We are out of the hotel at about 10:30 this morning and we wander up to the Hyde Cable Car terminus where we catch the car up the hill to the centre of the city. This is the first time any of us have ridden a San Francisco Cable Car and we all opt to stand on the running board and hang off the side. It is incredible that in this sanitised world where you are so frequently prohibited from doing anything remotely dangerous that you can hang off the side of a relatively fast moving vehicle in a busy city with other vehicles manoeuvring around you, it is great fun.
We hopped off the first car at Lombard Street, keen to see the famous street that winds its way down the side of a very steep hill which has featured in so many movies over the years, we then got back on the next cable car all the way to Market street in the centre of the city.
We had a reason for coming into the city centre, other than just riding the Cable Car, Baggage has been growing since we left the UK and now needs some new jeans and Lisa needed some new underwear, we made successful purchases on both fronts.
We grabbed a bit of lunch in a food court on the ground floor of a large central shopping Mall and then headed back out of the centre on the cable car. This time we rode as far as California street and changed here for the California cable car which we rode all the way back down the hill to where we could catch the electric tram back along the harbour front.
On the way back to the hotel we did a bit of gift shopping and then returned to our room for a couple of hours before heading out again for the cable car and a ride up to Chinatown for dinner. We ended up eating at The Chinatown Restaurant, the food was very good. We ordered a bit of dim sum as a starter then a noodle dish and sweet and sour pork with rice, they got the sequencing all wrong though, we got the noodles first, then the dim sum, then the pork and lastly, quite a bit later, the rice. As it was the restaurants 90th birthday we also got an additional free dim sum dish which they did bring out first of all, and some green tea ice cream to finish off with, this was surprisingly very good.
After dinner I took a walk and some photos around Chinatown then we got the cable car back down the hill to Hyde. From here Lisa and Baggage headed back for the hotel whilst I stayed out and took some more photos firstly of the sunset over the bay, and then of the Fisherman’s Wharf area after dark.
On the way back to the hotel there was a bit of fuss outside a restaurant. Two silver SUVs were parked with police cars in front and behind and a security detail manning the doors of the cars, a few people had gathered to see who was going to come out of the restaurant and get into the car so I waited with them. After about 10 minutes the car doors were opened and a party came out of the restaurant escorted by their security detail, who they were I have no idea, nor did any of the other people waiting by the roadside to catch a glimpse.
Back at the hotel Lisa and Baggage were already getting ready for bed. I grabbed a bottle of Anchor Steam and uploaded a few photos off the camera after which it was time to turn in.
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