Spent most of the night awake as my cold bug kicked up a notch to match how my neck feels -haha. Felt so blah and as we didnt have any tea making facilities in the room so couldnt make hot drinks to help, bum. But when Graeme woke up in the morning, he got me to cuddle up and I crashed for a few hours.
We got up and went up the block to a starbucks cafe- a really flash one in a huge warehouse type building like our hotel. Had a yummy cereal, berries & greek yoghurt brekky and hot drinks then went to a store to buy some essentials, tea bags and cinnamon whiskey lol!!
Louis had told me about the famous sea lions at pier 39 on the wharf and we found them by the noise- they are great to watch, all basking out in the sun on pontoons and the antics they get up to!
Dropped that off then wandered all round fishermans wharf today on a gorgeous perfectly clear and sunny day. So lucky!! It started to fill up with people and added to the atmosphere and there is so much to see & do here being right on the seafront. We had a stop or two to quench our thirst with pina coladas & beer - as you do, then wandered round the shops again before going to the infamous Ciopinnos for dinner. Italian owned & operated, it has a plentiful menu - more clam chowder but in a bread bowl this time - so yummy and afforable here.
This glass sculpture was $40,000! 
Trail marker in the pavement 
Clam chowder in a bread bowl Slept way better last night and not feeling so crap today, but Graeme is trying to catch it now! So took our time then went to Starbucks again for breakfast as it is right across the road from the iconic cable car we want to to take into the city. When we got there, 2 very unhelpful young workers said it was wasnt working today so we were talking to a couple from NZ & Australia when suddenly another worker came along and said they had decided to open the cable car now. So we all hopped on and luckily got the seats outside the sit sideways. Enjoyed the ride up and down all the streets- certainly is hilly on this side!
The mechanism of the iconic cable car
A funny looking NZ flag We hopped off at the end of the line just past Union Square and into a loud march for workers with placcards etc -thought we were back in Aussie for a min with union protests!! We wandered around the area having a look and bought some gifts. There are a lot of beggars and homeless who are off their nuts over here on this side of San Fran . One lady told me she had come face to face with a young person injecting themselves with heroin in the street this morning? Pretty sad.
The queue for the cable car back to fishermans wharf was huge with over an hours wait and we werent fussy how we got back, so decided to go round the corner a bit and catch the trolley car - like an electric tram and it was one of the old authentic ones. It was getting pretty warm by then and the tram was getting full but there was a gap in the middle and we found out why. There was a young skinny looking homeless guy who had taken up 2 seats & the stink everyone could smell was coming from him. Another passenger said he had crapped himself and it was all up the outside of his clothes. It was rank and then the driver just kept squeezing more and more people in. There were no opening windows and it must have got up to neary 45-50C in there. Everyones hair and faces were drenched in sweat, so you can imagine what it was like being stuck near the homeless guy. Graeme was almost gagging as well as sweating!! Pretty freakin bad but there was a weird sense of comraderie with everyone, trying to breathe/not breathe while standing up for 40 mins in an airless tram!!!
We finally got to fishermans wharf again and straight into a pier 39 bar where we practically inhaled our pint of icy cold beer!! Thats was followed by a pina colada or two and by this time we had cooled down and stopped feeling nauseas lol!
Went back in the lovely sunshine, back to the argonaut hotel and had a lay down - zonk! Crashed for an hour. Not a good idea when its late in the afternoon, youve been drinking and havent had any food!!! Mouths like the bottom of a birdcage, we got up at 5pm, had showers then walked back along the seafront and found a lovely restaurant overlooking the bay and alcatraz, for dinner.
Pina colada & a lime martini! 
Restaurant overlooking Alcatraz & the Bay 
Our hotel at the far end I have been spoilt by all the lovely p.m's & messages on FB today, as it is my birthday in Aussie and NZ- so I am getting a 2 day milestone birthday with the split time zones as tomorrow is my birthday here!! Noice, very noice!
1 comment:
What a pity about the cable car experience - it must have been horrendous! But you have also had the good side of San Fran and hope Alcatraz looks after you - nicely!
Post a Comment