Another glorious day in Northern California, with temperatures in the 70’s and clear skies. Today was time to be a tourist in San Francisco. Joanna dropped us off at Vallejo Ferry Terminal for the 1 hour ride to the city. the ferry is pretty good with power for charging as well as free WiFi. The water was like glass and you could have bare foot skied behind the ferry. The ferry first stopped at the main ferry terminal but we continued to Pier 41 in the main tourist area.

 

Jenny was keen to get some chowder and soon we were getting into a couple of sourdough bread bowls of clam chowder. we found some tables in the middle of a flock of pigeons and gulls (including bird poo on the tables) but they were well behaved. I think they knew food was coming to them. Like many others it was a struggle to get through the chowder and the bread bowl. So the birds got their feed.

 

Next door was Musée Mécanique which was an amusement arcade with a difference. Most of the machines dated back to the early 1900’s.

 

With no fog on the bay we walked along the beach towards Presidio to get a good view and photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was amazing at the number of cyclists and joggers along the path.

 

After a decent walk it was time to indulge on one of the local delicacies – Ghirardelli chocolate. I chose a caramel fudge and Jenny had a raspberry sorbet. It took a bit to go through.

 

It was time to head home via the BART but we used another of the local attractions to get there – the Hyde & Powell Streets Cable Car. It wasn’t too much of a wait before we were on with Jenny on a seat and me hanging off the side. The ride took us past Lombard Street (that’s the windy street) with a huge queue of cars waiting to drive down it.

We were about to turn into Powell Street when the cable car stopped and were told the cable was out and this was the end of the journey.

 

There were two choices – wait for a shuttle or walk the 10 blocks on some steep roads to the BART station. We decided to walk.

 

With a 45 minute trip back to Martinez, it didn’t take long before we were both taking nanna naps. We did wake up just before our station.

 

Joanna picked us up and it was a quick trip back to Benicia to see Jiana receive her soccer trophy –  her team one the championship this season and apparently there are some good players on the team.

 

The day wasn’t finished yet as we were headed out to 1st Street Cafe for a meal and some live music from the Tuneriders. our favourite crab man, Paul was there and was good to catch up. He has promised crabs on our return to Benicia on December 8th.