San Francisco!

For the Family Day long weekend (Presidents Day long weekend in the States) we went to San Francisco and met up with Susie and Steve.  It was excellent!  We stayed at the Fairmont Heritage Place Ghirardelli Square - it's fantastic there!

Here's some pictures from our weekend.

We had an early morning walk, and here's some pictures Steve took.

An old Studebaker.  Looked beautiful in the early morning light.

Here's a wholesale crab shack.  There were 9 tanks full of crabs.

Joe's Crab Shack.  Yes, we ate there and it was fantastic!

Along the walkway by Ghirardelli Square

Taking a picture of Steve taking a picture

This pier was originally part of the highway.  Cars would drive on the pier, load onto the car ferry, and get dropped off in Sausilito on the other side of the Bay.

After walking along the shore for a bit, we went for a cable car ride.

Standing in line waiting for the next cable car.

They turn the cable cars around on a pivoting wheel.  By hand!

Steve hanging off the cable car!

We opted to stand at the back of the cable car.  Great pictures coming up!

Taking a picture of us at the back of the cable car.

Looking north at Hyde St from the cable car.  That's Alcatraz Island in the Bay.

Steve got a picture of me peeking from the back of the cable car!

Corner of Hyde and Lombard.  More pictures of Lombard further along.

After the cable car ride, we walked along Market Street towards the Ferry Building for their Farmers Market.

Dan taking a closer look at the machine's inner workings.




The clock on Market St.



Inside the Ferry Building

  

At Union Square across from Macy's.

At Union Square - you got it - across from Macy's!  We were told that this is the largest Macy's store in the US.

We went to the Stinking Rose for lunch - pictures to come later from Steve.

This plaque reads: The Stinking Rose: A Garlic Restaurant
San Francisco's first restaurant to celebrate the euphoria of garlic.
Ancient roman soldiers dubbed the pungent  herb garlic "The Stinking Rose"  They believed garlic made them extremely strong and extra virile and rubbed their bodies with garlic oil before going into battle.
The Stinking Rose: A garlic restaurant is known for seasoning its garlic with food.
North Beach, Little Italy of the West.

We wandered along Columbus to Lombard St.

Cars coming down Lombard Street.

At the bottom of Lombard Street!

Just a view - I think it's Hyde Street

We also signed up for the Night Tour of Alcatraz - worth every penny.

From the ferry over to Alcatraz Island.

San Fran skyline from the ferry.

View of the SF skyline from the ferry

Steve took some great pictures of sunset over the Golden Gate bridge:

The prison is in really poor condition, as you can see.

Obligatory photo opp! :-)

Three stories high.  The audio tour was excellent.  You could hear the cell doors slamming, and voices yelling as if the prisoners were still there!

Here's a better inside shot from Steve:

I think this is a shot of "Broadway", the main 'street' leading to the dining area.

Just one of the many buildings that make up the prison.



This is where the guards clocked in and out of their shifts.

They opened the hospital wing to the Night Tour visitors and this was an operating room.

A shot from outside at night.

A shot of the moon over the prison.

View of the San Fran skyline from the ferry going back:

The next day we rented bicycles and decided to cross the Golden Gate bridge.  Susie and Steve rented a tandem, Dan got a regular bike, and me, the wimp, rented an electric bike.  And I sure am glad I did!  For terrain that was supposed to be relatively flat, there were some hills that I would never have been able to go up if I didn't have the electric bike.

View from under the GG bridge.

Watching a surfer from the bridge.

Just a shot on the bridge.  You can see they had loads of room for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as for cars.

Dan on the bridge.

View looking straight down at one of the pilings/footings.

How great is this picture!  Susie and Steve on the tandem.

Us taking a break.

S&S taking a break - that's Sausalito on the other side of the bridge.

Heading back to the bike rental place, we stopped for some pictures.

This is what the inside of the suite looked like, and the building we stayed in.

At the Fairmont Ghirardelli, they have cocktail hour from 4 to 5.  Very civilized.  We partook.

Getting wine before we headed outside.

And all too soon the weekend was over.  Here we are at the airport.  Time for Dan and I to head home, and S&S rented a car to head down to Monterey for an extra couple of days.