Rain rain go away. My vacation lasts for 2 more days.
Posted by
CovingtonCat
Jun 25 '13, 08:08
|
After breakfast at Mel's yesterday we hopped on a bus to get to Fisherman's Wharf. Wow, there's a lot more there than there used to be. We walked for several blocks past stores & restaurants before we got to the heart of the Wharf - at least the part I remember (with vendors cooking crab in booths on the sidewalk). Same old touristy goods in the stores, only more expensive. Saw a cool t-shirt (Kilban cats) but for $32. Um, no.
Walked still further to get our tickets for the Big Bus tour. I had a coupon for a 2-day ticket for the price of a 1-day. We thought this would be a good way to get around the city to the places we wanted to see. I could leave the car at the motor inn and, once we had the tickets, could get on and off the bus a block from the hotel. These are open top buses which we took for the first time last summer in Philadelphia. You can see so much more and the ticket allows unlimited on and off.
First stop, Union Square, where we walked to Chinatown. (The official Chinatown stop was on the loop back.) So far the weather was cooperating. We wandered in & out of stores and looked at lots of menus with no prices until we found a hole in the wall that looked popular but had decent prices. A lot of the restaurants we passed were offering dim sum, including this one, offering dishes at $2.50 a plate. We opted instead for the special dim sum combo plate for $8. It had some basic items - fried shrimp ball, BBQ pork bun, potsticker, spring egg roll, fried pork dumpling & swwet sesame ball. It also came with wonton soup. Good deal!
On the way back down to the Chinatown gate it started raining. When we stopped at Walmart in San Jose I forgot to buy umbrellas. No problem, since every other store on Grant St was selling them for $3.99. When we got back on the bus at Union Sq we were given rain slickers so we went back up to the top (which was pretty much the only option since all the seats downstairs were taken).
The bus covers a lot of ground - from Fisherman's Wharf, thru North Beach, to Union Sq, then the Civic Center (city hall), Haight-Ashbury (wow, has it changed since I was a kid), Golden Gate Park, thru the Presidio, across the Golden Gate & back, thru the Marina District (where the tour guide told us the Dateway was - the Safeway for singles), up Lombard (but not the crooked street part), back downtown to Chinatown & the business district, then up the Embarcadero back to Fisherman's Wharf.
We got back to Fisherman's Wharf just in time to scoot across to pick up our Bridge to Bridge cruise. Fortunately it had stopped raining. While we waited in line we watched the boat bounce on the water - not just little sways but big bounces. Not for the faint of stomach.
Because of the weather there were few people on the boat. We had the front of the boat mostly to ourselves. We were anticipating a good view of the Golden Gate as our bus guide had told us the fog usually burns off by the afternoon. Not this day. Before long we were surrounded by fog and could no longer see the shoreline. Lots of fog horns going off. Then all of a sudden the bridge looms just ahead. It was pretty dramatic. You couldn't see the top. We went under then swung around to head back into the bay, all the while the audio tour was describing the Marin Headlands and Tiburon and Sausolito and Angel Island - none of which we could see.
Next on the cruise was Alcatraz. Because we were further into the bay we could see it clearly when we got close. (We'll be on it later today - rain or shine.) Then out to the Bay Bridge and back to the Wharf. It's a good tour, especially if you find the discount ticket site I did. Even with the fog and overcast skies the views of San Francisco were pretty cool. I'll post pics when I get home. Oh, almost forgot, it rained off & on.
After we got off the boat we wandered back up where the old restaurants are. Wow, are they pricey. There were lots of people on the sidewalks, many getting food from the vendors, but it seemed the restaurants were not full (probably because of it being a Monday night but I'm sure the prices didn't help). We settled on Lou's Fish Shack, just a ways off from the old center of the area. (for JenBro: http://lousfishshacksf.com/menu.html) The crab bisque was very good. My friend had fried calamari and fish & chips. He said there wasn't a lot of fish inside the breading. I had the Seafood Linguine. It was good - not a lot of fish, mostly little shrimps and bay scallops (but lots of both). I also had a couple margaritas. Total tab with tip, $115.
Then a short cab ride back to the hotel.
Today we're skipping the bus and taking the car out. It's supposed to rain off & on for part of the day. (Yesterday it wasn't supposed to rain when it did.) We're off to the Asian Art Museum and City Hall, maybe walk Haight-Ashbury (depending on the weather, but now we have umbrellas), then hopefully the Japanese Tea Garden (again, dependent on weather), then back to the waterfront for the boat to Alcatraz. Then dinner on or around Pier 39. I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for parking because the bus tour takes so long to make the loop around the city that I'm worried we'll miss the boat (as we nearly did yesterday).
And, miracle of miracles - the sun is out right now. Off to breakfast!
|