Exploring San Fran!

First thing we did after our continental breakky was return our rental car to Budget on Howard St. Our least favourite parking attendant was somehow still on duty after being on yesterday evening. We didn’t tip him for bring the car 5m from where the car was parked!

We said goodbye to our trusty Chevrolet Cobalt at Budget and walked up to Market St. We bought 1 day unlimited Muni passports that allowed us travel on all of San Fran’s public transport for a reasonable USD 11. Then we hopped on a F Line street car to Fisherman’s wharf! For those wandering what an F line street car is, it’s basically like a Melbourne tram.

It was another beautiful day at Fisherman’s wharf and warm too! We got off outside the Boudin Bakery and headed to Pier 45 to check out the naval vessels there! Whilst Di browsed the Museum Mechanique (containing antique carnival game machines) I boarded the USS Panpamito, an old submarine from WWII! On board I got to see most of the submarine including the torpedo room, living quarters, galley, and control room!

Afterwards we walked around Fisherman’s wharf, past all the seafood restaurants selling clam and crab chowder! We then checked out Hyde St pier and some of the historic ships there. There were also these barrels with signboards teaching you how to tie various knots that the sailors used so we had fun learning new knots!

Next we grabbed icecream at a store called Ghirardelli - a Cookie Bottom Sundae! It was basically two scoops of vanilla icecream on top of a choc chip cookie with chocolate hot sauce on top! So rich so good!

Having finished seeing everything we wanted to see at Fisherman’s Wharf, we caught the famous San Fran cable car from Powell St to Union Square! Halfway up a hill the cable car stopped and the driver told us to get off! The power must’ve cut out or something. In not too long though we were back on the cable car! It was rather crowded and we were glad to get off at Union Square!

Here some promotion for World Harmony Day was happening so we checked that out before hitting the shops! We visited Niketown, Ninewest, and Macy’s before lunch! Managed to get some things on sale! Then we had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant advertised in our San Fran city guide! The place was funnily called ‘Indonesian Restaurant’ for lack of a better name! We had quite good lunch combos with beef rendang, some chicken dish, fried tofu, and another beef dish plus gado gado. All quite reasonable for USD 10 per person!

After lunch we walked back to our hotel to drop off the shopping before heading out again! We walked down to Market St past Civic Center and a bunch of hobos! Then we walked up Market St from the 7th street intersection checking out the shops! We didn’t really find much until we reached the Westfield. There we found mostly upmarket stores, not many with sales on. We kept on walking up Market St and checked out Marshalls and a toy store called Gregories before deciding to catch the Bart and bus no 19 back to our hotel.

Still feeling full from lunch, we opted to skip dinner and finish the fresh food we still had. We had bananas and root beer for dinner! And here we are watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on our last night in a hotel! Nite!