Day 5

The finale ...

We got up early and headed out for breakfast at a "fine" restaurant called Sears Fine Foods.  It is a local San Francisco fav, and we can see why!  They're famous for their plate of 18 Swedish pancakes.  All those carbs were tempting since we hiked about a mile uphill to get there, but instead Stu went for the French toast and I had the apple chicken sausage with eggs.  It was great!

After we got our nourishment we crossed the street for the cable car stop.  We were planning on taking the famous Powel-Hyde cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf.  Well, we stood there on the sidewalk, watching passers-by and eavesdropping on a few free-spirited college kids' convos, and finally started wondering why the cable car hadnt arrived?

Stuart got out the iPhone and conveniently found an automatically updating schedule.  It said the car was 8 minutes away.  Meanwhile, all these buses kept stopping by us with our destination posted on their placard.  Assuming this was a quicker travel alternative for the locals, we continued waiting.  Well, after about 20 minutes of the schedule updating with later and later times, we got a bit frustrated.  I walked up a bit closer to the street and all the sudden noticed this bright orange poster right below the cable car sign

Basically, the 2 days we were in town were the 2 days they were doing maintenence on the cable car.  Those buses that kept stopping for us and then leaving when we just stood there were the cable car-alternate buses!   There we go looking like tourists again ...

After that revelation we gave in and hopped on the next bus.  Fortunately it was a cheaper fare than the car; unfortunately it was not so exciting.  The "end of the line" for this bus just so happened to be Lombard Street - the (second most) curviest road in the world!  This is a one-block stretch of road that was made into switchbacks because the 27% grade is too steep for cars to descend!

Check out those curves!

As soon as we got close we saw flocks of tourists posing at the bottom and making the hike to the top.  We kind of felt bad for the people that actually live on that street, but then we got over it and joined everyone else at the top.  We broke a bit of a sweat on the way up, which was nothing new considering all the walking we had already done.  The view was worth it!

View from the top of the street

After the hike up, we made our way back down and over a few blocks to Fisherman's  Wharf.  The FW has been San Fran's fishing home for over 100 years.  There are several things they are famous for:

1) Dungeoness Crab - These have been farmed in the waters nearby for years.  They then sell them right there in the wharf - and make lunch out of them too!

2) Clam Chowder in bread bowls - you can buy these on the street side and just eat them on the sidewalk; however, we opted to dine inside the restaurant and enjoy the views from upstairs

3) Sea Lions - yes, sea lions in San Francisco!  These guys somehow migrated here to the docks in the 1990's and haven't left since.  About 15 of them originally set up shop, but now in the winter there are up to 500!  They just kind of loll around on the floating docks all day and bark at each other.  It's pretty hilarious!

Look!  They're hugging!

4) Scary men in fake bushes - this was one of my favorite parts of the day.  This guy sits on a crate, hides behind some fresh-plucked branches, and jumps out at unsuspecting pedestrians.  Fortunately I saw it before we got too close, so Stuart and I just decided to hang back and watch him jump out and yell Boo at everyone.

After soaking in the Wharf we walked up a few blocks around the "beach" (which is not quite as lovely as Gulf Shores I might say) to Ghiradelli Square to continue on with breaking our Lenten fast.  We enjoyed the largest ice cream sundaes you could ever dream of

Look at the smile on that face!  A little peanut butter goes a long way ...

My gold Rush Sundae with a chocolate chip cookie on the bottom

Finished!

And to walk off those extra 8 billion calories, we headed off for our last stop of the day: Chinatown!  San Francisco has the largest concentration of Chinese citizens in the country.  They originally immigrated to work in the Gold Rush; however, their population increased so rapidly that I guess it scared the locals.  They decided to limit Chinese immigration and even put a tax on them for working and competing with the Americans.  Anyway, eventually the Chinese just created their own community and have been there since.  And by "own community", you might as well just say "own world".  Walking in Chinatown is just what I imagine walking in China to be like.

Fish for sale on the sides of the street

 After walking around and taking in the sights, we got up a pretty good appetite!  We decided that we should eat like the locals and check out some place in Chinatown.  Thanks to our Urban Spoon aps we narrowed it down to a few choices, the favorite being Hong Kong Clay Pot - based on title alone.  After a few minutes of searching signs full of Chinese characters, we saw a small man standing outside the restaurant with menus in his hand.  We interrupted his conversation with the friendly fish salesman next to him and asked for a menu.  He seemed quite taken aback that we were interested in eating there, and showed us the way upstairs.

It was quite a quaint little restaurant, and we were one of two American parties sitting down to eat.  That, my friends, is the hallmark of a good Chinese restaurant:  that Chinese people are eating there.  The waitress quickly came over with a pot of (I think) green tea and handed us menus.  We poured over them and decided that we wanted to split some salted and spiced prawns and steamed garlic spinach with a starter of spring rolls.  Not knowing portion sizes, we were concerned that we wouldnt have enough food to last us for the uphill trek home.  So when the waitress returned we had this conversation:

Me: Ma'am, is this #48 shrimp enough for us to split?
Waitress: Ahhhh, no no, no vegetable
Me: Yes there's no vegetables in that dish I know, but would this be enough for us to split?
Waitress: Ahhhh no no, this one have skins and heads
Me: (To Stuart) What?!
Stuart: Excuse me?
Me: Ohh you have to peel your own shrimp
Waitress: Yes!  You no eat that.  You eat honey walnut shrimp.  Much better!
Stuart:  Ummm ... ok.  Well get honey walnut shrimp.  And some spinach please.

So our mothering Chinese waitress ordered our food for us, and the food pictured above is what we wound up with.  And it was delicious!  She must have known that creamy sweet shrimp would have been a great choice for us.  And you know what?  The garlic in that spinach put the garlic at The Stinking Rose to shame!

Super sketchy food = super delicious food

In summary, after many days of spaced-apart blogs of our trip, we had a super time and were a little sad about coming back.  But life must go on!  Stuart started back to work and I have started working in the ER.  Many, many disturbing stories to come from that I'm sure....