San Francisco: Day 1, Part 2

So the walk to the piers is not a short one, but we stop and see a ton of stuff on the way (ie City Lights where Jack Kerouac hung out:



some other cool bookstores:



and the 'Little Italy' of San Francisco also known as North Beach:



I gotta say, their Italian places looked much more legit than the ones in New York City.

So we walk. And we walk. And we finally come upon the Fisherman's Wharf (still dragging our luggage, of course).



From there is a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge. AND we discover that it's FLEET WEEK! Apparently the Navy has this special event every year just to show off their stuff and give all us a cool show. Basically the entire day Navy jets (specifically the famous Blue Angels) fly overhead doing amazing stunts.

Here's an ok photo of them:


We wander away from Fisherman's Wharf towards all the other piers. We pass the bakery where sourdough bread bowls were invented and sight see our way towards Pier 39.

If we consult our handy-dandy google map, we find that Sarah and I had walked about 2.5 miles since lunch.


View Larger Map

We roll up to Pier 39, find a sunny spot and just sit for awhile and watch the Blue Angels fly. It is actually pretty inspiring and they are doing some amazing stuff there. We can't forget about the famous San Francisco sea lions though...they were there too, also basking in the sun.



But the Blue Angels tend to out-shadow the seals. Sarah manages to get this amazing photo of them:



Rachel sends me a text that she's back in her office so we head out towards her office building (only another 15 minutes walk or so). The building is very cool. There's tons of exposed cement and metal. Apparently it used to be a popcorn factory! We drop our bags off in her cubicle and head across the street to a Starbucks for some much needed rest and a regroup. We need to figure out our next plan of action! We have about 3 more hours before Rachel gets off work that we need to fill with as much SF as possible. Now, by Rachel's office building was a staircase. It seems to extend straight up into the air and points towards the Coit Tower. The Coit Tower has been mocking us for the entire day. We've been able to see it from everywhere we've been in the city and it seems that this staircase will be able to deliver us to the tower. While sitting comfortably in the sun, sipping our coffee, we decide to climb the few hundred steps to the tower.

Here they are:



Renewed, we begin our climb. We reach the top of the staircase only to find that we've been deposited in the middle of a pathway winding between some lovely houses (they are bundled so closely together and in such a hap-hazardous way on the side of this cliff that they look like tree-houses).



They also all have lovely gardens, which Sarah sneaks into:





The path takes us on a winding route between them, up a few more small staircases and spits us out onto a street with the tower still looming high above us.

Luckily, a woman is powerwalking past us, so we stop her and ask for directions. She says "I'll show you!" and powerwalks off. So we powerwalk after her and she takes us too...more stairs!



Apparently this is her normal exercise route because she shouts to us that these will take us to the tower and then she takes off up them. These stairs also wind through some truly amazing houses. All of the houses have amazing gardens that you'd only know about if you were walking on these stairs. By this time I've removed my sweatshirt and thrown my hair into a ponytail and we're both huffing and puffing and taking frequent breaks.

After some more serious stairs, we reach the top.



Our tour guide (aka the powerwalking lady) is stretching at the top and says "oh you made it!" Did I mention she was probably around 60-years-old?

The climb was well worth it though. There's an amazing view of the bay and Alcatraz.



And the tower is pretty cool as well.



But what goes up must come down, so we head back down, taking a different route this time. The stairs we take this time spit us out into a stereotypical SanFran looking neighborhood.



The street we're on happens to be Hyde Street, which leads us back to the Piers. At Pier 39 a Navy band called "The Destroyers" is playing cover music dressed in their uniforms. Very interesting sight to see. Rachel had told us about this really cool museum of old arcade games called Musee Mecanique. With another hour left before we meet up with Rachel, we decide to find it. It turns out to be AWESOME. Arcade games and weird boardwalk attractions from as far back at the 1920s fill an old warehouse. All of them have been restored to working order.



Some are creepier than others



We vow to come back when we have more time and more quarters. We meet Rachel back at her work and hop the BART to the 16th and Mission stop. From there we walk to her place. The coolest part about her apartment is that each room is huge and have a bay window!

Her room is the window on the left



For dinner we head to Papalote for real mission burritos. It's probably the best burrito I've ever eaten. But after walking more miles than I care to remember, we head home to pass out!