The travels of the Rambling Roses: November 8 & 9

Nov 8 - After riding hard for the last few days, Mike decided to take a day off from riding. We decided to get a few shopping chores done in the town of Stockton, which was a few miles down the road. After dinner, we strolled around our campground - Flag City RV, and found that they had a working hot tub! Woohoo! Of course we had to use it, so we bundled up against the cold night air and hiked over to the tub and spent the evening bubbling our cares away!

Nov 9 - Tourist Day! Today we drove back to Pittsburg (without the H), hopped on the BART and rode it to downtown. From there, we hiked the tourist area of San Francisco and enjoyed the Ferry Terminal, Fisherman's Wharf, cable cars, Chinatown and more!! Instead of writing about it, we decided to post the MANY pictures and we will tell the story with pictures. Enjoy!

San Francisco Bay Bridge

Ferry Building - back walkway

Big boat cruising under SF Bay Bridge

Some exhibit outside the Exploratorium

We stopped by the Alcatraz cruise pier to see if we could schedule a trip. Since it is a three day weekend, downtown and the piers were packed with people. We took the earliest reservation which is on Tuesday! This is a model of Alcatraz.

Battleship at Fisherman's Wharf

At Fisherman's Wharf, we stopped to have a bowl of clam chowder and sat in the park to eat. Many people left their bread bowls in the park to feed the seagulls. This guy worked hard on his bowl!

The park where we ate our chowder

We decided to visit the ships in the San Francisco Maritime National Park

National Maritime Museum had many different types of old ships......

This paddle wheel is just rusting away

This ship used to sail out of San Francisco

Exploring the bow of the ship

Stern wheeler (with the rusty paddle wheel)

Cargo inside the hold

Then we went and stood in line with a few hundred of our friends so we could ride the famous San Francisco Cable Cars!!

This is the turnaround at the bottom of Hyde Street at Fisherman's Wharf. This is where you board the car and immediately go up a VERY steep hill!

Wonder how they turn the car around?

Boarding the cable car

Look at this cutie on the cable car!

Our tickets!

This is how the conductor operates the car

Heading up the hill

Conductor working the controls

After we got off the cable car, we said goodbye to it and then headed into Chinatown!

Don't ask me what it says!!!

Everything, including street signs are written in English and Chinese. I kinda liked this church sign!

Looking down the street with the TransAmerican building in the background

Walking down the street

Looking in a shop window there were ducks, beef, fish, alligator legs.....

Many fruit and vegetable stands were along the sidewalk - we didn't recognize half of the veggies or fruit! We bought a big hand of bananas for $1! Good deals were to be had!

Yup, these are alligator feet! Yummy!

This was mural on an apartment building

Chinatown!

We decided to eat in this little place that had about 5 tables for eat in, and the counter was handling takeout the whole time we were there. People were going to the counter for spare ribs, roast duck and various unrecognizable things! Mike, in the spirit of Chinatown had a Chinese beer! (I did too)

Ducks, etc. hanging in the window!

I ordered my usual Chinese vegetables - it was the best that I've ever had!

Mike had chicken and Chinese broccoli (yes there is a Chinese broccoli!), we both had hot and sour soup and of course hot tea! Oh and we each had a Chinese beer. All for under $25!