May 15, 2016

May 15  San Francisco  second day

   

   Today’s forecast was for a cloudy day. We looked out to see blue skies, a light breeze and the temperature was about 14 C.  The visibility is wonderful.  You can see all the mountains surrounding San Francisco Bay. Today is the 104th running of the Bay to Breakers 12 km run.  Participants have been in the area since Friday. There are lots of signs welcoming them.  We saw a few people in costumes this morning.  For most people, it is not a serious race.  After breakfast in the Dining Room with a couple from Florida and Micheline, from la belle province, we were on our way by 8:30.

   We walked to Powell and Washington to a cable car stop.  No one else was waiting so we were hopeful that the cable car would have room and it did.  The conductor collected $7 each for the ride to the Bay and Taylor terminus, just three short streets from Fisherman’s Wharf. The ride was about 12 minutes going downhill or level most of the way. When the cable car was ready to start after a stop, there was the clanging of its bell.  All turns to the right or left were announced.  We could understand what was happening with the cable running below pavement level and the driver’s operation of the “Grip” from our visit to the Cable Car Museum yesterday. The cable cars are put on a turntable and turned 180 degrees to begin their journey back to the other terminus at Powell and Market, only six streets from City Hall. We were a five minute walk from the start of the Golden Gate Bridge Hop-On Hop-Off tour.  We had already walked 3.25 km. Right next to the cable car turntable is a green 2 meter cylinder that is a wheelchair accessible free public toilet, that self cleans itself after each use. You press a button and the curved door slides open, you enter, then you press a button to close and lock the door while you use the facility. You press another button to exit, then the door closes and the toilet is cleaned by being pulled into the wall and scrubbed which takes about 30 seconds before it is ready for the next person to use.

    We were 20 minutes early and there were already enough people to half fill the top deck which only had a few seats empty by the time the bus left at 10 a.m.  We passed Ghirardelli Square, where there are cafés and shops including a Ghirardelli chocolate store. When we were on Van Ness Street, which is wider than the other streets, it was explained that this was where a trench was dug as a fire stop for the 1906 fire which followed the earthquake. We were also told that on April 18th or 19th, 1906 some wealthy residents with earthquake damage who just had fire insurance, set fires to their houses which further exacerbated the spread of the fires. Next we turned onto Lombard and were told that if we looked behind we would see Russian Hill. The descent from the top on the east side is the city’s “crookedest street”, descending at an angle of over 20 degrees with 8 hairpin turns, because back in the 1920s, the real estate developer did not want through traffic in his development.  We proceeded on for a quick photo opportunity at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was built as one of the buildings for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. Over the duration of the exhibition, 18 million people saw it, which was over 20 times the population of San Francisco at the time.  Then we stopped to let some people off at the South Vista Point at the southern side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The Golden Gate Bridge has 80,000 miles of wire making up the cable in its structure.  It was completed on May 27, 1937.  It is painted dark orange to help with visibility in the fog. Then, Paul, our driver, warned everyone on the open upper deck to hold on to their hats for the drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to North Vista Point where the bus made a 15 minute stop for photos. We got off here so that we could walk back across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We were not interested in continuing the tour to see Sausalito and retraced the route back to Fisherman’s Wharf.

    The 2.46 kilometer walk to cross the Golden Gate Bridge took 34 minutes including stops to take pictures.  There seemed to be a sailboat race in the bay with several dozen sailboats with mainly white sails, although there was a blue sail and an orangey red sail visible.  At least one freighter ship passed under the bridge as we walked across.  At the South Vista Point, we took the path winding through the Presidio and passed Fort Point National Historic Park and Crissy Field, which was the United States Army’s aviation field. It was here that the first successful attempt of a cross country flight from Long Island, New York, landed on June 24, 1924 taking 21 hours and 48 minutes. The Presidio path passed under the freeway, which the bus had taken going to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We saw horses grazing in the paddock where the cavalry used to house its horses in the early 1900s. We walked past the San Francisco National Cemetery and the main parade ground where a large picnic for an event was taking place and read the plaques along the way explaining the significance of what we were viewing.  The Presidio was established by the Spanish as part of their Mexican territory in 1776.  The United States Army occupied the fort in 1847.  We exited the Presidio at the Lombard Street Gate and decided to walk back to the ship along most of Lombard Street’s length, including ascending Russian Hill. As we walked we were looking for somewhere to have lunch along the way.  We had walked 9.83 km and logged over 60 sets of stairs, some “stair” credits were just straight climbing up sometimes at 20 degree inclines on the hills or the approach to the bridge. One set of stairs on the Fitbit is like an upward height change of 3.3 metres to count as one set of stairs. 

      We saw Mel’s Diner near the Hop-on Hop-off stop at Lombard and Fillmore and decided to give it a try.  We splurged by ordering milkshakes and balanced it by ordering either a tossed garden salad or a quinoa and kale salad.  Refueled, we continued the walk taking only an hour to return to the ship from there. We witnessed the zigzag hairpin turn block of Lombard Street’s “crookedest street” section.  There were railed sidewalks along the side by the houses, as the hill was very steep.  We watched cars slowly and carefully negotiating down the road, the distance between each turn was only about 1.5 car lengths, so the drivers used gravity and their brake pedal to get down. It was a one way street going down. The “crookedest street” is only accessible from the top. The sidewalk along the zigzag runs straight down and the angle is quite steep, there are stairs for most of the descent. There were lots of people either climbing or descending the “crookedest street”, enjoying the balmy 18 C temperature and sunshine.

   When we had cleared security to board the ship and dropped off the backpack in the stateroom on Deck 3, we climbed up to Deck 10, for a bowl of ice cream and to enjoy the fresh air while writing today’s blog beside the pool on Deck 10.  The ship was supposed to leave San Francisco at 4:30 but only left its berth shortly after 5 p.m. 

   We were able to dance to several tunes played by the “The Smart Casuals, the House Band, before dinner.  Marsha and Rusty were passing through the Rendez-vous Lounge and recognized us and stopped to watch. While we waited for one more song they came over to tell that they loved to watch us dance. It was a bit tricky dancing since the water was rough once the ship left San Francisco Bay, sometimes the floor was not where you thought it should be.  We joined Sheila and Mildred for dinner and to recap our second day in San Francisco.  The ship continued to rock slightly during dinner. For dinner we both ordered Chickpea Tomato Soup, Maine Lobster Ravioli and Braised Veal wrapped in phyllo with Brussels sprouts in a light sauce.  Our desserts were Chocolate Lava cake with vanilla ice cream or Strawberry cake with a marzipan top and kirsch mousseline cream with a side of pistachio ice cream.

After dinner there was no dance band playing in the Rendez-vous Lounge, instead there was a :Name that Tune game starting. The swaying action of the ship seemed stronger and the doors to outside areas were roped off for safety.  Walking from magician Jay Mattioli’s show took careful balancing of your steps. Back in our interior mid-ship stateroom we could even feel the swaying, so people in the upper decks on the outside staterooms would encounter a greater swinging of the ship.

   Today we had climbed the equivalent of 91 sets of stairs.  The total distance walked 16.59 km  (10.3 miles)