Michelle stayed with me for 3 more days. We continued our touristy adventures and vacation. January 1st was pretty typical. We lounged around and recovered from our 5 day marathon and New Year's Eve. Michelle had a little more "recovering" to do than me, but I was happy to be taking it easy. The Jo(h)ns left and it was just the three of us.
January 2nd we were more focused. We got up and took the first ferry to to the city. This is a nice ride because the views of the Golden Gate, Bay Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and the city are so pretty. We got off the ferry and took a mile and a half walk down the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf where we planned to hop on a double decker tour bus and learn about my new home. We love these things!
So we got our tickets and waited for the next bus to leave the station. We of course get stuck with a man with the thickest Asian accent ever we couldn't understand what he was saying. It took all of our energy to make out a couple of words here and there. We decided we were going to hop off in Chinatown anyway since we did hear the guy tell us that Chinatown in San Fran is the biggest in the country. So Michelle got right to her phone and started researching some good places to eat. There were two places the bus would allow us to get off in Chinatown he said, so we waited to hear when he would give us the option. Next thing you know we are in the North Beach section of city. HELLO!! Ugh. So we finally made him stop with a few other angry passengers who wanted to get off in Chinatown also, and made our way back to our lunch destination.
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| Entrance to Chinatown |
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| Mmm Sweet & Sour Chicken and General Tso's with some green tea and rice. |
After we finished we took a walk to the place we were supposed to get off in the first place and waited for the next bus. On our walk back through Chinatown, we walked through this area where bunches of men were gathered around different game boards. We tried to get a closer look to see what they were playing, but we didn't recognize. It was as if they were playing checkers, but in groups like poker or jacks. Anyone have any insights to what this is?
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| Chinese games |
While waiting for the next bus, a woman sat down next to us while her daughter and grand-daughter went inside the hotel we were in front of to go to the bathroom. In true Northern California fashion, she started talking to us and told us about some neat shops you can get beautiful dishes they use in the Chinese restaurants for very cheap. When her family came out, she asked us if we had ever had flat fortune cookies. We had never heard of them. Her grand-daughter had just bought a bag, so she said we had to try them. Just then our bus was pulling up and they were practically throwing their cookies at us. We took some, thanked them, and "hopped on" the bus. So nice. And they were good! Oh thank heavens... this tour guide we could understand! He was from Boston. Still an accent, but much more tolerable. He asked us where we were from and then on the mic asked us if we ever learned not to take food from strangers. We thought that only applied to candy. Oh well!
We learned a lot more on this bus trip than the first one and I will try to convey as much as I can remember. Let me know if you see any inaccuracies.
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| City Hall |
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| Union Square - Shopping District |
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| 3 Witches |
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| R.C. Church where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio took their wedding photos in front of. Were actually married in city hall because Catholic Church has strict rules for divorcees. |
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| Steps and Door leading to front of Church |
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| Colombus Street - longest in city |
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| Starting to get a little chilly! |
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| Coit Tower in the distance |
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| The Bookcase Buildings. Designed to look like books. |
Other random facts:
The San Francisco Bay is not actually a bay because it has both fresh and salt water - which means it is an estuary
Population on the peninsula is 840,000
North Beach section is considered San Fran's Little Italy and is the safest section of the city. Ironically, populated mostly by Chinese
The famous rotating restaurant on the top level of the Hyatt is no longer open to public. Must be a guest of the hotel to dine there
Financial District is built on top of old abandoned ships
There are like 491 steps up to the Coit Tower - on my bucket list!
Buildings in the Wharf section can't be higher than 4 stories so they don't block the million dollar views people behind them have paid for
We could have stayed on longer, but it was getting pretty dark and Greg called to tell us it was time to meet him and Matt for dinner. We hopped off the tour bus, asked a valet at a hotel where the real bus stop was, ran over and literally just made it on to the bus that would take us all the way to the other side of the city. We ate at a beautiful restaurant on the Pacific Ocean, first built in 1863, called
The Cliff House. We would have seen a beautiful sunset if we didn't get there when it was already dark. We ended the day with delicious dinner and wine and went home exhausted.
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