Rich woke up again this morning. It’s a great day for a vacation.
The guys tried to sleep in this morning. I let them go until 8:00, but we needed to hit the road. Today, we were driving into San Francisco. The drive was only a couple of hours, but I felt like we had a lot to do when we got there. So they grumbled a lot and crawled out of bed.
After breakfast, we made a stop at Target because someone forgot their body wash. I know, I know. I had it on the counter, but it never made it to the bag with the bath stuff. I had a small bottle in my cosmetic bag, but that ran out with this morning’s shower. After that, we finally hit the road.
Driving the expressway for a while, it all came back to me on driving in California. I hadn’t really been here since 1990. If you strung all the time together that I spent in California over the years, I had lived here for almost a year. Back when I was here in 1989, I got to love the place. Not many places where you could Christmas shop in shorts and flip flops.
Before we got to Oakland, we stopped at the rest area and overlook. You could kind of see the city, but it was still pretty far out there. You could really see the valley where everything sprawled out in front of you though.
We had to go through the toll to get on to the Bay Bridge that took you from Oakland into San Francisco proper. The lines were long and everyone kept jumping lanes in front of people. Finally, we paid our money and started over the bridge. This was the bridge that fell from the top deck to the bottom deck during the 1989 earthquake. That was a horrible thing to see.
The GPS took us off the expressway and right into the heart of downtown. I had been worried about getting into the city streets, but it was quite easy and things flowed well. We got out to the Embarcadero and moved around the outside of the city. There you could see the landmarks and the people.
The Transamerica building is still in the skyline. You could see the Coit Tower standing on its hilltop. We saw a naked guy riding his bike along the piers. Yep, totally naked as a bluejay and nothing covered. We went by the Get In Here! diner. I think it had another name, but that’s all I could see on the side.
We finally got around to Beach Street and made our way to Mason Street. Our hotel for the next days was on the corner. The Wharf Inn is an older hotel, but it had free parking and was right there with Fisherman’s Wharf. I didn’t think it turned out too bad. We pulled in and talked to the guy at the front desk. We were three hours early for check in, but he let us park and sign in.
We went out to Fisherman’s Wharf to start our tour. We’d only gone a block when we came across Dave Earl, sitting on his stool, at the corner of one street. He was playing R&B and Blues. He had a wonderful steel guitar and he made the music sound so good. Rick and I moved on, not realizing the Rich wasn’t with us. He soon caught up.
We walked out to the end of one pier and looked at Alcatraz and the sea lions. You could hear the barking from the lions, but not have to experience the smell. We started back to the sidewalk, but Rich wanted to go back and see Dave. We backtracked a bit and listened to him play. Dave had a very nice handlebar mustache that was properly waxed into place. Rich wanted a CD, along with several other people. Dave commented on Rich’s Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall t-shirt. Rich picked out a CD and we were on our way again.
Pier 39 is a large, open air mall with small shops, restaurants, and cart vendors selling all kind of things. We wondered along the bottom and then moved to the upper level. I found an interesting crystal shop and saw a ring that I liked. I knew Rich didn’t like to shop, so I thought I’d better move on. But we couldn’t find him. Turns out, there was the Beer 39 store around the corner. Rich was standing in front of the bar eyeing the list. I told him if he wanted to drink I had some things to look at. He was delighted and found a seat at the bar.
So I went back to the shop with Rick. We looked through things and I found a ring I liked. Meanwhile, Rich had finished 2 of a 4 beer sampler. So we left him to finish that while we went on to a couple of more shops. In the Enlightenment store, Rick found a Chinese jacket he liked and bought. We went into the Forever Ireland store, but found nothing we had to have. We returned to find Rich had a half of a full pint in front of him. I was beginning to think he was enjoying his afternoon too much.
Rick had noticed a young sailor in uniform standing by the doorway to Beer 39. Apparently, a couple of young Russian guys stopped him and asked to take their pictures with him. He seemed surprised but flattered. Not long after, a couple from somewhere else wanted to take their picture with him. He seemed surprised to be so popular.
Getting Rich out of Beer 39, we went to eat a late lunch at the Eagle Cafe. This cafe has been in this location since 1928. The food was excellent. Rich and I got a plate of oysters. They tasted great, but the shucker wasn’t very expert and there were shell pieces in them. Rich had no trouble finishing them off. Rich had a Pyramid Hefeweizen. I had an apricot ale.
We hit the street again. With no real direction, I decided to head for Chinatown. We took one of the roads headed in that direction. Soon, the street was going straight up. We continued to climb until it crested somewhere about Lombard Street. From there, it went downhill.
At the beginning of Chinatown, there was an orchestra of traditional Chinese musicians outside of a Hong Kong restaurant. The music was very interesting. I just didn’t see how they got all of those sounds out of 2 strings! The street was very crowded with people and some of the stores had their wares out in front. It was all very colorful with so much variety.
One of us had to stop for a bathroom. We were told to go to the park where the public restrooms were located. The park was full for Chinese people of all ages. The children were running around chasing each other. The older people were playing cards and some other traditional games. Some kids were sneaking up behind pigeons and throwing snappers at them. Of course, I jumped everytime one hit the ground.
I talked Rich into getting a good luck cat for his bar. He agreed and we went off in search of some place to buy one. This is one of those cats in Chinese restaurants that waves its paw, like a ticking clock. He found a squat, fat, white cat that was a little different from the normal ones you see. I guess if it’s right paw is waving, it is for the home and the left paw is for a business.
Time to start back to the hotel. Unfortunately, Rich had a headache. Probably from all of the wine he had to drink the night before with Larry and Fran. Looking at the map, we determined that taking the diagonal street would get us to Mason Street faster. Turns out, the diagonal street also had no hills on it. We passed Lombard Street again and could see the part of the street that had the switchbacks. There were a line of cars driving down from the top.
At the hotel, we got our key and loaded up our stuff to take upstairs. Finding a home for everything for the next two days, Rich and Rick decided to rest a while. I sat down to start this blog. We’ll have to go out later for dinner and look around some more.
Sorry, no pictures of the naked guy, but we take pictures of some other sites.
