San Francisco – Day 2

We kicked off day 2 by buying our three-day pass to the SF mas transit system, which includes the iconic cable cars. It was foggy and drizzly and cool enough to require a jacket.

We rode a cable car to near Fisherman’s Wharf and headed over to Pier 39 to see the famous sea lions that gather there.

The wharf area is where most of the local commercial boat traffic in the San Francisco Bay originates. Lots of fishing boats, ferries and tourist craft around.

It was also a good spot to see Alcatraz, despite the obscuring fog. We didn’t learn about the insane demand for Alcatraz tours until a couple months before our trip. By then it was too late to get a ticket. So we didn’t make it to Alcatraz. I can’t decide which photo I like better.

The wharf area is also home to the National Park Service Maritime Historical Park, which boasts several full-size historic ships.

While touring one of the ships the fog began to lift and we got our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Gina was more interested in the bridge than the ship.

After hanging around the wharf until well into the afternoon, we eventually made our way to the BART line headed out to the Mission District because Gina had a line on some good Mexican food. We didn’t rent a car because we planned on using the various mass transit options, but we found the city’s mass transit system sort of difficult to use. San Francisco is served by a mish-mash of regular buses, electric buses, cable cars, trolley cars, light rail, subway and even ferries. And we found that most of the time we had to walk several blocks at one or both ends of a trip. At one point we got on a light rail car powered by overhead electric lines that moseyed along a street stopping at regular stoplights. Then the train stopped and like a Transformer™ the cars retracted their electric poles and the exit steps raised up to form a level exit platform. The cars started again and dove underground and kicked on the afterburners going about 20 times faster. The next stop was on a subway platform.

After supper, as I was photographing this mural an older homeless woman came up to us and demanded a money “in the name of God.” Gina gave her a couple bucks and then she turned her guns on me, refusing to believe me when I insisted I didn’t have any cash. She pulled up her shirt to reveal a truly massive scar running down her entire torso and then pulled up one of her pant legs to show another giant scar. That was enough for me, but she also showed us a scar on her arm. I tried to give her $5 bill and she saw I had a $10 and she decided she wanted it “in the name of God” even if she had to make change. She was going to give me $7 in change and she didn’t care that that would leave her with less money than if she just kept the $5. I ended up giving her the $10 and she finally wandered off. She wasn’t the only super aggressive panhandler we encountered. Gina was full-on accosted by a man who pelted her with profanity when she didn’t any attention to him. He wouldn’t let up and I finally ended up nearly screaming at him to back off, which he did.

The downtown area has some nice buildings.

The view from our hotel window.