California: San Francisco!!!!

We started our day by heading to the BART station.  It was a half hour ride down to the Embarcardaro Station.  This station dumps you right in the Financial District and you are about 10 blocks from Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.  We were going to catch a bus to Fisherman's Wharf but we decided to walk instead.  The buses that went to the Wharf were old fashioned and looked very crowded.  Ade commented that the passengers looked like sardines in a can.  A truer statement had never been made.  It was the first time Chan and Ade and Little Man had been on BART so it was fun for them I think.  I enjoyed riding on BART, it's relaxing.

After arriving in the Financial District we walked down to Pier One.  They have this cool Water Sculpture there, it is metal and has water running out of it.  Chan and I went up and posed for a picture.  It was a pretty cool sculpture, however I couldn't help thinking that at night the homeless may use it as a shower :S

From this location we also had a great view of the Bay Bridge. It's a suspension bridge that connects Oakland to San Francisco.  It's bigger than the Golden Gate Bridge, but not as well known.  One thing that I find cool is it's a double Decker bridge.  When you drive into San Francisco, you are on the bottom level and when you return to Oakland you are on the top level.  I think it's crazy especially since in the 1989 earthquake part of this bridge collapsed on itself.

Our first stop when we finally got down to the Wharf was to walk around Pier 39.  We walked into the various shops and looked over the wharf out onto the Bay.  We were able to see Tug Boats, Alcatraz, Sea Lions, war subs and war ships.  It was all pretty cool.  I thoroughly enjoy walking on the Wharf and truly do enjoy walking in that area of San Francisco.  It's very tourist friendly.  Apparently it's the second most visited location on the West Coast only second to....da da da.. Disneyland.

After walking around the wharf for a bit we decided to have lunch.  We ate at a place on the Wharf, we had fish and chips.  Chan had a hot dog. I don't know why he doesn't like fish but he does not.  He did buy himself a scorpion sucker though.  He won't eat fish but he will suck on a scorpion.  I don't even pretend I understand. 

We decided to go to the Aquarium on the Bay, Chan really wanted to see the exhibits and it got us inside for a bit.  It was pretty cool, it was short, but the shark's were neat and the touch pool was cool. The one shark was going crazy and spitting water at everyone.  Comical but also sad because the shark was probably stressed out from all the people.  The other part of the Aquarium tour that touch a nerve with me was the Sherman Lagoon Comic stripe exhibit.  It was an exhibit that informed people about finning.  A horribly brutal practice of catching sharks and cutting their fins off then throwing them back into the ocean. It actually made me ill. I am not a shark fan, I think they are scary, dangerous creatures, but I do not abide by cruelty to animals.  Fine you want the shark fins for the soup, fine, take the fins but kill the shark and use the rest of the shark for other things, don't be friggen wasteful.  Grrr that just made me so made.  So I will not be eating any kind of soup with Shark Fin in it because the way these people get the fins is deplorable.

After the Aquarium, we headed on our two hour tour of San Francisco.  Chan made a friend out of a street busker. He was all dressed in silver and had a mic on to get people's attention. He gave Chan some advice, "stay in school" which is probably great advice because Chan doesn't like to dress up in costumes so he wouldn't make a good street busker.  There was one kid on the sidewalk that was giving away hugs for free.  I didn't know what to think of that, it seemed a little awkward.

The two hour tour was on a double Decker cable car bus.  It took us all through San Francisco. We were able to see Lombardi street, the crookedest street in the world.  I would like to drive it one day, maybe next time I am in San Francisco.  We also saw the Painted Ladies, those Victorian Houses with three colours on them, the same ones you see in the open credits of Full House.  Yes and I did see the Full House house.  It was right across the street from Hyde Park.  I was so excited.  Ade laughed at me, but I like things like that.  I wanted to get off the bus to take a closer look, and to take more photos but it was not one of the those tours.  We got to see the Golden Gate Bridge and actually stopped at the park to have a quick bathroom break and snack break.  Chan and I left the bus to look around, Ade hung out with Little Man.  We drove through Union Square and the theatre district.  I saw so much of San Francisco  that I had never seen before.  Not in all my years of going to San Francisco, but I am so glad I got to see it.  We also so Mel's Diner, the diner from American Graffiti.  Ade was really excited about that.  It was a good tour and our tour guide was really cool, he had lot's of insight into San Francisco, but he wasn't overly preachy about what was in San Francisco.

That was our day in San Francisco.  We had a great time!! The next day we flew out.  Thank goodness for Little Man he expedited our time through security because he was cute and cranky.  We also got asked why we weren't smiling on our passports and we had to tell them that Canadians are not allowed to smile on their passport photos.  Apparently, we are the only country that must look like grumpy people when travelling.  Everyone else can smile, but Canadians must look like they hate travelling.