Tuesday, February 2. Cloudy with sunny periods.
After a great sleep we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and then hoofed it to the Ferry Terminal about 30 minutes away.
This is certainly a very beautiful and interesting city. They have kept so many of the old beautiful building from the early 20 th century. There is of course the concrete eyesores that all modern cities have but there seems to have been a concerted effort to keep the flavour of Old San Francisco.
The waterfront area, that can be a rather grubby area in some cities, is very attractive to my uninformed eye.
At the Ferry Terminal we bought tickets to Sausalito, a name I know but had no idea where it was. A 30 minute Ferry ride, past Alcatraz and the Golden gate Bridge and we were there. It is a cutsie little upscale high-rent little community. It reeks of money and artsy people abound here. It was however delightful to stroll the front street and the interesting shops and sight here. It is obviously the off-season but the weather was just fine, perfect actually.
Back into SF in the early afternoon and we strolled along the Embarcadero. It is interesting to think about the ocean-going traffic that needed so many piers and warehouses. There is/was about 44 piers stretching along the three mile long area, some still in use, many as offices and tourist related businesses. Our ship came in along this strip of piers.
Pier 39 is the centre of the 'Coney Island' atmosphere on the waterfront. Lots of visitors in spite of the winter season. Along the Embarcadero they have street cars from all over the world, still running in regular and frequent service. This is also the strip that had those two-level elevated roadways collapse dur
We then walked to the Cable Car Turnaround area and took the car to the front door of our hotel. We put our feet up for a couple of hours and then had a great steak dinner, walked the street a bit so those that had dessert could pretend they walked it off.
The Cable Car Experience is interesting from a mechanical point of view. To me it is absolutely amazing that the system is still in use. The system is the same as it was about 100 years ago. The maintenance must be horrendous and each car has two employees, driver and a conductor in the back. I can almost smell the union attitude. No wonder the cost is $5.00 each way. [The ferry ride to Sausalito was only $3.50.] At night the cars still run with the two operators, even though there are few riders. A job for life I imagine.
During the day I spoke to our kids and Scott. Lots going on at the build site Tuesday, the basement and house garage floors were poured. Co-incidentally the neighbours house was the scene of a movie shoot at the same time as our concrete pumper was in operation. Wally sent me an email with a picture showing the cul de sac in front of the house. Complete with food tent, and a tent for the film crew along with all their other vehicles. The concrete pumper and concrete truck had to manipulate it's way through the congestion. This is one time I was glad that I was not there.
I also had an exchange of communications with Luci regarding some artistic matters relating to the Olympics.
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