Monday, September 26, 2011

US Holiday - Day 16 - San Francisco - Day 2

Day 16 - Saturday 24th September

Okay, just in case you didn't know San Francisco has some hills. But I'll come back to that later.

The morning started under grey skies. It felt as if it wanted to rain but it couldn't bring itself to do so. I walked back along Market Street and took a left to walk down towards the Giants baseball stadium. Now I should have made the left a couple of streets before the one that I eventually took. Why? Well I was getting into some dodgy looking areas. Every second person appeared to have a cup out wanting change. The poverty over here in the US is pretty stark and there are reminders on every street corner.

Got down to the stadium and took some pictures and then walked along the edge of SF bay. I decided to follow this along and underneath the Oakland Bay Bridge before heading back to the SF Ferry Building. There was a lot of activity here with a growers market taking place. Lots of good and fresh produce being sold and eaten. After a wander through I kept on walking around towards the Fisherman's Wharf. A decent number of people were completing this walk along with people on push bikes.

Fisherman's Wharf is a bit of a tourist trap with lots of shops, piers for going on cruises and tours and heaps of restaurants. I then noticed a trolley car starting point so decided to walk up the hill that it came down. These streets are steep and can understand why the trolley cars are still being used. The walk up the hill was slow as I took time to enjoy views back over the bay taking in Alcatraz and the bottom half of the Golden Gate Bridge. There was still significant cloud cover so the sun had not broken through on the SF side but I could see across the water and see that the other side was in sun light.

I continued walking up the hill and just when you thought you got to the top, no, it's just a plateau before the next hill. I then got up to an area called Nob Hill and from there I made my way down and through China Town. Grabbed a late lunch before walking back to the hotel for a rest.

Headed out again early evening to grab some dinner. Had some Thai and that was quite nice. Huge servings as well. I feel bad leaving food on the plate. Did a bit of a walk around before returning once again to the hotel. Headed out one final time at around 8.30pm for some picture and video taking in the evening. Still a fair amount of people out and about at this stage. Grabbed some munchies on the way back to the hotel and retired for the evening.

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