Greetings from San Francisco...

17th Feb, 2008

Greetings from San Francisco.

The flight over on Southwest was fine, about the first leg that has actually been on time for the whole trip so far.

We arrived at around 3pm and caught a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel room is fine, but it suffers badly from following on after The Palazzo suite, we were so spoilt by that room!!!

Like all good tourists, we headed off to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner via cable car....


The Cable Car ride is intriguing. I just can't imagine OH&S laws in Australia would let people just jump on the outside of a vehicle, stand on a 12 inches wide wooden platform and start careering down a hill a foot or two away from traffic coming in the opposite direction, hanging onto nothing more than a railing. the part that is hard to believe is that it happens here in the US, the absolute home of the dopey litigation claims. Go figure.

At our final destination....



We ate at a seafood place that Clive and Lorraine realised they had eaten at 20 years earlier when they sat down and saw the view. Clive was having trouble reading the menu in the soft lighting, so borrowed Dianes reading glasses. They suit him, don't you think??



We returned to our rooms for an early night after a late final night in Vegas the evening before and a tiring flight to SFO. I managed to get a live audio feed of the Swans/Hawthorn match on the internet, but was so sleepy I fell asleep at half time. I awoke in the morning to find out the Swans got beat by just 2 points. Considering the very inexperienced team we fielded I was quite happy until I read that Nick Malceski did an ACL (knee) and will miss the rest of the season. I was instantly gutted.

We all walked to Union Square for breakfast this morning. Union Square is about 5 blocks from our hotel, fortunately all downhill as this pic of a passing cable car shows....



On the way about 2 blocks from our hotel is a 'nude male revue'. Clive reckons the theatre is very aptly named. I have to agree....



At Union Square we passed an eatery that had a lineup of at least 50 metres. This was at 09:30 in the morning!!! During the course of the day we found plenty of evidence that San Francisco folk have no qualms about lining up for quality food or restaurants.

After breakfast we took a taxi trip to a Sports warehouse that has among other things a large variety of ski equipment. We walked out with thermals, gloves, liners and neoprene face masks.

We jumped a cab to Sausalito via the Golden Gate Bridge....



Sausalito is a quaint little village with no shortage of expensive arty crafty type shops. A highlight of Sausalito was some guy who balanced rocks on the shore, much to the amazement of a crowd of onlookers. I have to say it was an impressive display....



The attempt....



The result....



Whilst walking back to catch the ferry back to San Francisco Wharf we walked past the local hamburger shop. Earlier in the day we looked thru the window of the shop as burgers rotated on a circular grill. Again we had evidence that the locals are prepared to lineup and wait for quality....



The lineup to get on the last ferry back to SFO wharf was seriously massive. There are any number of places where you can hire a bike from SFO and ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and cruise all the way downhill to Sausalito. To avoid the trek back uphill to get home, you can take the bike back on the ferry. As you can see, half of San Francisco decided to ride the bike to Sausalito today....



We returned to San Francisco Wharf at about 6pm. The girls cut loose in Walgreens, a drug store that sells just about anything, for the best part of an hour. Makeup, medication, just about anything 'chemisty' is way cheaper in the US and the girls took full advantage. Just outside of Walgreens is the end of the Cable car line....



.... and the line starts it's climb up to Nob Hill and ultimately down to Fisherman's Wharf. Our hotel is right in the distance at the top of the hill....



We then jumped a taxi to Chinatown. We asked the driver to take us to somewhere nice and without further ado drove us to the House of Nanking, supposedly one of the finest Chinese restaurants in San Francisco, which itself has the reputation of being the best Chinatown in the US. So we have been delivered to the best and guess what, there was a lineup to get in....





We were advised by the taxi driver to just let them order for you, they will just bring out nice dish after dish. At first we took that advice with a grain of salt, but whilst waiting in line we became chatty with a young local couple who claimed this was the best Chinese restaurant in SFO. They told us we must order the 'pan stickers' and 'sesame nanking chicken' but after that the house would probably choose the meals for you. This appeared to be a weird local custom that the restaurant chooses what you want to eat, but we thought we'd see what would happen. However, upon seeing the menu we decided we want this, we want that, we also want the other etc. The boss appears to take our order. Lorraine orders the sesame chicken and pan stickers, she begins to order something else and the boss snatched the menu from her hand and say's "first time?...I look after you, don't worry" and takes off before we can say anything leaving us all rather shocked, but also amused.

The meal was delicious, although a tad more expensive then we imagined it would be. When we left, guess what, the line had grew....



Taxi back to the hotel room, after dinner drinks and coffee and it's bedtime.

Tomorrow Clive and I will head to Alcatraz whilst the girls head to some shops...there's a shock!!!

Janet, rest assured, Lorraine has been racking up the shoe purchases. The last count was 4 I think, but one of those pairs has interchangeable top straps, or something like that I don't really understand, so she reckons she has bought 8 different pairs so far.