My first look at San Francisco

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed over to Balesan’s house. We chatted awhile then headed off to San Francisco. Even though they’ve lived in Fremont for a number of years, they haven’t done a lot of sightseeing in San Francisco. It was a lovely day for sightseeing so off we went.

We parked by Pier 39 and took the pedestrian overpass to it. These are pictures from the overpass of the water front. Beyond Pier 39 is a cruise ship that was taking on passengers. What a traffic problem that caused!

We stopped for a late lunch at Luigi’s Pizzeria on the pier which turned out to be a very late lunch because the service was super slow. After that, we poked around a little bit (none of us was interested in shopping, the main attraction here) and headed to the sea lion area. Most of the sea lions were quietly basking but these two kept up a constant barking with some lunging at each other. Territorial dispute I assume.

From there, we headed over to the cable car terminus. It was another hour+ wait but we were able to watch the trainmen manually turn the cable car around for the outbound journey. This one wasn’t our car, however. We did get on the next one.

As we made our way up Hyde St, the cable car would stop at each crossroad and people would get on or off. As the cable car prepared to move again, photographers would hop out in the street ahead and take pictures. It was kind of funny. I don’t know just what kind of picture they were trying to get.

Unbeknownst to me, arrangements had been made to ride only a few blocks and get out at Lombard St. This prearrangement must not have been too firm, however, since Balesan and Radha almost didn’t get off! This block of Lombard St. goes down a very steep hill in a series of switchbacks and bills itself as “the world’s crookedest street.” It certainly is a tourist attraction with cars vying to drive down it. It must be a royal pain to actually live on that street. We took the sidewalk down.

This is the top of the crooked section of Lombard St looking east. That’s Coit Tower in the distance – another landmark of San Francisco.

And this is us posing at the bottom of Lombard St’s crooked section. (Yes, I know some people would have expunged that wire from the photo, but I don’t have the skills. And it’s partly a case of “Let reality rule.”)

Finally, we went to the viewing area for the Golden Gate Bridge. It was getting on toward sunset so the light was a little difficult, but here we are with the bridge in the background. Proof enough for me that we really were there!

After we got back to Fremont, we picked up their son and headed to Bombay Garden where we all partook of the wonderful buffet. Very good Indian dishes but, as usual, I ate too much. Since I can’t remember the names of the dishes, I can’t tell you which one I liked best.

[written 11/3/13]