Good times

If
I hadn’t known better, I could have sworn I was in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  San Francisco was not warm by any means, in
fact, it was downright cold first thing in the morning.  That’s right,
colder than Victoria.
Go figure.  Anyway, we had another fairly early start that morning and
made our way to the base of the cable car run.

The
pickup point was surrounded by a sea of tourists waiting intently for the next
cable car.  On arrival, the car was placed on a turntable and rotated to
face the other direction.  At the loading dock, it was a race - a race to
see who would have the fortunate opportunity to hang from the car for dear life
all the way down to the Fisherman’s Wharf. A silly species we are … but of course, we did the same when it was our
turn. We were able to get a couple poles
on the left side of the car.

As
the cable car got on its way, we quickly realized that these things don’t leave
much room between cars and cable cars passing by. I was tempted to walk onto a car, or step
over to the adjacent cable car just to say hello to the fellow tourists. No joke … leave your hand out when a cable
car goes whizzing by and don’t expect to be shaking anyone’s hand for the rest
of your life.

Honestly,
it was kind of fun when the cable car climbed the hills. Apply the brakes, clamp onto the five inch
cable running under the street, and wait … wait until the conductor releases
the brakes and hold on for dear life. The cable car shoots forward up the hill like Wile E. Coyote looking for
some extra go from a giant elastic band. Oh and of course, Ash and I attempted a photo during all of this …

Finally,
we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf only to be greeted by a very strong head
wind. Did I mention it was freaking cold
down there? We got some food for
breakfast … speaking of which, I’ll let this rant go right here. Why is it that every restaurant down in the
states have the best ‘x’ in the world? Anyway, after breakfast we booked it towards Pier 39 in hopes to find
some tickets to Alcatraz. Already disappointed that we couldn’t book
any tickets for the Alcatraz Night Tour, we admitted defeat when we were told
the day tickets were sold out for five days. The only other resort was to pay $50 per person to some of the private
vendors; we simply didn’t want it that bad. So, it wasn’t meant to be … what do we do?

Sourdough
- that’s what San Fran is known for. A
brand new Boudin Bakery store (http://www.boudinbakery.com/)
attracted our attention first. As we
passed by, we were attracted by a healthy number of tourists with faces pressed
against a lat of floor to ceiling glass windows. On the other side were a couple of bakers
crafting sourdough turtles and bears. It
was certainly a nice sight. Just inside
the main doors you find yourself in the main foyer with a café on the left hand
side, bakery on the right, and stairs leading to a second restaurant and bakery
tour. Suspended from the ceiling were
baskets of sourdough bread destined to the café from the bakery. The interior of the café was a food lover’s
delight. Walls lined with numerous
breads, the café had a full menu ranging from salads, sourdough pizzas and of
course, clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. Determined not to leave San Fran without have some chowder, we grabbed
an early lunch and ate out on the pier.

Despite
our determination to avoid some of the major tourist attractions we’ve seen in
the past, we decided to go find the famous twisty road on Lombard in the Russian district. In a mere six
blocks from the water, the elevation change is quite amazing – the incline must
have been at least 45 degrees. With the
fog burning off earlier in the morning, the sweltering heat didn’t help as we
made our steep ascent.

Walking
back down the hill was the first part of our reward. The second? A visit to Ghirardelli Square. For
those who don’t know who Ghirardelli are (I certainly didn’t know about them),
they’re a manufacturer or premium chocolate since 1852. The square is a definite must see for
chocolate lovers at heart. There are
multiple chocolate shops where you can purchase all of their products from
squares, bars, fruits, etc. Furthermore,
be sure to stop in at the ice cream shop for their World Famous Hot Fudge
Sundae or Golden Gate Banana Split. At
the very least, grab a free Chocolate Square sample as you enter one of the shops =)

After
the chocolate activities, we found ourselves on the San Francisco street cars which run from
Fisherman’s Wharf along The Embarcadero to Market Street with a final stop in the
Castro. The San Francisco street cars, which date
back to 1912, have become quite the attraction as well and popular commuting
method for local residents. With wooden
seats, old school ads and dedicated tracks weaving between normal traffic, the
street cars were a delight and they were quite enjoyable for me.

The
Castro was our final destination on this trip – the city’s gay district. You know you’re somewhere different when you
see rainbows everywhere all of a sudden, increased male population, and sex
shops directed towards the male gender. If you’re a homophobe, you’re definitely not missing anything by
skipping the area. Anyway, we went for a
quick jaunt around a few blocks anyway. It was a fairly nice area nonetheless.

After
a long 22 block hike (2 km) over trademark hilly San
Francisco terrain, we found ourselves at the massive Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately for us, it was 5pm and all the sites were closing. You could spend a day here in itself taking
in the 1017 acres of green space. The
park consists of numerous gardens (tulips, rhododendron, ferns, poppies, Japanese,
flowers, etc.), sport activity areas (archery, tennis, soccer, golf, fly
casting, model boat lakes, bike trails, boating, volleyball, etc.), animals …
the possibilities seem endless. It’s
definitely a place I’ll have to go back to visit again when there’s more time.

Being
dinnertime as it was, we decided to start making our way back towards
downtown. While we were on the bus, we
unexpectedly found ourselves going right through the main strip of Haight-Ashbury. It
was an area that seemingly eluded us earlier in the day but we were happy to
have found it this time around. Jumping
off the bus quickly, we looked to explore the area a little more but had to get
a little food in first.

While
we were eating in a local Thai restaurant (which was fairly good btw), we were
told the stores were closing within the hour. Disappointed, but determined to make the best of it, we ordered a plate
to share, ate quickly, and bolted out the door. The hippie town was quite cool, though the clothing stores were more
geared for the female gender. Nevertheless, I did find a little Japanese figurine store to keep me
busy for a little while – you know me, a sucker for good animation!

At
7pm, we decided to make the trek back downtown and call it a night though we
promised to try and visit the area again the next day.

“What? Three hours
late? We were only an hour late
yesterday and we should have caught up time over night! What happened?”

With an expected arrival time of around 8:30am, we were up
at 6am to make sure we were packed, ready to go, and had something to eat in
the dining car. We weren’t too pleased
to find out we were so late – it was cutting into our San Francisco time!

So, we had some extra time to kill. One of the first items in the morning was
food and it’s something that I missed in the last post. Because we paid extra for the sleeper room (a
somewhat ridiculous amount btw), we had complementary food and drinks. Honestly, I was quite surprised by the
quality of the food, though I didn’t know what to expect in the first
place. The food is undoubtedly better
than what you’d find on an airplane, but I guess you would assume so since
there was a private dining car with full kitchen onboard. Anyway, for us, we were entitled to a three
course meal and bevvies at each sitting. The dinner the previous night brought a pair of prime rib steaks to our
table. They were quite good and so were
the desserts; nothing really to complain there. The prices were surprisingly reasonable as well – though I’d still make
an effort to bring food along if I ever did it again. Breakfast was good too with a host of continental
items, omelets or basic fair accompanied by the usual assortment of juices and
teas.

After packing up, we moved our way to the viewing cars. With a dome like view of the surrounding
environment, we were able to see the Californian farmland wiz by and watch cars
pass us slowly on the freeway. The
seating was fairly comfortable – intent to not let the delay damper our day, we
set out to plan the rest of the day in San Francisco determined to make the best of it.

With an hour and a half to go to Emeryville, I said what the
hell and tried the showers at the bottom of our sleeper car. We were there to try everything, might as
well try the shower too. It was a full
standup shower; not bad I must say and it was nice to have towels provided for
you. Oh, as for the washrooms? I could have sworn I was in an airplane.

On approach to Emeryville, we grabbed our bags and got ready
to leave in the loading area. The
attendant had mentioned that although we were three hours late, track
maintenance was the cause of our delays, we were quite lucky – trains were
running 5-7 hours late on average! Something to look forward to in a few days when we were set to make our
way back to the station for our next hop down to San Luis Obispo.

Anyway, the bus ride into downtown San Francisco was nice. While we were on the bridge, we witness the
construction of a second bridge in parallel. It’s quite amazing really. The
length of the bridge must have been a good kilometer and was being built
section by section. You really start to
appreciate the engineering that goes into the construction of one of these
bridges. If a primary pillar is off so
much of a millimeter, the bridge simply doesn’t line up and you’re up a creek. Winding through the busy San Francisco streets, we finally found our
way to the downtown shopping district – a stone’s throw from the major shopping
mall, the end of one of the cable car routes, and Ash’s favorite store Forever
21.

The first order of business was to find the hostel and
unload those annoying packs on our backs. There was no sense in carrying them while we explored the downtown core. Tourists were everywhere as expected, with a
healthy concentration of them surrounding the cable cars.

Taking a brisk walk through the city, we came across the
usual host of typical and high-end brand name stores. Up on the sixth floor of the Macy’s building
you’ll find a nice bird’s eye view of Union Square.

When it hit mid afternoon, we decided to start walking north
towards Chinatown. Faced with daunting hills to the north, we
traversed to the east hoping for a more forgiving path. Happily, Grant Street wasn’t too bad. The main entrance of San
Francisco’s Chinatown was
decorated by a somewhat traditional Chinese arch. As I recall, history notes that the arch was
a gift, a gift from the Taiwanese. It’s
interesting considering the political differences the two countries have. Either way, both of us viewed the gateway as
more of an eyesore an insult to Chinese heritage. The gate was simply ugly – a large chunk of
shaped cement with little color at all. We should have known though, just over the hill was another ungodly
sight (as Ash openly displayed her displeasure). They were simply trying way too hard to cater
to the tourists that frequented the area. It may be one of the largest Chinatowns
around, but I’ve certainly seen nicer. Thankfully, as well walked further north or off the beaten path, things
were looking a little more “normal” shall we say.

Wading deeper into Chinatown (five blocks in) we found ourselves walking down Ross Alley where the popular
Fortune Cookie factory exists. We got
our taste of odd lot product, bought a bag of cookies for $2 and took in the
manufacturing process. I would have
taken a picture but I think they were charging 50 cents. Anyway, take a mini three or four inch waffle
maker with a flat pan and attach thirty of them a mechanical turn table and
there you go. A machine drops the batter
onto the pan, closes the lid and cooking begins. As the cookie approaches, the lid lifted, a
cook takes the hot cookie, shapes it and lets it cool on the rack.

A few more blocks and I found myself hungry and in need for
the usual snack. While my mom probably
would have disapproved, my sister and I were out on an adventure and decided to
try the dim sum that was being made on the street for take out. $1.25 for three pieces of plump dim sum – not
bad I must say! They definitely hit the
spot!

Soon later, we found ourselves in San Fran’s Italian
district. It was getting close to dinner
time and if we weren’t waiting for my cousin for dinner, we would have eaten
for sure. The wonderful smell coming
from the numerous Italian bakeries and restaurants were literally torturing
us! Our feet were made for walking and
that’s what we did. 12 long blocks
later, we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf ready to be picked up for dinner. We were done with walking for the day –
walking from the downtown shopping district to Fisherman’s Wharf was quite
impressive.

Fisherman’s Wharf at the time was pretty dead. While we were waiting, we were able to take a
peek in a couple gift shops (as much as it pained us to do so) and a larger
amusement area. The contents of the
amusement area were somewhat interesting – a blast from the past actually. It was filled with things from anything from
the early 1900’s to some of the newer 80’s video games. Go figure … apparently we had to be told it
was “fun”.

On the way to dinner, Paul and Courtney stopped at Golden Gate Bridge for a couple pictures. It was freaking cold. It’s California
for Pete’s sake! What’s going on? Anyway, two quick pictures and back to the
car. Dinner was alright; don’t get me
wrong, the company was good it was the food that was so-so – especially for the
price. We had dinner on the other side
of Golden Gate Bridge
in Sausalito. The location was quite nice, right on the
water with a nice view of the bay.

Sometimes, there’s something distinctly wrong with going to
sleep when it’s dark and waking up before the sun graces our world with
light. At 4am I was rustled from my
restless sleep – there’s was lots to do today starting with making sure we
didn’t miss our 5:30am bus to Seattle. An early morning wake up time like that was
just plain wrong – though I got it better than my sister. She didn’t sleep until 2am – late as usual
doing last minute packing.

Quickly getting ready and wrestling our heavy packs on our
back, we move them to the car for the ride to the train station downtown. It was dark, cool, and very peaceful – a
state only seen in Vancouver in the latest of nights or earliest of mornings; quite relaxing really. On arrival, we were greeted by the towering
stone building of the Via Rail building backlit by the rising sun. No offence to the general US public, but
we were quickly made aware that we were heading down south. One of the tourists, which we assumed were
American, rudely shot down a street resident as they were approached. “I don’t have any money for you!” We think he
only wanted to provide a small service in hopes of some financial gratitude. Anyway, clambering into the bus, we jetted
off on a three our tour of Greater Vancouver down to Seattle.

Arriving downtown at the train station half an hour late, we
grabbed our bags and rushed inside only to be faced with a few hundred people
all attempting to check in. Luckily for
us, with our outrageously expensive sleeper-class tickets, we found ourselves
in a line with 20 other people so the wait was relatively short.

Walking out the door onto the platform, we were faced with a
handful of two story stainless coach cars. I was expecting some older style, single level cars – what can I
say? It was my first time on a train. Making our way to the front of the train, we
found our car, jumped on and found our home for the next 24 hours. 

Well, it was smaller than I expected. The room was no wider than four feet across
with two seats facing each other surrounding a private window looking out onto
the platform. It was a little
claustrophobic really, with the bunk bed propped up against the ceiling, but
oddly enough, the room felt larger as soon as the curtain was pulled shut. Stowing our bags were a little interesting …
room for one against the wall near one seat and room for another under the tiny
table between the two seats. The closet
consisted of a slot in the wall about six inches wide.

The train left 15 minutes late … after a quick nap, we went
to do a little exploring. The hallways
were just a little more than shoulder width … maybe an extra six inches on
either side. Not to be bad or anything,
but we started to wonder how some heavier set people might make it through the
sleeper cars. Moving between the cars
was interested as well. With a ‘push’
button at waist level and foot level, a hard jab (or kick) to the button engages
hydraulics sliding the doors aside unveiling shifting platforms between cars. Stepping through the archway you time your
jump hoping that the door behind, and in front, don’t close on you knocking you
to the side. On the rougher sections of
track as well, you’ll get thrown from side-to-side like a pinball.

Sleeping was interesting. With the bunk lowered, you climb up a few short steps and slide into
bed. For safety sake, they provide a
belt which secures to the ceiling so that you don’t roll off while moving in
bed or during the more rocky sections of train track. The bottom bunk? It forms by sliding the two seats
together. It was quite cozy if you ask
me, and honestly, I think we were lucky to have the opportunity to sleep over
night.

Destination?  San Francisco at 8am!  (Well, Emeryville then a short bus ride into the city)

ok, i’m back again from a long hiatus.  whomever of you that have been reading this blog have probably given up by now.  either way, this is the beginning of a set of new installments i think.  i just came back from a 12 day trip to Cali.