After a 10-minute walk from our campground down a nice pedestrian/bike path we arrived Larkspur Ferry Terminal. The girls didn't seem to excited about a trip to the city at first, but the ferry ride was fun. It started off slowly, but once we got out of the harbor that thing was really moving. Keiko and Amaya both got a kick out of standing on the deck in the very strong wind and sea spray. We quickly learned why no one was sitting in the seating area we picked....
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Marin Hills |
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MC Hammer's got nothing on me! |
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Golden Gate Bridge Shrouded in Fog |
We cruised by Alcatraz and could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, shrouded in fog. Approaching the city from the bay was really cool. Rachelle's friend, Gail, took the afternoon off from work and meet us at
the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. What a cool building. Jimmy Blair had
told me visit Blue Bottle Coffee, so I made a caffeine stop. Awesome.
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Approaching the San Francisco Ferry Building from the Bay |
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Blue Bottle Coffee in the Ferry Building |
Gail took us to a restaurant called Yank Sing for dim sum lunch. Fantastic, but oh my God we were stuffed! After that, I had thought we could take one of those hop-on, hop-off open-top-bus tours around the city, but it was too late in the day to make it work out well. Instead, we walked up to Chinatown. Sadly, the photo didn't come out well for my favorite view in Chinatown: A crowd of men gambling around a "No Loitering" sign...
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Dim Sum! |
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Transamerica |
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Can you see the Ferry Building? |
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Chinatown! |
Rachelle eventually walked Gail back to the Ferry Building. The girls and I started upon on a quest for some special paper scrolls, but we gave up after
visiting about 10 shops that contained overwhelming numbers of tiny
items.
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Vaguely Asian Chachkas |
What visit to San Francisco would be complete without a cable car ride over the hill to North Beach and Ghiradelli Square? Rachelle and the girls noted that the cable car operator was really "mean." It's true that he wasn't very friendly, but that job has got to be really hard and super stressful. The operator was clearly an ex-military type. That dude's shoulders and back look like he could have pulled the car up the hill with his bare hands if he had to.
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I think that's Alcatraz straight ahead. |
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Amaya looks friendly, anyway... |
The Ghiradelli chocolate store is a dangerous place to take a family who has been forced to walk around the city all day long. Sadly, the dark chocolate nonpareils are no longer with us.
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Keiko's Fantasy World: Ghiradelli |
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Hey Sis, you gonna need all of that shake? Shaa... |
As evening approached, I told everyone that I had a truly awesome place in mind for dinner...but that it was about 1.3 miles away. It was starting to get cold and we had already walked a lot of miles up and down steep hills. I assured them that if they were able to hold out and walk up Columbus street, we'd head into the heart of North Beach, the Italian enclave, and I would treat them to the best pasta they'd ever had. In so many words, they told me I was full of crap, but eventually they agreed to make the walk—as long as I was willing to spring for a taxicab to get us back to our Ferry by 9:00. The mantra, "This had better be REALLY good, Dad" persisted for the entire 1.3 miles.
Caffe Sport, is a place that I had visited multiple of times while living in the Bay Area. I knew from my iPhone that it still existed and was open that night, but I was starting to worry about the deep pile of doo-doo I'd be in if it didn't live up to my memory.
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Funky Caffe Sport |
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Caffe Sport Interior |
Fortunately, everything was just as I had remembered it to be. The restaurant is decorated from floor to ceiling with a funky collection of wooden carvings from the Sicilian Chef/Owner assembled over many decades. It was actually better than I remembered it. And the food...Holy Crap!....The FOOD.
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Sorry, I just couldn't resist... |
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Leaving San Francsico—About to disappear into a fog bank. |
I followed through on my part of the bargain and we took a cab back to the Ferry Building. The sun was setting as we left San Francisco. The Ferry slowed down a lot as we slipped into a fog bank, but after ten minutes or so we emerged into a beautiful clear evening in Marin. It was a long, but memorable day!
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When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay... |
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