Needless to say, after the nearly 24 hour journey to get to San Fran, we took our time in the morning and were all glad I hadn't booked anything for this first day (always be prepared ha!) We had breakfast at our hotel and were a little slow to get started but caught a cab into the downtown core to figure out what we would do from there.
It's alot colder in San Francisco than I thought it would be. I mean we came from -24C and it's 55F-68F here... surely it's going to be downright balmy! Not so much. In fact, neither Dad nor Mom had brought jackets so we needed to spend an hour finding them each one. Next was to get on the Cable Car, I didn't come all the way here not to get on one afterall. Cue the queue... over an hour and a half in line to get on this thing and we were tired by the time it got there but we finally got on and even if it's not an efficient way to get to where you want to go, it sure is fun! We received tips about walking up a ways and jumping on there to avoid the line, but alas we weren't in a rush to go anywhere anyways. Once on the cable car, we made sure we could stand on the platform and hang off - Kyle making it his mission to high 5 the passengers on the opposing car as we would cross. Some were successful COOL people cars and some just gave him that WTF look and thus dubbed the UNCOOL people. Clearly. Riding up is hard work because you really need to hang on, so picture taking was pretty much a fail but the ride was worth doing for sure! Next time I would walk up the hill a bit and attempt jumping on instead.
At the end of the line is Fisherman's Wharf the "tourist trap" but hey - we're tourists afterall so it's the place to be with everything from gift shops and tour companies to museums and street performers. Oh...and LOTS of people. We roamed around here and waited yet again for a bite to eat and the waiter informed us this is the busiest this place has been since the 4th of July. So apparently, the holidays is not a great time to be a tourist unless you like really long lineups. Who knew? Ok, so I knew, but they wouldn't accomodate my request to re-date the Rose Bowl to the off-season so we do what we gotta do.
It gets dark here approximately the same time as it does back home (maybe a little later) but I've noticed that it's cool in the morning warms up alot for only about 5 hours or so before cooling right back off to the point of needing a real good jacket or sweater to keep warm. After eating we start making our way to the Golden Gate bridge. We want to walk this baby so we hop the bus that takes us there. It's dark by the time we arrive and everything is lit up and it's beautiful! We start our trek across and as much as I thought I'd conquered my fear of heights, I'm not sure what it was about that bridge that made me slightly anxious. Maybe the simple fact that it was out of this world majestic and powerful or the fact that I couldn't see the water but it was a little overwhelming. The walk was totally worth it though - the views of the skyline are amazing and everything is lit up all around. It's stunning. (And Moo was keeping me safe so it was all good). We were however about 30 minutes too late for 2 reasons: first, we missed the sunset which we could have seen walking the far side of the bridge and second, crossing the finish line at the far end at 6:40pm we were not so politely informed that the pedestrian path was NOW CLOSED! For those who don't know how a bridge works, it connects 2 land masses usually over water and once across, if you need to get back, you hope the bridge is still open. HA! So now we're stranded on the other side of the Golden Gate with no way of getting back. Dad is trying to get back on the bridge but the voice from the heavens keep yelling at him to GET OFF! He proceeds to yell back until finally he successfully buzzes the bridge patrol and they send a guy in a paddywagon to come and get us. So there we are 4 large grown adults crammed into the back of this golf-cart sized buggy being driven back across. What a trip!
Everyone we've met so far has been absolutely ridiculously friendly here. I've been to alot of places, but none as friendly as the San Franciscans. Even the driver of our paddywagon was super nice! By the time we got back to the wharf we tried to find a bus that would take us back to union station where we could get the subway but that was easier said than done because the first bus we took didn't loop around it ended because our driver was taking his break so we had to wait for another bus. Then (my mistake) we got off on an early stop...had to catch another bus and then finally made it. Once on the subway (did I mention we were doing all of this so Dad would save a little money on cab fare?) we headed to a stop on the end of a line that would bring us much closer to our hotel and would only cost us a little in cab fare from there. Little did we know until we got to the end of the line and the last stop dropped us off in the middle of NOWHERE and was not looking like a very safe neck of the woods if you know what I mean. Of course the subway STOPS because it's not a typical subway, it's more like a streetcar and we are forced to stand out on the street with no phone, no life in sight and no way of hailing a cab unless it drives by (but it's not looking likely). Finally the subway starts up again and we go back a stop or 2 to a 7/11 and they call us a cab. It shows up 20 minutes later and finally gets us out of shades-ville and brings us back to the hotel well after midnight. It's been a long day of lineups and screwups and madness and we are all happy to get to bed. Alcatraz is tomorrow so we all want to be at our bests!
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