Saturday, February 27. News about the earthquake in Chile and possible tsunamis as well as the sad news that Phil's mom had suffered a mild heart attack made it hard to decide whether to drive into San Francisco or not, especially with rain likely throughout the day. But after Phil had talked to several members of the family and learned that his mother was resting in stable condition in a hospital, we decided to go for it. Drew and Tony have visited San Francisco several times on their own and are familiar with BART as well as the MUNI mass transit options. Based on their past experience, we decided to drive in to the western part of the city near San Francisco State University campus and then take the MUNI into downtown.
On the drive in, the rain was hard and heavy, but Phil guided us through the torrents over the steep and winding Highway 17. By the time we got to the train, we had to get all our change together for the $2 fare ($8 for the 4 of us). A fellow passenger explained to us that we had to board the first car in order to pay the driver the fare and then it was smooth sailing all the way to downtown. Most of the trip was underground so when we emerged into the cold wind of nearly deserted downtown, it was a little bit discouraging.
Things heated up considerably once we got to Chinatown. There was a huge street fare underway in advance of the Chinese New Year Parade scheduled to take place that night. Throng is not intense enough a word to describe the masses of people shouldering their way up and down and sideways along the streets and sidewalks of a four or five square block area, happily queuing up to spin wheels of fortune for prizes large and small and grabbing fistfuls of handouts from vendors. I got a refreshing towel and the boys got festive red "good fortune" envelopes with free passes to a local horse race track. Everyone was enthusiastic and even giddy, and it reminded me of the happy anticipation in a public park on the Fourth of July.
Some of the Chinese restaurants were tempting, but all of them were packed, so we walked over to North Beach. Since we knew we were making a pizza that night, we stayed away from Italian restaurants and picked a small sandwich shop called Justa Bite. The service was attentive and the variety of sandwiches was surprising. I was a little distracted by a large monitor that flashed news bulletins every couple of minutes, but I enjoyed my avocado and cheese sandwich very much, and everyone felt fortified for a climb up Russian Hill. At the summit, we met a young Englishwoman who had just flown in from Richmond, VA the day before. She was as delighted with the clear blue sky and panoramic views as we were and got advice from Phil and Drew about using public transportation. Everyone was snapping photos like crazy except me because I forgot my camera and cell phone.
We continued on up Hyde Street to get a close up look at that crazy curving Lombard Street. Before we got there, we walked by a nearly deserted public tennis court with spectacular views of the bay and particularly the Golden Gate Bridge. Phil took several photos that he said he was going to send to a tennis magazine. We walked down the sidewalk beside Lombard Street watching the nervous faces of the drivers making the tight turns down the super steep block. One woman stood up looking out the sun roof of an SUV with her video camera. From the foot of the hill, I was struck at how the hedges along the road concealed the cars, making it look like a rose garden on a very steep incline. Maybe they should design all street in San Francisco like this.
Another four blocks downhill brought us to Fisherman's Wharf. Phil and I showed Drew and Tony the Argonaut, a former cannery building refurbished as hotel. We had coffee at a cozy coffee shop called Coffee Adventures, and then boarded a streetcar along the Embarcadero jampacked with riders. We got a transfer along with our $2 fare which let us transfer to the MUNI back to where our car was parked. So we practically circled the city for $4. Whatever else I have to say about San Francisco, its public transportation system is Fran-tastic. Even on a day snarled with traffic from the Chinese New Year Parade, we got everywhere we wanted to go quickly and easily.
We hit a couple of rain squalls and had a pretty scary skid on Highway 17, but Phil's nerves of steel got us through unscathed. We stopped at Trader Joe's for wine and some pizza fixings and the full moon beamed down on us serenely from a clear sky.
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