Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl): June 2009

June 30 - Heading Home

Time to head home, we had a wonderful vacation. The weather has been fantastic...it was a lot of fun to spend so much time outside. It really is beautiful in California. No wonder so many people live there.

I did the last minute packing and we left for the airport early. It took us a little longer to go through security so we were glad we had plenty of time. They went through all of our carry on…what a pain.

Everything seemed to be going well until we were on the plane and the door had shut....then the pilot came on and said they had to do a little maintenance on the plane before we could leave! They couldn’t have left us in the terminal while they did that? Two hours later we were finally on our way. Second trip in a row with United and second time we have been delayed...I will think twice before booking with them again.

It felt good to be back home....except for the HEAT!

June 29 - San Francisco, CA

We woke up to another beautiful day. We mapped out our route by bus to the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. We really enjoyed riding the public transportation, and it was very convenient.

By the time we got to the museum it was a little overcast, good morning to be inside. We enjoyed the museum and the planetarium. The building has a living roof, very unusual.

California Academy of Science

Living roof on the CAS building.

Stonefish at the CAS aquarium

Sea Dragon at CAS

Albino Alligator

The sun had returned by afternoon and we enjoyed walking around the park. On our way back we walked through the Haight Ashbury area. Lots of strange people. This is the old hippie hangout from the 1960's. We worked our way back to the hotel on the bus, transferring several times. I started a little packing before dinner.

Conservatory of Flowers

Golden Gate Park

Haight-Ashbury corner

Building on Haight Street

We decided to go to the Buena Vista Cafe for an Irish coffee. So we took our last trip on the cable car back to the wharf. I really like the cable cars…they are a lot of fun. We were enjoying the view from our table when a local couple came up…they wanted to sit with us. It was fun to visit with them, we enjoyed their company. They told us about a great seafood place on Bush Street called Sam’s, but we didn’t make it there this time. We wandered around the wharf a little more and then caught the cable car back to our hotel.

the Buena Vista

June 28 - San Francisco, CA

We decided to go to the Ferry Building this morning. We met a very nice girl on the bus, who gave us some good advice about restaurants in the area. It has been fun visiting with locals and getting their advice.

We were trying to stay away from the Pride Parade that was going on, but ended up right at the start of it! We watched the Dykes on Bikes and some of the parade for a while, it was wild. People can get away with anything here.

Pride Parade

We wandered through a little art show and then had fun tasting things in the farmers market and shops in the Ferry Building. After the gay pride entertainment we took the bus to Washington Square and then to Coit Tower. It was a great day to take in the view…blue, clear sky…it was amazing.

Coit Tower

Looking west from Coit Tower

Golden Gate Bridge from Telegraph Hill (Coit Tower)

Lombard Street from Coit Tower

Oakland Bridge and The Ferry Building

Public Toilet

We spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy in the park and wandering around the Washington Square area.

We found a nice little Italian place in Washington Square (North Beach) for dinner. It was called Michelangelo Cafe, another small café with personal service from the owner. We really have enjoyed the cute little cafés.

Michelangelo Cafe

June 27 - San Francisco, CA

We rode the cable car to Market Street and walked around. They were setting up for Pride Weekend…how lucky could we be. LOL

View from the cable car

San Francisco Cable Car

We caught the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf…it's hard to remember what it looked like 18 years ago when we were here. It was fun to see all the fresh seafood for sale. We rented bikes and rode along the waterfront. They'll let you take the bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge and ride the ferry back…but it was too windy and cold for me to do that. We enjoyed riding around a little. This area isn't as bike friendly as the other places we've been this week, so we didn’t keep them very long. It was just too crowded.

Fresh crab at Fishermen's Wharf

We wandered through Ghirardelli Square, the Cannery and a little art show in the park. The weather was great and we enjoyed sitting in the park watching people and the boats. We actually saw people swimming in the bay…burr.

We spent the afternoon on Pier 39 watching people, sea lions and boats. We had beer and clam chowder at Sea Lion Café and listened to the seals. It was fun to watch them from our table. It was a nice lazy day just soaking in the sites.

Pier 39

There were lots of seals at Pier 39

Wonderful view of San Francisco from Pier 41

We went back to Chinatown for dinner. It was hard to decide where to eat, so we looked for advice on the internet and ended up at Hunan Homes. It was a good choice. Our waiter was very friendly and the food was good.

After dinner we went back to the room, put on some warmer clothes and rode the cable car back to the wharf. We hopped off at Lombard Street, took pictures and walked down and back up. Very pretty. After a few photos we hopped back on the cable car. We wandered around the wharf as the sun was setting and enjoyed the sights. We had fun watching the street performers…one man calls himself The Bushman. He hides behind branches and then pops out when someone comes by…funny to watch, but glad he didn’t get us.

Lombard Street

June 26 - San Francisco, CA

It was sunny this morning, but it got a little gloomy on the way up the coast. So we decided to drive through Los Gatos and San Jose on our way to SF. We had a picnic lunch in Golden Gate Park, drove along the coast and took pictures of the bridge, and tried to remember where we had been 18 years ago when we were here.

We checked into the Nob Hill Motor Inn…it isn't fancy but it's in a great location…central to everything. After relaxing a little and checking emails, we bought our three day bus passes...so much better than walking everywhere. We took the bus to Chinatown to look around. We had fun looking at the unique little shops. We came back to the room to clean up and had dinner at a little Italian place called Nob Hill Café…another small place with very few tables and good food. There are hundreds of little restaurants in San Francisco.

Chinatown

Nob Hill Cafe

June 25 - Pebble Beach, CA

We slept in and then I did a little shopping while Stan took it easy and made reservations for us in San Francisco. We had leftovers and fresh fruit for lunch. It was cloudy all day and a little cool so we decided to do the 17 Mile Drive through Pebble Beach. It's a beautiful area and would have been much prettier if the sun had been shining. We walked around Pebble Beach Golf Course and Resort.

We had dinner at Tommy’s Wok, we really weren’t too impressed. We should have gone back to the Dametra Cafe.