San Francisco - Day 1

Woke up to a lovely warm, sunny day. It is cool in the shade, so we still need to use our jackets. We took a walk down to the information centre by the train terminal and got our City Pass. Then we got onto one of those street cable cars that you always see in the movies. It is quite incredible how they operate. When they get to the end of the line, they go onto a “turntable” where the driver hops off, physically pushes the tram around so that it can go back the other way. We took the tram to Fisherman’s Whalf & Pier 39 which is one of the main attractions in San Francisco. Wow, this place is lovely. Like Cape Town waterfront, but 20 times better. We found a place called “Johnny Rockets” for breakfast. It is a 60’s diner with rock n roll music playing and juke boxes on the tables. After breakfast we took a boat ride out into the Bay. There were lots of people yachting and paddling. We went all the way to under the Golden Gate Bridge – this is huge!! Then on our way back we went round Alcatraz. I certainly would not like to be there!! This trip took about an hour and once we docked, we walked around all the shops at the Pier. There are so many people painting, singing, doing tricks, having breakdancing competitions etc and it was really great just wondering around watching all this. At about 4pm we took the tram back to our hotel to refresh and plan our next outing. We then left at about 4:30, walked two blocks and caught the tram back down to Pier 39 again. Wondered around a bit and then had supper at the “Wipe Out” restaurant. This is a restaurant with a surfing theme – very noisy, but great vibe and the food was good. After supper we wondered around a bit more, but it was freezing cold – the wind mainly, and then caught the tram back to our hotel.

Pictures below showing tram being turned around:
Some sights down at Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. The baker on the top left, bakes sourdough bread shapes and plays to the audience outside:

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Marina (Campbell you would enjoy it here!!) It was so windy, I saw someone flip his yacht!!

Cable car rider signing off ....