Today, here’s what we saw behind us on our last cable car ride out of town.
And here’s one last link to the photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pvpQGq1HUr8hBmKa7
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Homeward Bound
It’s a wrap. We are at the San Francisco International Airport, waiting to board out flight back to Dallas. We rode the cable car to the BART train station and hopped off here. Now, it’s back to flat Dallas and working for a living, but never fear, there is more travel in our not-too-distant future. Until June, though, we’re out of the travel blogging game. We’ll check back in when our summer trip to Italy commences.
The wine bus we’ve been practicing for!
There is a company called Texas Winos. They take folks on a day-long bus trip to three different wineries around the part of Texas you’re in, along with a stop for lunch on the way. We’ve done the Winos tour from Dallas more than a few times, and we even did one out of Austin through Fredericksburg once. Yesterday, we went to real live California wine country, and by golly, it’s like we had been rehearsing all along. We stopped at one vineyard that was in the process of changing owners and names, so the glassware was emblazoned with a different logo than the wine bottles. No matter- it was all delicious, and the changeover was probably what prompted them to sell us some of their previous owners’ wines for so few dollars. We had a bottle to enjoy on the bus, just like we practiced in Texas.
From there, we headed to lunch in Sonoma. One of our fellow bus-riders commented that it looked a lot like the town square from Back to the Future, so Cas and I started to scan the place for DeLoreans. No dice. But there was an actual clock tower, so we suspected Doc Brown was still tinkering on his time machine, waiting for a stormy day. The lunch was fantastic- and naturally, there were wine pairings with each course. After that, there were two more wineries to visit, then back to the general area of Fisherman’s Wharf. We wrapped it all up with a seafood dinner and a walk back to the hotel. Today, we stuff dirty clothes into luggage and head back to Dallas, but maybe- just maybe- we can take one more ride on the cable car.
Here are photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pvpQGq1HUr8hBmKa7
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
I get it, Lorax- I get it…
We are leaving Muir Woods on a bus right now. Wow- I mean, what a pretty, pretty place. If you ever need a dose of humility- like you’re too big for your britches, stand at the base of an 800-year-old redwood tree. It gives you perspective. You, in relation to the planet on which you dwell, are small.
When looking for a trip out to enjoy some wine, Cas found the one that stops at Muir Woods.
I hesitate to use the word majestic- it almost always feels hyperbolic- but these trees were majestic.
We’re headed to a vineyard now, and a few more after that- and we’ve pre-ordered lunch along the way, but I just had to stop for a second and agree with Dr. Seuss’ famed Lorax, who spoke for the trees. I get it, Lorax. I really do.
What makes this town special
Let’s see, we left off at the Exploratorium. And we had to actually force ourselves to set a deadline- if we didn’t agree to leave by a certain time, we would have played all day. Normally, that is completely fine- even admirable- but we needed to make our way to a few more things before the day was over. So, we left at three. It would have been a little on the nose if we left at 3:14, but I don’t think that’s when we walked out the door. From there, we walked along the water for a moment until we found a pair of Lime scooters. We had used them before in a previous trip. We scooted all around Austin last spring, and yesterday seemed like a perfect day for us to ride again. We took them all the way back to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we intended to make use of our second day on the hop-on-hop-off bus. That took us to the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets. We thought about all the very cool, very San Francisco things we could see, and that one seemed pretty unique. Lots of places have shopping and financial districts. We have already visited the wharf. We’ve been to Alcatraz and near/under/across the Golden Gate Bridge. No other place we know of has a spot like Haight Ashbury. 
Honestly, it was cool, but we may have built it up in our minds a little. We popped into a bar and did a little people watching, but other than some very unique decor, it was a little uninspiring. No matter, Cas sorted out the city bus schedule, and we were off. For three dollars a piece, we took a bus, transferred to another one and easily made it to Chinatown. Fun facts abound. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in the US. They are proud of that, though they tend to gloss over how and why the Chinese first came out this way. We walked around, saw some very cool lanterns and temples and such, and made it to a fabulous restaurant called The Empress for dinner. The bartender was more of a craftsman- carefully constructing pretty garnishes and routinely setting things on fire. It was a great way to have our one meal in Chinatown. We had wasabi prawns, salmon and some seafood noodles. Oh my gosh- it was all spectacular. And for extra fun, I managed to eat noodles with chopsticks. First time for everything, right?
When we left Chinatown, it was a quick walk to the cable car line. We learned that the cable cars are actually using an underground cable to move, and the stops and starts are done by a grip man and a brake man. Although women are welcome to apply for these jobs, very few female applicants possess the upper body strength to do them. Only a few grip women have done it. We hopped on near Chinatown and took it to our desired stop, but it was late, and by the time we hopped off, the grip man seemed disinterested in collecting our fare. It’s all digital, anyhow, and I think the money guy had left for the evening at a previous stop. No matter, though- we will probably use that fare amount to get to the airport tomorrow. (Sheesh- tomorrow!)
Today, we hop on a bus that promises to take us to vineyards and redwoods. Oh, and it’s the Ides of March, so we will, of course, be on the lookout….
Meantime, here are photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pvpQGq1HUr8hBmKa7
Give me pi of that pie
It occurs to me that, if someone asks how much pie you want from a whole pie, you could ask for pi percent. I could go for 3.14 percent of a pie. Sounds like a good amount to enjoy.
Today, we went to the Expolratorium. Today was also Pi Day. It’s a math thing, and I married the math-iest guy of them all. So today, in month 3, day 14 of the year at 1:59 pm, the parade began. Every member of the parade at the Exploratorium had a digit of Pi to carry, starting with the 3.14159 and carrying on a very long time. The idea to celebrate Pi day was apparently born at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, when an employee named Larry Shaw had the great idea. March 14, through some great coincidence, is apparently also Albert Einstein’s birthday. It’s like he knew. Larry Shaw is gone, now, but his wife came to celebrate Pi Day in his favorite shirt with a pie pattern in its fabric. If a parade so silly could have a grand marshal, she was it.
We listened to a lecture on the history of Pi’s discovery and heard a few artists give their interpretation of Pi. We saw a quilt where each color represented a specific digit, and the squares were arranged in a spiral out from the center to display all the digits of Pi that would fit on a quilt. It was all pretty nerdy and cool. I am certain that I wouldn’t have set foot in the Exploratorium if I were in town with any other person, but I was there with Cas, and it’s a lot like when we went to the Museum of Math together. I really do think that has to be what it’s like to go to a fabric store with Vera Wang or something.
I do want to write about the rest of the day we just had, and I am sure I will do that in the morning, but right now, it’s kind of late. We’ll dive into Haight Ashbury and Chinatown along with our varied and strange modes of transportation in the morning. In the meantime, enjoy Cas in his element.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
A study in contrast
Alcatraz still houses the prison cells that most people imagine when they think of the island. In addition to that, there are still remnants of the 19-month takeover by Native Americans in 1969-70, done in protest to civil rights violations by the US government against native people. There’s a lot of crumbling remnants and souvenirs of struggle and misery everyplace you look on Alcatraz.
The thing that you don’t expect is how many flowers and birds you’ll see. The island is actually managed by the national park service and you are greeted upon arrival by a park ranger who reminds you not to touch any of the natural things or take anything with you. There are the eerie remnants of its former life tucked into the signs of nature retaking the space. It’s actually pretty cool.
Cas and I did a tour with a pre-recorded audio file narrated by former wardens and inmates. It was very well done, in fact. The tour took longer than we suspected it would, but we couldn’t just switch it off and walk away- it was really interesting.
The cells were really small, and the doors to get in were not too far above my head. I come in at at just under 5’5”, so I can assure you these are not tall doors. There were a few we could walk into, and we were invited to enter the solitary confinement cells, as well. I have to say, a field trip there as children may have been a proper deterrent to the adults who wound up spending their best years inside those walls.
After that journey, we found the entrance point for the hop-on-hop-off bus company. They had promised that, with the tour we booked, we would be able to do a walking tour of Chinatown at 1pm, and we were trying to hustle to get there. So, it turns out they don’t do the walking tour of Chinatown anymore. Meh. It’s okay, though- we were feeling a little pressed for time, and that deletion gave us room to operate at a more casual pace.
And by casual pace, I mean we did a two hour loop of listening and learning on the hop-on-hop-off bus. We just didn’t hop off. The route it takes is really, really long. It goes all around what turns out to be a pretty big city, then across the Golden Gate Bridge, then back again and into more of the city. Whew. I have to say, if it’s at all chilly out, and you’re on an open-top bus, you may consider stepping to the enclosed portion for the trip across the water. We were fine, but we’re typically pretty hearty when it comes to chilly air.
Today’s bus tour also let us see what we want to visit in earnest tomorrow. We have decided that, after the Exploratorium trip we have booked, we want to head to Chinatown for lunch, then check out Haight-Ashbury and the surrounding neighborhood. San Francisco is the home of the first Chinatown in America, if the tour info is to be believed. And no place I know of has a hippie neighborhood so storied and well-developed. Most of the other stuff- shopping, entertainment district, etc., exist pretty much anywhere. We believe we’ve singled out the best, most uniquely San Francisco things.
The last thing we did today was a sunset cruise. It had to be. No way we don’t do that with the sun setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge. The boat that we cruised on reminded us of two others from our summer. It seemed to be eerily similar to the boat from the architecture tour in Chicago and the one from the Circle Line Cruise in New York. We stopped off on the way to the pier to have a glass of wine, then we were off on our one and a half hour sunset cruise. It was great. We went past Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was interesting, as we had been on both of those things at different points in the day, and now, we were sailing near or under them. Still, very cool.
After that, we headed to the place where we had the pre-trip glass of wine. It was called the Chowder Hut and having not made dinner plans just yet, we took them up on their signature dish. Not sure how to San Francisco any harder than to eat two different kinds of chowder out of bowls made of sourdough bread. It was pretty amazing.
As for now, we’re in for the evening. It’s been a pretty full day, and we have big plans for tomorrow.
Here are our photos again- see you soon!
Time is on our side
First of all, if you are going to be a tourist, you should dive into the deep end of being a tourist. There is a reason that tourism is an industry. I suspect most interesting, touristy places could use a few dollars these days, anyhow- dollars have probably been scarce for a few years. The other thing to do- if someone recommends a thing- a restaurant, a site to see- do that. That person has a memory of the place that has lasted long enough to bother telling you. It must be worthy. On a strong recommendation from a family member, we went to a restaurant called Scoma’s for dinner last night. First, to get there, we walked up a street called Al Scoma Way. They named a street after the restaurant guy- must be pretty special. The walls were lined with autographed photos of celebrities and the waiters all wore white jackets. It was amazing food, and when you walk out the door, you see a second building that they use just for receiving the fish they serve. I get it- right on the water like that, you’d have to try hard not to serve spectacular seafood.
Here we are, on Al Scoma Way:
From there, we walked along the water for a while, then turned toward our hotel. It was a big day, and we wanted to rest up for today. The other thing is, we have no idea what time it really is. We flew from the central time zone, across the mountain time zone and into the Pacific one, and last night, the daylight saving time shift occurred- we have no clue if we should be as awake as we are yet, but we’re up and moving.
Today, we head to prison. We watched the 1996 movie The Rock before we headed out of town, and today, we will start off by going to Alcatraz. We have a tour booked, and I have my fingers crossed that an elite ex-military unit won’t hold us hostage to affect change from the government, only to be thwarted by guys like Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage. Now that I see that written down, it does seem pretty unlikely. Anyhow, I hope our tour is more informative and less eventful than all of that.
We follow that with some wandering-around time and a 1pm walking tour of Chinatown. Certainly, we will have an amazing Chinese lunch. This evening, we wrap up the day with a sunset cruise.
Cas was so smart when he chose a hotel, too. He picked something smack in the middle of all things tourist. We’re a block from the cable car, a few blocks from the water and just around the corner from the place where we find our hop-on-hop-off bus tour. We’re doing that instead of renting a car or taking an Uber or something like that, and we got a two-day pass before we left the house.
We’re just getting going, now- with a few moments built in for a bite to eat. I suspect it’s a bad idea to go to Alcatraz on an empty stomach. I haven’t heard good things about prison food.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
The warmest welcome
It’s a little chilly here- I mean, it’s 52 degrees, but humidity has a lot to do with how chilly those 52 degrees feel. Nevertheless, we got the warmest welcome. We landed, and a very nice lady at the airport asked us what we were trying to find, then directed us to the correct intra-terminal train. From there, a man at the Bay Area Rapid Transit station told us which train would do the trick to get us where we were headed, and finally, we hopped right on a proper San Francisco cable car. I felt like a jerk with luggage on a cable car, but everyone was super-nice. The conductor even offered to take a very fabulous tourist photo when we reached the end of the line.
I mean, look-
It was a great way to roll into town. Our hotel is around the corner from the end of the cable car line, and in addition to the luggage, we were a proper tourists all the way here, marveling at the buildings, the sights and the absolutely steep streets. Man, Dallas is flat….
The unexpected cool thing we saw on the way here was how they move a cable car at the end of the line into position so it can begin again. There is a section of track on a rotating platform. The cable car rolls onto the platform, then the crew manually spins the whole car around to flip it to the right direction for its next journey. So cool. So, that’s the unexpected awesome thing we got on the way to the hotel. We’re here, now and about to figure out where we want to eat dinner. I suspect there may be a little seafood or maybe some Chinese in our future.
Cas has officially kicked off our photo album, too, so hop in there and check out what we have seen so far:
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Searching for Tony Bennett's heart
If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair- and be on the lookout for Tony Bennett's heart. I hear he left it there. Had to get the song lyrics out of the way. And while we're at it... let's talk side dishes, because it's time to cook up a big bowl of Rice-A-Roni (the San Francisco treat!) and start packing our bags. Spring break is a few days away, and we have two tickets to San Francisco, along with a self-made itinerary of things we booked, complete with some wiggle room for things we find along the way. We'll head to wine country, check out some redwoods, cross a pretty famous bridge, hit up Chinatown for a little lunch and dive face-first into some great (and fresh) seafood. Then, there's Alcatraz, a sunset cruise and a trip to a place called the Exploratorium- we've got plans. It's Wednesday today. We have to get up and go to work two more times, then away we go!
For today, I think it's time to listen to some classic crooner music. Tony Bennett, anyone?
Here's a video, in case you need to listen to him, too:
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