San Francisco--"A Pile of People"--Day 1.

ARRIVAL

My wife, Nancy, decided that we should have a family meeting in San Francisco for a week.
Her roots go back to the early days of San Francisco and she has a sense of homecoming" every time she visits. It has been probably 20+ years since our last visit, and she wanted to take Sara and Matt and have us all spend some time together discovering her history. She got on the computer one day with a credit card in hand, made airline reservations, and a phone call setting up a weekly rental, and announced to everyone that they should block off the week on their calendars! And that was that!

So she flew up on a Monday. Sara lives in Santa Cruz and was going to pick her up and the two of them were to spend three days together doing girlie things before Matt and I arrived on Thursday. Nancy's plane arrived Monday at about 10:20. At 11:30 I got a call on my cell phone from Sara wondering whether Nancy had made her flight, because she had been driving around the airport for an hour and had not seen her. I called Nancy on her cell phone. She had been waiting outside patiently at the curb for over an hour on the upper level. Sara had been driving around and around the lower level. They finally did get together!

Aren't cell phones handy sometimes! (Sara is Santa Cruz "organic" and doesn't want a cell phone)

When Matt and I arrived on Thursday, I called Nancy cell to cell, and they were just a minute away from picking us up, on the lower arrival level! Experience is a great teacher!

DIGS!

Nancy had a friend who knew someone in SF who rented out an apartment in her home on a weekly basis to "select" recommended people--and I guess we all passed muster. It was located in the Potrero district which is directly south of downtown a few miles and east of the Castro and Mission districts. It is a quiet neighborhood with great views of the downtown skyline. It is also the home of the Anchor Brewing Company, and is the neighboorhood where O. J. Simpson grew up. There is still a mural of him on a wall in the local recreation center. Better still, it had a great coffee house called "Farley's" just a couple blocks from us. During the week it opened at 6 am, and since I generally get up early, I was often one of their first customers. With the exception of Matt who is not a coffee person, we all made it our daily launch pad!

TOURING WITH THE TOURIST "PILE"

We picked up some sandwiches at a local deli, and had a pleasant lunch in the back garden at the apartment and planned our adventure for our first afternoon together in the City. I was ready to do touristy things, especially since Matt had never been to the City before and needed to see the sights.

Since Sara had a car, she was the "designated" driver. I thought to be the "designated" backseat driver, although every time I made a comment I was yelled at and beat down! Sara had been to the City a number of times during the last few years and knew her way around reasonably well. She fit right into the city driving milieu; she complained about everyone who stopped or cut her off, and usually was fully supported by her mother who had a tendancy to flip them off as we drove by! We drove downtown, parked in a parking structure, and headed out to Union Square to buy a 3 day MUNI pass. We figured we then could use public transportation most of the time and ride the cable cars as much as we wanted. (Cable Car fare is $3, everything else about half that!). I thought the tourist season would be winding down and that mid-week would be somewhat quiet! But there was a pile of people in town. There was an outdoor art show in Union Square. On Thursday! Of course the lines were so long to get on one of the cable cars, that we decided we could probably walk to where we were going before we would even get on one! Buses and the electric trollies proved to be a lot easier to use and were really the best way to get around, although not so "romantic". We played tourist and spent most of the day on the embarcadero, walked Pier 39 with the pile of people, saw all the sea lions laying about, gawked at the horde of tourists taking pictures and buying trinkets and stuff, went to Fisherman's Wharf, visited the amusement "museum", and looked at the old WWII submarine. Matt and Sara wanted to go see the Ripley's Believe it or Not exhibit, so for an hour, Nancy and I walked over to Ghiradelli Square and had an ice cream and sat on a bench!! Matt and Sara thought that Ripley's was really "cool" and well worth the 12 buck admission! I guess the oddities must have been odious enough to entertain and "gross out" the younger generation! By the time one hits 60 or so, nothing much is odd anymore!

THE BUENA VISTA!

We all walked up to the Buena Vista "Saloon" where Sara and Nancy attacked some "Cosmos" and Matt and I each had a Sierra Gold Ale. (nice and hoppy) We looked out the window at the Cable Car turnaround station and watched the mass of people lined up to take the ride up Nob Hill, back down to China Town and finally to the Market Street stop. It reminded me of the most popular "E" ride ticket at Disneyland on their busiest day of the year! I knew we had to ride the Cable Car at least once for Matt since he had never been on one, but did not look forward to standing in line for an hour or so to do it! Maybe later at night would be better. The cars ran till 10 pm. We walked back down to the embarcadero and caught a trolley down to pier 23.

PIER 23

At pier 23 there is a very old hangout called "Pier 23" which Sara knew from a prior trip that was a very popular bayside eating and drinking joint with the locals. It was very casual, and relatively inexpensive. The menu showed basic seafood, hamburgers/sandwiches, some live music, and what seemed like a younger downtown crowd. I thought it was perfect! We sat outside with a great bay view, had a beer, fish and chips, ahhh! Dinner for 4 with drinks and tip was about 60-70 bucks!! And that included salad and a big plate of calimari! My kind of place!

COIT TOWER

Right above pier 23 to the west is Coit Tower. That was another must see, and Sara said she knew about some "secret" stairs just a block or so away that went all the way up the hill. My thought, as I looked up at what seemed to me a rival of the Mattehorn, was no way! Couldn't we just go back and get the car and drive up there? No one was going along with that! So we were off on our adventure! And indeed, there appeared to be steps leading upward at the end of a small street . So up we started. I wondered aloud if I would make it with my "heart condition". I was reproached with some disdainful stares! I climbed! There were homes built into the "cliff" on our way up, and it seemed to me that many of them had no other access other than the stairs we were climbing. I envisioned people hauling up bags of groceries and gasping as they climbed to altitude.

About halfway up, there was a road cut into the side of the hill which provided access to some of the homes, and to a fancy restaurant called "Julius' Castle", which was a converted mansion perched on the edge of the cliff. The views were spectacular, at least 180 degrees all across the bay. There was valet parking, and some cars parked near the "castle" with a couple of valets hanging loosely about. I walked over and checked the menu posted outside the entrance. . It looked pretty upscale, $$$$. Maybe it would be suitable for just a special occassion sometime! Onward up the next section of steps, and by some more homes until the top was reached and spilled us out onto the parking lot of the Coit Tower. The climb felt like a great accomplishment!!

The tower was originally built as a signal tower. It is 210 ft high and is on Telegraph Hill near the bay (alt. 274 ft). A donation of $100000 was made by Lillie Hitchcock Coit to build the tower back in 1933. She had been rescued as a young girl by the fire department and dedicated the tower in honor of the City firefighters. A couple years after it was built a project was commissioned to cover the inside walls of the lower level of the tower with painted murals. They are in a herioc style, have been well preserved, and represent the work and activity of the residents of the area. For a small fee we all hopped on the elevator for a ride to the top observation deck. The Chinese elevator operator/guide gave us a short talk about the tower on the way up-most of which I couldn't understand. I gave him a buck anyway on the way down! It was the sunset of a bright clear day, and not only did we see the sun go down, we saw all the lights of the city and the bridges sparkle as night settled in. It was the best and most beautiful time of day to visit.

Going down the steps was alot easier, although it was dark and not well lighted in some areas. Just as I was saying that everyone should be careful and hang on to the rail, Nancy actually slipped on a step and took a tumble against the rail and hit her back on it. She had to stop and sit for a moment! It was a sore spot for a week! But we made it the rest of the way safely and now know a "secret stair" spot in San Francisco that is probably not known to many "tourists".

MATT'S CABLE CAR

We still had to get Matt on a Cable Car. We caught a trolley back to Fisherman's wharf and walked up to the Cable Car turnaround . It was about 8:30 pm. There was still a fairly long line waiting, but it was only about a third as long as what we saw in the late afternoon. It looked to be about a 45 min line. While we waited we were serenaded by a old grizzled, bearded banjo player who looked to be a regular at this location. He had a big pile of quarters in the banjo case sitting out front of his stool. He obviously was doing well financially! With the pile of people passing by him in line every day, I thought that he probably made enough picking his banjo to live in one of the local high rise penthouse apartments in the area.

We finally got on a Cable Car. All four of us had to hang on to a bar and stand on the outside "running board". I think Matt thought that was cool. (I did too!) Our operator did lots of "ding-dings" on his bell, and had some humerous remarks here and there as he pulled on the levers, alternately braking and grabbing the cable to make it stop and go! Yes, it was just like an "E" ride at Disneyland.

When we got down to the end of the line at Market Street, there was a pile of people waiting to hang on all the way back to the other end!

Our first day in the City--we had a great time just being part of the "pile"!