Friday, July 22, 2011: Having our ups and downs
After an uneventful power walk, I got back and the glass guys showed up to fix the rear window in the truck. The glass guys were actually a little bit early, how odd is that! It is fixed and must spend the day resting...
We are only a couple of blocks away from a BART station (don't confuse this with our dog!) so off we went to navigate the public transportation system of the bay area. My idea was we would take BART to the Powell exit, then hop on the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf, where maybe we could get the boys on a trip to Alcatraz. Great idea... poor reality!
We caught Bart (at $7.10 round trip per person... the truck is looking better and better). We got to the Powell exit and saw the line to get on to the cable cars. In the olden days, you could just jump right on for $.50. But now you have to wait in line... a really long line... and pay $6.00 for a one way ticket! I would say that the crowd was lively, but the reality was it was darned crowded! I had the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other... The devil said just walk! It is much faster! The angel said... hey, the boys need to have the San Francisco experience. Go with it. So that is what we did. Which really is a good thing since the hills we would have needed to climb might have killed us!
When we got to the wharf area, we separated. All males went to In-N-Out and all females (oh, it is only me!) had cioppino in a restaurant called... Cioppino's! Cioppino is a seafood stew in a tomato base. Crab, clams, mussels, and other seafood are all part of the deal. It was good, but not nearly as good as my friends Jim and Mariee Mitchell. Nobody compares to them!
We walked through the wharf area, including pier 39. There were only a few sea lions there. There used to be hundreds, now there was maybe a dozen. They think the sea lions fled for the Channel islands, down by us in southern California. We checked on trips to Alcatraz... the next opening was on August 6. Needless to say, the boys will just have to miss out on that one. The wind was ripping through the bay. There were major whitecaps and choppy seas. It was sunny, but the wind made it cold. But the second you were out of the wind, it got hot! And wow, it was crowded!
We walked down the embarcadero, then headed into China Town. China Town in San Francisco is like being in another world. Once you cross the imaginary line, the entire flavor of the town changes. There are 'local' men playing a type of chinese chess game. Actually, there are several groups of the gaming guys. The shops have all sorts of odd things from dried sea cucumber to dried deer tendons (one of my personal favorites...). The knives and swords interested the boys some. It is definitely an interesting visit to another land right in our own country!
We then headed back to our Bart station. This required climbing one of those hills that have got to be at a 30% grade or better! Slowly we climbed... we huffed... we puffed... No power walking this one!
We left the boys to go see a movie. They had their return tickets, so we trusted them to find their way home. Us old folks made our way into the subway station. I kind of felt like someone was playing bumper pool with my brain. We tried to use our return tickets, and they were rejected... Oh, wrong line. We went over to the Bart side, and the tickets still wouldn't take. Oh... there is a red light at the bottom. Let's try the green turnstile... duh! Hey, we were tired... And we did make it home without sleeping through our subway stop! And the boys made it home ok too.
After an uneventful power walk, I got back and the glass guys showed up to fix the rear window in the truck. The glass guys were actually a little bit early, how odd is that! It is fixed and must spend the day resting...
We are only a couple of blocks away from a BART station (don't confuse this with our dog!) so off we went to navigate the public transportation system of the bay area. My idea was we would take BART to the Powell exit, then hop on the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf, where maybe we could get the boys on a trip to Alcatraz. Great idea... poor reality!
We caught Bart (at $7.10 round trip per person... the truck is looking better and better). We got to the Powell exit and saw the line to get on to the cable cars. In the olden days, you could just jump right on for $.50. But now you have to wait in line... a really long line... and pay $6.00 for a one way ticket! I would say that the crowd was lively, but the reality was it was darned crowded! I had the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other... The devil said just walk! It is much faster! The angel said... hey, the boys need to have the San Francisco experience. Go with it. So that is what we did. Which really is a good thing since the hills we would have needed to climb might have killed us!
When we got to the wharf area, we separated. All males went to In-N-Out and all females (oh, it is only me!) had cioppino in a restaurant called... Cioppino's! Cioppino is a seafood stew in a tomato base. Crab, clams, mussels, and other seafood are all part of the deal. It was good, but not nearly as good as my friends Jim and Mariee Mitchell. Nobody compares to them!
We walked through the wharf area, including pier 39. There were only a few sea lions there. There used to be hundreds, now there was maybe a dozen. They think the sea lions fled for the Channel islands, down by us in southern California. We checked on trips to Alcatraz... the next opening was on August 6. Needless to say, the boys will just have to miss out on that one. The wind was ripping through the bay. There were major whitecaps and choppy seas. It was sunny, but the wind made it cold. But the second you were out of the wind, it got hot! And wow, it was crowded!
We walked down the embarcadero, then headed into China Town. China Town in San Francisco is like being in another world. Once you cross the imaginary line, the entire flavor of the town changes. There are 'local' men playing a type of chinese chess game. Actually, there are several groups of the gaming guys. The shops have all sorts of odd things from dried sea cucumber to dried deer tendons (one of my personal favorites...). The knives and swords interested the boys some. It is definitely an interesting visit to another land right in our own country!
We then headed back to our Bart station. This required climbing one of those hills that have got to be at a 30% grade or better! Slowly we climbed... we huffed... we puffed... No power walking this one!
We left the boys to go see a movie. They had their return tickets, so we trusted them to find their way home. Us old folks made our way into the subway station. I kind of felt like someone was playing bumper pool with my brain. We tried to use our return tickets, and they were rejected... Oh, wrong line. We went over to the Bart side, and the tickets still wouldn't take. Oh... there is a red light at the bottom. Let's try the green turnstile... duh! Hey, we were tired... And we did make it home without sleeping through our subway stop! And the boys made it home ok too.
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