Blood orange hefeweizen sitting at the bar sipping this waiting for my petrale sole to arrive, pier 39, fog harbor fish house post giants win over nationals beautiful late day sun on alcatraz Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Next time I get together with friends for game night I’m planning on taking an Epcot Sampler with me (which includes this). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
i really enjoyed my trip, it was a whirlwind trip fly to san francisco thursday 4/28, friday 4/29, cable cars, bay cruise, painted ladies, oakland athletics, sat 4/30, cable car museum, san francisco giants, pier 39 supper and above beer, sunday 5/1, disney family museum, some more fishermans wharf, fly home monday 5/2. this trip brought to you by american airlines flight credit that would expire in july and the only other weekend both bay area teams were home was not until late september, photos to follow eventually on this thread oh, and John, that beer was superb, reminded me a lot of the grapefruit beer at the german pavilion we are so fond of during pixelmania
so let's start it off, friday morning, up incredibly early, for some reason i was really slammed thursday night with jet lag, my day started early to help karen with animal care since she had to work, then off to ronkonkoma for a train to jamaica, air train to jfk for a 10;15 flight , on time, nonstop to san francisco international, hereafter known as sfo. landed on time, figured out bart, a 2 train ride out to west dublin/pleasanton station, literally maybe 800 feet from the station to my hotel, the ac by marriott. nice hotel and considering hotel prices in downtown san francisco, a good choice, even with the 45 minute ride into the embarcadero. so no excursion away from the hotel thursday, i remember setting an alarm on my phone and seeing 7:00 am as 11 hours plus. woke up refreshed, rode into powell and market, ate breakfast at mo'z cafe, highly recommend it. and started right off tourist photo day. san francisco has probably the largest fleet of restored pcc streetcars, in great shape and working an actual route from castro, along market street to along the embarcadero to fishermans wharf. here is one on market, headed towards castro, as i wait to ride my first cable car
here i am, at california and drumm, waiting for this cable car to come in and be turned on the manual turntable, i can think of no more iconic san francisco symbol than this, the california street cable car line. these are both a world famous tourist attraction, a symbol of the city, and an actual method of transport for a few locals. they charge $8.00 each way on each line to ride, so the smart play was what i did, $30.00 or so for a 3 day unlimited muni pass, good for cable cars, streetcars, buses, i must say i got my moneys worth. the lever on the right is the standing brake, the left lever controls the grip in the cable, this is just like a chairlift/gondola cable grip. the cable is under the street in that center slot between tracks and the absolutely iconic rice-a-roni photo of san francisco, looking downhill on california street, that is the oakland bay bridge in the background, behind me we have passed through the famous and desirable nob hill neighborhood
going past one of the streets into chinatown at the hyde park/fishermans wharf end of the powell/market line, this one has just come off the turntable and is loading up, i was fortunate on both lines and was able to have one of the out facing seats, without an outside hanger on rider on each line on friday, probably due to my riding fairly early in the day. and here is the turntable, they disconnect from the cable grip, manually shove the empty car onto the turntable and manually turn it around, shove back onto the other track and grab the cable again
ghirardelli square, and i did get there, on sunday i ate lunch and had a beer at the san francisco brewery, followed by a painted lady mint bliss sundae from the original ghirardelli's i took the blue & gold one hour bay cruise, a very good thing to do, got some great views of several iconic san francisco places, it goes along the edge of the bay, out under the golden gate bridge, comes back and goes slowly around alcatraz island so close, and yet so far, it was part of the psychology of breaking the resistance to authority of the prisoners, they were considered so dangerous that the first shipments of convicts were kept chained in railroad cars, which were put on barges and docked at the island for unloading. there were less than 300 at the highest population, that tan building was the cellblock, but it was never fully finished i had forgotten, san francisco has the other liberty ship, the jeremiah O'Brien
the san francisco skyline, that is a ww2 submarine in front of the O'Brien, the uss pampanito, the spear shaped transamerica building in front of the O'Brien bow. that is a paddle wheel ferryboat straight in, of the type that used to cross the bay before the bridges were built. very reminiscent of the disney ferries. the marin headlands, with part of the golden gate bridge
a closer view of alcatraz, that is the dock and the guard barracks, alcatraz started as an army fort, became a military prison and eventually a federal max prison, the world famous pier 39 sea lions, and i think i got a much better shot from the top deck of he bay cruise than i would have gotten from the viewing area on the pier and sort of a waffle house ending to life, not smothered but scattered
and i made the trek up the hill on pierce street to alamo square, to photograph the painted ladies, the row of victorian homes, i had a ballgame to go to so i couldn't stay into golden hour, but i did go after 2 pm as recommended, close to 4 pm
so due to rainy weather i finally had a little time to return to processing from san francisco. It's saturday morning, i again took bart into powell/market stop, another breakfast at mo'z cafe, again outstanding food. took the powell/hyde cable car line up the hill and got off at the cable car museum stop. half a block walk and here i am, at the free cable car museum, well worth the time, a great lesson in both the history of san francisco cable cars and how they actually work, including an upper level view of the sheaves spinning, moving the cable actually powering the system. the giant sheaves with the cable being kept at speed
so it's sunday morning, another bart ride, another mo'z breakfast and then a bus ride out to the presidio, on the free downtown shuttle for tourists and presidio residents. these are originally row homes, officer family housing probably majors and above, maybe even started at lt colonel level. one of which is now home to the disney family museum. a museum of walt's personal life and a timeline of his creativity. this was absolutely worth the time and money. so many personal moments and so much of the life of the man on display there are cases and cases of awards and oscars etc. a case of oscars
the start in hollywood oswald, the stolen creativity that caused walt to create mickey as a replacement
one of walt's trains, from the carrollwod pacific a model of the property, the barn and the train layout
