27 Monday
I slept like a log all night and woke refreshed without any significant
jetlag effects, though Sally was feeling the effects of disrupted sleep
patterns. Today
was Memorial Day in the USA - and a holiday - so Russell and Novey suggested
they would show us some of the standard San Francisco tourist sights.
After a late breakfast, we all set off in the morning in Novey's Toyota
to see the Golden Gate bridge, the cable cars and then a visit to Fisherman
Wharf. Standard tourist
fare. We started off on freeway 101, a 4/8 lane motorway,
and then turned west onto freeway 92 and then north on 380 and then 280
to the Golden Gate bridge lookout point at the north end of the bridge.
Very crowded with lots of tourists everywhere, but I guess that was to
be expected for a long holiday weekend. They should keep away when kiwis
are visiting. I took pictures with both the digital and film cameras.
It was quite chilly with a cold westerly breeze blowing in from
the Pacific Ocean. Russell had wisely dressed in jeans, but I was wearing
shorts so we were very glad of our wind breakers and Sally's big coat.
Apparently there is usually a big temperature difference between Silicon
Valley and San Francisco. We drove around and up the hill in the Golden
Gate National Recreational Area on the north side of the bridge to several
lookout points along the road to get additional views and differing perspectives
on the bridge, the harbour, Alcatraz Island and other prominent points.
From there it was off across the bridge again heading south, everybody
hoping terrorists were keeping well away. We noticed helicopters patrolling
the bridge making circuits above the bridge and then flying around the
shoreline and making a wide circle to come back to the bridge again. (From
TV news we were aware that there was a heightened alertness to attacks
on the Memorial Day holiday, but fortunately nothing untoward happened).
So we safely made it across again and almost immediately found the Exploritorium
noting where it was in relation to the freeway for another time.
Drove to Lombard St where we found parking half way up the very
steep cable car hill and from there we walked up to the start of the 'Wriggly
Street' (Novey's very apt description, but it seems to be part of Lombard
St), walked down the street (just so we can say we have walked down it)
and then on into the Fishermans Wharf area all the while taking pictures
of the things that happy tourists take pictures of. To actually drive
down the wriggly street would have taken a very long time as there was
a great queue of vehicles slowly making their way to the top of the street,
slowly creeping down and around each bend to the bottom and then trying
I guess to find parking somewhere in what was by now very crowded streets.
I found it far better to walk around the streets as you see more and get
a better feel of the atmosphere of the place. At Fisherman's Wharf we
looked at the clothes shops, all selling clothes with San Francisco labelling
and tourist icons blazened across them. (Tee shirts were high on the list).
We had lunch (at about 3 o'clock) of bread bowl clam chowder which was
actually very tasty. On our way back down to Mountain View we took
the most direct route, freeway 101 which has a 65 mph speed limit.
Golden Gate Bridge
with the 'Oldies'
The "Wriggly
St"
Its mandatory for
all tourists to photograph the cable cars
View looking down
Lombard St
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