San Francisco, So Many Hills, Never Enough Ice Cream

DAY 4

Katie had the day off to spend with us. We walked quickly to the train station to make the last bullet train to San Francisco.

It's a relatively quick trip, but you shouldn't call any train a bullet, unless it averages 175 mph. Just saying.

We really had no plans for the day except to wander the city.

Again, that's what I call a vacation. Plan for the unplanned. 

Scott and Katrina had been here before, but it was my first time. 

I didn't realize there were so many different forms of public transportation here. I like that they still use all the old cars from other cities. This one was the Twin Cities one. It's also kind of sad that all these cities don't use them anymore.

These PCC cars were from the last decade of the Twin City Lines' existence  Since they were in very good shape, they were sold to far-flung places like Mexico City and Newark. The cars that now ride along Market Street were sent from Newark when they moved to modern Light Rail trains.

We arrived at 9 a.m. so downtown was bustling.

It's not quite NYC or Chicago, but it's definitely a real city unlike San Jose or even Minneapolis.

We walked over to the Ferry Building where a farmers market was going on.

Hippies.

Scott made us do a tourist photo inside.

The Bay Bridge. I love this behemoth. It gets no respect. I know the Golden Gate is gold and all, but this one crosses a man made island.

Katie and I were hungry again, so we all had second breakfast at Cowgirl's Creamery. Funny thing was some of their cheese came from Minnesota.

Then we walked up the steep hills towards Coit Tower. As always I was falling behind.

You did your best.

Again we were too cheap to pay the $7 to go up to the top.

We still had some pretty good views from where we were.

Then we walked down to Fischerman's Warf. In the distance is that really curvy street (Lombard).

Well, actually we took a break in North Beach, which is a little Italy of sorts.

Yes, there are real fisherman at the cheesy warf.

I'm not sure which one of us kids started it, but whenever we go on a trip we get a magnet for my mom.  My parents fridge has magnets from around the world.

I just thought it was a well travled fridge.

It was super chilly by the water. I think I was starting to get used to the California weather. Although some people were swimming.

I guess Dennis always comes down to the old ships. I have to agree, that it's a pretty cool place.

We stopped by Ghirradeli Square briefly, but it was only multiple Ghirradeli chocolate shops and "Private Club" Condos or something.

Yeah, that place was weird.

 I wasn't looking forward to walking back up the hill so we rode the trolley back downtown. It seems that mostly tourists take it these days. I guess Scott didn't take any photos while on it.

Remember, we rode inside the car.

We decided to go to Mission for lunch. We took the BART Muni there this time.

I thought all the subways were BART, but those are only the ones that connect San Fran, Oakland and Berkley. It's more along the lines of commuter rail. 

Muni  Metro is all of the above and below ground trains, which are really light rail cars. I guess Muni in general is just a name for the overall transit, including buses, inside the city. It's confusing...

A few minutes later we were in the Mission

We wanted Mexican for lunch with really no idea where to go so we picked the first place that looked good. This place reminded me of Los Ocampos.

I honestly can't remember what the place was called, but it was good.

Both Katie and I wanted to stop at Tartine Bakery. I have heard of this place before, so I was curious to check it out. Scott and I each picked out a dessert for later.

There's a really cute grocery store down the block from Tartine, Bi-Rite, which also has a cute spin-off ice cream shop further down the block.

Scott's phone said we had to try this place.

It was good, my phone doesn't lie.

At this point our legs were killing us so we headed back to the train station. Back at home they made us  sausages and brussel sprouts for dinner. 

Also one of their cats knocked over Scott's backup camera and broke the lens. Bad luck with cameras for Scott this month. 

C'est la vie. At least the camera still works.

We watched a TV show on the best bakeries in the U.S. and Tartine was listed as one of them.