The Streets of San Francisco – 2 July 2010

We slept in a bit this morning at our hotel in Merced. We hit the road without breakfast (the Denny’s last night came in big portions). We followed the 99 north until we hit the highway west to San Fran. Three hours or so later, we cruised across the Bay Bridge and found (with no trouble) the hotel we had arranged in advance. The Bay Bridge Inn is a nice place. It is nice and clean, modestly priced and right on the edge of the Bay City area, which is where all the action is.

Checked in about 2pm, we went for a stroll. San Francisco is a walker’s city. So we walked into Union Square and made our way along Market Street to the Ferry Market Building, which was awesome. Then we walked along the Embarcadero to the famous Pier 39. Along the way, we also had a late lunch at a famous local bakery/ restaurant called Boudin.

Pier 39 is a touristy kind of market. It is nice, though. We had a good time window shopping there. Wandering around the waterfront area, we came across a place called the Musée Mechaniqué. This place was an arcade of vintage coin-operated machines. There are a lot of moving mechanical dioramas and animatronic fortune-tellers and even old pinball machines and video games. It was really awesome. I scored well on a strength tester and wondered how many young men, in the company of how many young women had gripped those handles before me.

We also stopped in a camera store, where the guy cleaned Pia’s camera internally and refused any payment. Customer service is king here.

In the late afternoon we walked through the largest Chinatown outside of China and back to our hotel, which is one of the quieter ones we’ve had. The plan includes a quiet night in.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more Tales of the City…

San Francisco China Town

One of those really steep San Fran streets, we had yet to walk up or down any of these streets

Pier 39

Pia's favourite shop, and she still can't use left handed scissors.

Ferry Building, an absolute dream building for any home cook, gourmet chef or anyone who likes good food

The cool San Fran Buildings

This is how you turn a cable car around

Coit Tower

Cool building and love the name

Check out the names of these two ginger beer's

Beautiful cable car's, still on the move

Mark and Pia and Alcatraz

Half of the Bay Bridge, on our way into San Fran.