) cocoa powder was first made.
After our healthy lunch of a chocolate fudge Sunday for min and a Banana Split for me (Mine had fruit in it, Fruit is healthy right?) we ambled back down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and hired bikes. We cycled along the water front then up some stupendous hills and across the golden gate bridge. The view of and from this bridge is spectacular to say the least
On the way back along the foreshore of the bay we saw a store called sports basement. Min and I both wandered around inside for over an hour. Min bought some running shoes and I bought myself another pair of Keen Sandals. This time though I got the Venice model. I have to say I had a very tough time fitting my Jacket, water bottle some gloves and a hat in my little bag once I bought the new sandals. Once we were finally on our way again out the back of the store we saw the canoes of San Francisco Outrigger Canoe Club. Everything was going well but we were starting to run a little late for returning the bikes.
We made it on time and returned the bikes before the shop closed. Next stop was to quickly go to Golden Gate Leather and buy the jackets we saw earlier in the day.
Then walked to north beach area and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. The restaurant ended up being quite a walk and after the long day already we were not only tired but starving by the time we made it to Pellegrini’s. Pellegrini’s is an Italian restaurant that was pointed out to us by Captain Jeff on the Duck tour earlier in the day. It may have been due to comparison but at the time it certainly tasted like one of the best meals we’d ever eaten.
After an excellent dinner we started off home on foot again. As we were walking down Columbus St back towards Fisherman’s Wharf we passed Lombard St and our hotel was on the corner of Lombard and Octavia and for some reason I suggested to walk back to the hotel via the more direct route of Lombard St. The problem with the walk ‘down’ Lombard St is that it goes over Russian Hill before descending to the relative flat area around our hotel on Octavia St. Lombard St climbs 88m in the space of a couple of city blocks achieving a grade of 27% on a stretch that has to have switchbacks for the cars to be able to safely drive along it. Anyway we walked over Russian Hill along Lombard St the crookedest street in the world (Captain Jeff recons that Lombard is the second crookedest street in the world behind Wall St).
Great day we saw amazing things but we were very tired.
We had our complimentary breakfast at the Marina Inn. Not a very good breakfast but at least it was something to eat, wouldn’t want Min to get grumpy!
The first item for the day after breakfast was that we had to move car from the street to a parking lot. Parking in San Fran seems to be a problem as there are many more cars than spaces; also many hotels don’t provide parking. Still $22 was not much extra when we considered that we got the rooms for $45 a night near the centre of San Francisco.
We had a very big day planned with a tour on the ducks and then hire bikes and ride across the golden gate bridge. First though we did a bit of looking around the Fisherman’s Wharf area. Min and I both found leather jackets that we wanted. They were at least half the price we would have paid in Australia. There were a lot of touristy shops selling crappy souvenirs, so we really didn’t see much else we wanted to buy. Fisherman’s Wharf seems to be the tourist area of San Francisco so I am sure that there are nicer parts of the city if you are only there for a couple of days this is the place to go to get tours and hire bikes etc.
The first part of our day long adventure was a ride on the Ducks with Captain Jeff and toured through north beach down town then around the stadium and the bay. The Ducks are amphibious vehicles… well trucks really first built for WWII and they can move on land and sea, though to be fair not very well on either. They’re big and unwieldy but they give you a great couple of hour’s tour of San Francisco. Captain Jeff was fun and a great tour guide and the best part was we got Quackers. Quackers are a bright yellow duck bill shaped noise maker… needless to say Min loved hers.
Once we were done with our whirlwind tour of some of the central suburbs of San Francisco we needed some sustenance, so we ate ice-cream at Ghirardelli’s where (According to our tour guide) cocoa powder was first made.
After our healthy lunch of a chocolate fudge Sunday for min and a Banana Split for me (Mine had fruit in it, Fruit is healthy right?) we ambled back down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and hired bikes. We cycled along the water front then up some stupendous hills and across the golden gate bridge. The view of and from this bridge is spectacular to say the least
On the way back along the foreshore of the bay we saw a store called sports basement. Min and I both wandered around inside for over an hour. Min bought some running shoes and I bought myself another pair of Keen Sandals. This time though I got the Venice model. I have to say I had a very tough time fitting my Jacket, water bottle some gloves and a hat in my little bag once I bought the new sandals. Once we were finally on our way again out the back of the store we saw the canoes of San Francisco Outrigger Canoe Club. Everything was going well but we were starting to run a little late for returning the bikes.
We made it on time and returned the bikes before the shop closed. Next stop was to quickly go to Golden Gate Leather and buy the jackets we saw earlier in the day.
Then walked to north beach area and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. The restaurant ended up being quite a walk and after the long day already we were not only tired but starving by the time we made it to Pellegrini’s. Pellegrini’s is an Italian restaurant that was pointed out to us by Captain Jeff on the Duck tour earlier in the day. It may have been due to comparison but at the time it certainly tasted like one of the best meals we’d ever eaten.
After an excellent dinner we started off home on foot again. As we were walking down Columbus St back towards Fisherman’s Wharf we passed Lombard St and our hotel was on the corner of Lombard and Octavia and for some reason I suggested to walk back to the hotel via the more direct route of Lombard St. The problem with the walk ‘down’ Lombard St is that it goes over Russian Hill before descending to the relative flat area around our hotel on Octavia St. Lombard St climbs 88m in the space of a couple of city blocks achieving a grade of 27% on a stretch that has to have switchbacks for the cars to be able to safely drive along it. Anyway we walked over Russian Hill along Lombard St the crookedest street in the world (Captain Jeff recons that Lombard is the second crookedest street in the world behind Wall St).
Great day we saw amazing things but we were very tired.
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