San Francisco Part 2

So continuing on...We headed out to explore. I spent my roll of quarters in squished penny machines in less than a half hour. There were penny machines EVERYWHERE! It was so awesome. I think in the end I ended up with about 40 pennies for the trip. Not bad for two days, is it?

We walked down to the shops in the Fisherman's Wharf area and spent a few hours wandering around.

There was a camera shop on practically every corner. Not sure what was up with that. There were also lots of junky souvenir shops, but I like those. I always wonder what possesses people to buy kitchen towels and ash trays with the Golden Gate Bridge on them. Here's a picture of THE worst souvenir I saw the whole time we were down there. Unfortunately it was so bad my camera couldn't get a good picture of it. Envision a black faux velvet cloth with multicolored pictures of San Francisco images embossed on it. Attach a gold cord with a tassel and you have the below:



Honestly, where would someone put this in their house when they got back? And why? Well, I'm the one that gets excited over squished pennies as my major souvenir, so maybe I shouldn't talk.

Anyway, we wandered around the shops, had a yummy lunch here:



I guess Boudin Sourdough is THE sourdough place in San Francisco. They say they invented it or something. Anyway, we had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Mmm-mm! So good.

We decided to walk up to Ghiradelli Square and got this far:



Then got distracted by the cable cars. We decided we couldn't go to San Francisco and NOT ride the cable cars, so we bought a round-trip ticket and rode all over town.




I never did figure out how the cable cars work and we didn't have time to go to the cable car museum. It was interesting to ride on them. It seems like all the stops are in the middle of an intersection, which is disturbing at first when you are facing the traffic coming up the hill at you. But it does allow for some pretty views.

Disturbing view


Looking towards the TransAmerica Building


I didn't get any good pictures of the houses in San Francisco except for this one that was covered with ivy. The houses are very, very cool. I understand it is very expensive to live there, though.





And with that, I will again pause to prolong the suspense!