Day 2: Rolling plains of California
“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.
