California, Day 2

Saturday, June 24

Got up somewhat early, got ready and drove over to the BART station. (I could have walked, but wasn’t sure what time of day I’d be getting back, and I didn’t really know what the area would have been like at night). Since it was a weekend, there was plenty of free parking. Hopped the train into San Francisco. I don’t recall how long it took, but was probably a 30-45 minute train ride through Berkely and Oakland. Got off at the Embarcadero Station in downtown SF and walked down to the Ferry Building.

From the Ferry Building I just walked along the piers up to Pier 39 taking different pictures along the way. It was pretty cold and foggy at this point. Stopped at Pier 39 a bit, watched the sea lions, and then kept on walking up to Fisherman’s Wharf and then eventually to the Cable Car turn around. Bought my Muni day pass there and rested and watched them turn around a car. Got some Starbucks (chai tea frappachino) and continued to wander. Found a Barnes and Noble and checked out their maps (I needed a good Yosemite hiking map). They didn’t have much, so I hopped the Cable Car from there and got off at Union Square and went to the Borders there and found exactly what I wanted.

From Union Square I decided to walk to Chinatown. Now, if I had taken a minute to look at the map in my guide book, I would have noticed that if I walked one way a few blocks and then towards Chinatown, I would have avoided a big hill and saved my self a little energy. Instead, I just went the way I knew for sure would get me there, which entailed walking up and over a very large hill. Finally I got to Chinatown. I just walked around and took a few pictures. I have been to San Francisco before, so I didn’t feel like I needed to do too much, I just really walked around a lot.

After Chinatown I just continued wandering through downtown and eventually found myself back on the Embarcadero and then to Pier 39 again where I had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. I had my favorite chicken fajitas. Didn’t buy a pin, though. Mostly I just wanted to sit down and rest awhile I was pretty tired. By this time of day, here at the Pier it was sunny and warm.

After lunch it was more walking! You can pretty much walk all along the water from the Piers to the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of it is National Park Service land. It’s very pretty. You can see a lot, that is until the fog rolls in. Which of course it did shortly after lunch. I was very glad I had a jacket with a hood because the wind was strong and COLD! To get to the bridge where you can walk across, (from down by the water) of course you have to walk up another huge hill! By the time I got up there I was completely exhausted! Since it was cold and foggy you couldn’t really see much so I didn’t walk across the bridge (I had done it before anyway). From the gift shop area I caught a bus that would take me over towards Golden Gate park.

Rode the bus for quite awhile just to rest. It meandered through the city in parts that tourists probably never go, so it was neat to see the “regular” San Francisco. Eventually, not really knowing where the heck I was, the bus stopped at a Mall so I got off, got something to drink and consulted the map. I decided there wasn’t a whole lot more I wanted to see, so I took the metro back to the BART station and headed back to the hotel.
When I got back, there was a Target next to the station so I went there (and walgreens) to get some snacks and some other things for my Yosemite trip. Got a little supper, went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.