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SF Tourists
Of journeying the benefits are many: the freshness it bringeth to the heart, the seeing and hearing of marvelous things, the delight of beholding new cities, the meeting of unknown friends, and the learning of high manners.
-- Gulistan Sadi
Friday, February 23, 2001
One year ago: Procrastination
Two years ago: Frustration
Three years ago: Not Reading
Jack arrived at my place last night, around eleven. We only got about four hours of sleep! But I wanted to get to the airport in plenty of time, and we had an early flight.
The trip went smoothly. I was excited! I've been to the bay area before, but on previous trips I spent most of my time in Oakland, and I hadn't flown into this airport before. We took a shuttle van into town, at a pretty good price. The only difficulty finding the spot in the airport where we should find the van!
We were at the hotel, checked in, and in our room by about nine thirty! The hotel is an old one, with a good looking lobby and long halls with high ceilings. It's now operated by Ramada, but they wisely kept the atmosphere.
* * * * * * * *
Our reason for traveling so early was that we wanted this day for doing touristy things, so we dropped our bags and headed out, after getting advice from the bell captain (and a free tourist map and brochure). The hotel is in a neighborhood that's seen better days, with unrented stores, but we didn't feel unsafe walking down Market to where we would catch the cable car. We bought day passes for this most touristy of transport modes, and figured out what route to take.
We headed to Fisherman's Wharf first. The cable car was fun to ride! Jack was intrigued by the technical aspects, like how the thing actually works! We stayed on all the way to the end of the line, which drops you off a few blocks from the waterfront. (Apparently there was politics involved here; the retailers between the drop-off point and the wharf didn't want to lose the business from the tourists walking by!)
I wasn't interested in visiting stores that I could see anywhere, but Jack was hungry, so I got a walking crab cocktail (tolerable) and he had chili in a sourdough bread bowl (good!) from Boudin. It was turning into a delightful day, sunny and mild.
We walked over to the water's edge, and admired the tourboats of the Red and White line. Down the pier we could see a World War II submarine, the U.S.S. Pampanito. We didn't take the tour, but I studied the historical displays and signs. There was also a one-man sub on the dock, built from a propane tank. Jack was especially impressed, since this is a fantasy of his.
After looking at our map, we decided to just walk along the Embarcadero and see what we encountered. Pier 39 was just a few blocks away. Jack was interested in looking for gifts for his daughters, and we could both hear the sea lions bellowing and barking. But we couldn't see them yet!
Pier 39 is a pleasant conglomeration of small shops and restaurants, and the percentage of crappy souvenirs is low. We wandered through, finally getting to the sea lion viewing area. The sea lions pull out and bask on floats near the end of the pier -- it's apparently been prime real estate for them since the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. There's a Marine Mammal eduation center with informational displays, and a huge sea lion skeleton!
The only purchase I made was some Joseph Schmidt truffles at Chocolate Heaven. We actually had some left from my Valentine gift to Jack, but they were back in the hotel room, and we needed chocolate now.
* * * * * * * *
We continued walking along the Embarcadero, with a vague idea of making Levi Strauss Plaza our next destination. But actually it turned out not to be a shopping place; it's more of an office development with a nice park (designed by Lawrence Halprin, who also did Seattle's Freeway Park). The fountains were turned off due to the energry crisis, though.
I thought we should push on, to a place where we could get back on a bus or cable car and get to Chinatown, our next intended goal.
On the wharfs we passed, I admired the fancy Beaux Arts facades of the buildings. They looked very substantial! Most were used for parking or storage of various items. Jack was very excited when we passed a company that stored fancy limos. They had a hummer limo, and even a PT Cruiser limo. I thought the Cruiser lost a bit of the elegant proportions, though.
We also passed the new home of the Teatro ZinZanni, which started in Seattle. This is a dinner theater cum circus thing, under a tent. We'd have made arrangements to see the show if we were going to be around longer. But it's so expensive!
* * * * * * * *
We'd seen some old-style streetcars, and I could tell from our tourist brochure that they would get us where we needed to go: the foot of Market Street, where it ends at the old ferry building. We crossed to one of the stops (special platforms in the middle of the street) and waited only a few minutes. I grabbed a brochure that gave some information about the "F" line. I'd wondered why there was such a variety of cars; it turned out that they'd been gathered from all over the world!
We actually had a brief ride, then we were at the impressive Ferry Plaza. This is a nice public space, and fairly new. We walked across the plaza and made our way to the cable car stop.
This cable car ride (on the California street line) had us sitting, facing the outside of the car. Most folks were tourists, but not all. We disembarked in Chinatown, at Grant Street.
We walked all over the place! After a while, the sequence of jewelry store, souvenir store, electronics store, did get repetitious, but I could distinguish between the run-of-the-mill, and the stores that had some good stuff (in the gemstone way) after a while.
Almost as an afterthought, we entered the Leather Club. No, not that kind of leather club, they just sell coats. Jack tried on several, and found on that fit him. He was also tempted by a long, matrix-stylee coat, but restrained himself. He really needed the motorcycle jacket, though, since his old one was ripped on one arm.
As we were walking out, I decided to try on some jackets, too. I'll need a leather jacket if Jack ever gets the Goldwing going. The small Asian girls working there were very helpful with pulling out the large-size jackets. I found one that I liked ok, except for the sleeves. I didn't think there was anything to be done about it, but the girls started exclaiming that they could get the jacket altered! One hour! No problem!
I decided that rather than wait for an hour, I'd come back tomorrow to pick it up. The girls decided to take me around the corner to their tailor right then. Out the door, down the street, around the corner, up the hill and up to a second story apartment, filled with sewing machines, cloth, the tools of the tailors' art, and a TV blaring a martial arts movie. An older man immediately started marking my sleeves with chalk. When he was satisfied that he could shorten the sleeves and fix the cuffs, he took the coat and let us go. We went back to the store, I paid, and we left.
We stopped for a snack. There weren't too many "fast" food places, dim sum or noodle houses or the like, but we found an oriental bakery that had some good stuff. Then we walked up the hill on our way back to the hotel. I wanted to get something for the con suite, some food to contribute, so we stopped into several food stores and herb stores. Finally I found what I was looking for: those little fruit gels in plastic cups.
We boarded the cable cars again, going the opposite direction from this morning. They were so crowsed that we actually did stand up and hang onto the outside of the car. This made me nervous when we passed another cable car going the other way! Jack said he had the urge to high-five the folks in the other car, so close to us, but he refrained.
* * * * * * * *
What an excusion! It was really a fun day. Back at the hotel, we got down to the real business of the weekend, getting our convention memberships for Potlatch 10, and visiting the hospitality suite and the toy room. (This is a room that Potlatch usually does, filled with real toys and construction kits, not sex toys.) It was fun greeting folks I hadn't seen for a while, and talking to new people too.
I suggested to Jack that we should instigate a dinner expedition relatively soon. I was hungry, and I wanted to get back in time for the opening program item. So we talked up a few people (Neil Rest, Cynthia, and some others), and picked a Vietnamese place that was listed in the native guide, and was only a few blocks away.
We got a good look at City Hall as we walked -- a very impressive building, much larger than any comparable Seattle structure. The restuarant was open, but empty. I think they get a lot more business at lunch time. Jack and I were delighted to find pho on the menu, and encouraged other folks to order it, and the vietnamese "french" coffee, too.
We were back at the hotel in time for the opening panel: Thunder and Roses, Deb Notkin, Dave Nee, and Paul Williams. This wasn't just about the Theodore Sturgeon story, but the whole volume (number four in the series) of his collected short stories. This book, edited by the above Paul Williams, is the book of honor for the con.
I didn't manage to get a copy of the book before the convention, but we bought one in the dealers' room before dinner. Jack and I will take turns reading parts of it, I guess!
I didn't stay too late at the con suite, but retired to our room. A long day, but a fun one!
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