Stayed up late last night to get ideas about camcorders, but got up 8:50am to escort Kat to work. I have to say, it's quite a romantic experience for me to know that we don't have to rely on our own transport to/from work, and that it's actually safe enough for Kat to go to/from work on her own too. Nonetheless, it's awesome to just get up, go with her on the bus, and then come home, and know she's going to be fine. The proximity to the bus stop from our hotel also helps immensely.
San Francisco has all sorts of funky people.
Check this girl with her devil's ears and tank goggles...
TRAVEL TIP: it's a good idea to book hotels near to metro stations (if you intend to use the metro a lot) and to buy a muni-pass; it saves you a lot of time! Prime reason to discriminate about choice of hotels!
(NOTE: If you don't care about electronics, skip this next paragraph)
On the way back to the hotel after dropping Kat off, I walked through Chinatown to get back and when I got back to the hotel, I spent about four hours shopping around online for a good deal on a camcorder. Chris Hockaday helped out a lot from SA side and I eventually decided on a SONY HDR-XR200V for $640 from B&H in New York City. The same model is going for $799 from BEST BUY here. After tacking on 3 year extended global warranty, shipping, and a mini HDMI cable, the total is $796 (which is around about R6,000.00). I could have chosen the PAL model from B&H for $1000 total, but I figure the HDMI and PC connections should do me fine. They wouldn't ship the camcorder to our hotel address so in a last-minute frantic bid for help, a guy called John Bennett from Kat's CHINA BASIN offices agreed to receive it tomorrow. I'm disappointed I won't get to use it this holiday, but on the bright side at least I've got it! Additionally, because I'm not in New York State when I buy it, I don't pay New York sales tax on it - which means I've saved a bit more.
After finally concluding the purchase, and the delivery (again, this was all entirely last minute and thanks to John Bennett - as well as Kat's quick-thinking - for enabling us to get this done at all), it was about 2pm, so I hit the road in search of my next big California Dream - the USS Pampanito and the Cable Car Museum (I had decided to give Alcatraz a miss, although I had really wanted to go there, because there just wasn't enough time left to do everything. Oh how things may have been different if we had a working camcorder on this holiday!).
I stopped off at the cable car "end of the line" and then took a stroll through the Hyde Street area. I decided in advance I wouldn't spend time visiting these maritime artefacts because I didn't have the time nor the money to do so. I admired the various boats and maritime legacies of a period decades ago, marvelled at the heavy tides in the "port" (?) area (there were waves on a little beach that I think was called the Barbary Coast), observed some of the museum boats rocking quite heavily in the waves, and took some shots of the distant (but now relatively unobstructed) Alcatraz prison. After about an hour of walking around (there is still a LOT of heritage to admire here), I proceed eastwards to Pier 39 and my date with the USS Pampanito (and hopefully USS Jeremiah).
To my disappointment, the USS Jeremiah was closed for the rest of the day because there had not been enough "foot traffic" to warrant keeping it open, and since it's a not-for-profit exhibit, I suppose the volunteers had felt their day was being wasted. Instead, I managed to get a discounted viewing of the Pampanito (not because of the closure of the USS Jeremiah, but because I had a tourist discount, which is available almost anywhere).
As the website says: the "USS Pampanito (SS-383) is a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial that is open for visitors daily at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. Pampanito made six patrols in the Pacific during World War II during which she sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others. " and it was an absolutely enthralling visit. I appreciated the WW2 aspect of this sub a lot more than I did the Cold War aspect of the USS Growler in New York, and what was more exhilerating for me was the fact that this sub was virtually completely untethered and it was listing and swaying in the choppy waters, so my journey onto, through, and out of the submarine was decorated with the entire "I'm at sea" bobbing and stumbling. It was great!!
After that, I used my coupons to get a Burger King chicken meal (and a free one to stash in my bag) and hit the cable car back uphill and hoped to get to the museum before it closed (it was about 4:45pm and I had no idea of the closing time for the museum, but I suspected it was about 5pm). At the point where I thought the museum was, I hopped off, and entered into a large workshop-like building that I knew was part of the San Francisco cable car department. It was a very large, open building, much like one would imagine a transport depot to look like, and I could see lots of tools and what looked like uniforms and lockers. An individual walked past and I asked him where the museum was, and he pointed me up the road. I walked up the road (same block) and came to the entrance, but disappointingly it was closed. I looked at the time on my cellphone, and it was 5:03pm and the museum closes at 5pm. Saddened, I observed the price of admission was FREE, and my sadness turned to mourning. Not only had I missed out on a really great exhibit, but it was completely FREE, and I didn't get to go! Mournfully walking back down the road to grab the next cable car to my hotel, I spied inside the windows and could see the industrial wheels and machinery that drive the entire cable car system in San Francisco. It was quite an awesome sight. I figured out there are separate wheel-like machines that apply to separate roads, and above each device was a big sign with a street name. There were probably six or seven that I could see, and they were big. it was a fascinating sight and I regret not being able to go in.
Returning home, I awaited Kat's triumphant return from her second (and final) day of work, and then we made a plan to hit the town and paint it ... uh ... green, I suppose. We checked out a little kitchenware shop next to the hotel that was really rather fancy (and it was next to Tiffany's). The items on sale were crazy reduced in price! Afterwards, and to make use of our final all-day-muni-pass, I took Kat for a trip to Golden Gate Park - an area I had been in the previous day when visiting Best Buy. The trip turned out to be a total disaster, and after we had hiked for a bit through the neighbourhood, keeping an eye out for decent food, we decided to turn back (it's not common to see a neighbourhood with alarms and burglar bars and security gates, so we figured we should hot-foot it outta there).
Nearing the end of our patience, we opted to get supper (Kat decided not to get cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, but to save it for the final day), and to my disappointment (I was hoping for a more decent meal and affordable meal with hot vegetables and salad etc. like Tommy's Joynt), we ended up with a full 11" pepperoni pizza (Kat got one for $8) and a beefy pizza slice, soda, and caesar salad (mine for $6'ish). We decided to wander around a bit more afterwards, and eventually went back to the hotel to go to sleep. Our final act of the day was to take the leftover pizza (three slices) and give it to some beggars. We hadn't gone far from the hotel when a guy shouted from across the street "hey! what you gonna do with that pizza?" and braved the sprint across the road and took the pizza from us (he must have been desperate). Earlier on in the evening a guy was handing out homeless brochures and I asked him if he wanted food, and he said people were dying on the streets and he'd gladly take the burger, so I gave him my leftover Burger King meal.
After finally concluding the purchase, and the delivery (again, this was all entirely last minute and thanks to John Bennett - as well as Kat's quick-thinking - for enabling us to get this done at all), it was about 2pm, so I hit the road in search of my next big California Dream - the USS Pampanito and the Cable Car Museum (I had decided to give Alcatraz a miss, although I had really wanted to go there, because there just wasn't enough time left to do everything. Oh how things may have been different if we had a working camcorder on this holiday!).
I just love the architecture! The contrast! The sharp angles!
Almost everywhere you walk in San Francisco you get this sort of view; steep hills, skyscrapers, and much older street buildings.
Crazy electric lines drive the street cars and buses, and there are spots (like this one) that are just overloaded with them overhead.
I like this shot because it shows the angle and depth of the road as it disappears into the land of the skycrapers... I can't explain it, but I like this photo.
As mentioned before, the roads are very steep, and in some spots it's so steep that residents have to park their cars with their wheels turned into the curb to prevent runaway cars down the hills!
(You will notice you are not allowed to turn right in this den of iniquity called San Fran.)
A bus running on the electric lines. I stand to be corrected, but I think some of the street cars (trains that go above- and underground) use the same electric lines as the buses.
The building. The sky. This shot mesmerises me.
I love walking through cities and getting these sort of views.
I actually feel a bit giddy looking up at them.
We are one block away! It's a sign! It's a sign!!
This is how laundry and deliveries are made to the shops; via a subterranean elevator.
That cone building is so iconic. I love it!! You see it everywhere, and in all the photo's of San Francisco, but I have no idea what it is :)
Riding the cable car to the wharf, you go through some areas that are adorned with trees on the side.
Shot of the crookedest street from the cable car (we stop at this point to change gears).
The crookedest street (you can just see it winding at the base of the shot).
I did it! I did it! The Golden Gate Bridge!! I've seen it at last!
This is open to explore, but at a small fee. I decided to get the free external view!
I really enjoy the sunny weather, the beach, the park, the small urban buildings, and then the skyscrapers in the background. Such a wonderful composition of nature and technology; this is my kind of place!!
Beware these "yellow shops" - loads of people wheeling and dealing. You'll notice none of the shops have prices in the stores; it's all about assessing the customer and figuring out by how much you can rip them off... like the time a guy asked for $400, then dropped to $300, and then asked "how much must we charge for you to buy it now"... sheesh dude, talk about a desperately bad sales pitch.
As we've traveled from NY to DC to LA to SFO, and the more of these yellow shops I've seen, the more I am convinced that this is all a giant franchise. Don't the colours remind you of Osman's?
Alcatraz. There. Seen it. Moving on.
To my disappointment, the USS Jeremiah was closed for the rest of the day because there had not been enough "foot traffic" to warrant keeping it open, and since it's a not-for-profit exhibit, I suppose the volunteers had felt their day was being wasted. Instead, I managed to get a discounted viewing of the Pampanito (not because of the closure of the USS Jeremiah, but because I had a tourist discount, which is available almost anywhere).
As the website says: the "USS Pampanito (SS-383) is a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial that is open for visitors daily at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. Pampanito made six patrols in the Pacific during World War II during which she sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others. " and it was an absolutely enthralling visit. I appreciated the WW2 aspect of this sub a lot more than I did the Cold War aspect of the USS Growler in New York, and what was more exhilerating for me was the fact that this sub was virtually completely untethered and it was listing and swaying in the choppy waters, so my journey onto, through, and out of the submarine was decorated with the entire "I'm at sea" bobbing and stumbling. It was great!!
Shhh... if you listen closely, you can almost hear this onion ring.
(get it? hear this "onion" "ring" ... "onion ring")
The "cogs and wheels" that drive the cable cars
Tee hee. Tee hee.
With all due respect to this homeless guy, I took this shot not in a bid to make fun of his predicament, but to illustrate to everyone how serious the poverty and homelessness can be in places like SFO. This guy was one of the lucky ones to have a spot to rest in the warmth of his own bedding. I earlier saw a "bum" take his blanket into the laundromat to clean it. Some of these guys have dignity, others not so much. We've seen guys that are total loons, others that just seem like normal folk bang out of luck.
It's already Valentine's Day in the shops here! That's just crazy!! We're in the absolute heart of deepest darkest capitalism. And the worst part: this Walgreens shop is open 24 hours a day, is ten metres away from our hotel, and stocks cheap food, drinks, trinkets, and snacks!!
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