Dear Meghan,
Hello from San Francisco! Today has been quite an adventure
in a completely new part of the country! Aidan and I are nearing the end of our
road trip in the southwest, so we decided to come out of the woods and spend a
day in the city. Aidan has been here a number of times before but it is my
first time. I wanted to write you a letter because my only knowledge of San
Francisco is from you.
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| San Francisco skyline in the distance! |
This morning Aidan and I left Yosemite National Park or the
forest near there where we had set up camp. We ate granola for breakfast
because by this point I was sick of the oatmeal, packed up our camp, and
continued west like the gold miners. When we got near San Francisco, the
traffic got terrible! There were so many turns; states with more than three
highways are confusing! Thankfully Aidan is a pro-navigator and got us into the
city no problem! We came in over the San Mateo Bridge. We decided to take the
BART into the city to avoid driving downtown. We grabbed a couple carrots and
dashed for the train. We both have a good bit of experience navigating the
subway system in Boston so we figured San Francisco would be no problem. Little
did we know that you had to pay per stop. Thankfully we had enough nickels to
reach our destination (there is a song in Boston about a man named Charlie who
didn’t have enough nickels to get off the train so he had to ride it for ever
and ever, and that’s why the subway ticket is called a Charlie card – I’ll show
you sometime when you come to Boston). We were actually quite impressed by the
luxurious BART system; the wide trains and forward facing seats were a nice
change Boston’s rickety old system that makes me carsick. Dutifully, the BART
dropped us off right in the center of town.
We got off at the UN/Civic Center and walked around the
block to see city hall. Lots of people were out enjoying the sun and taking
naps in the grass. Our plan was to walk down Market Street until we hit the
water, but the carrots wore off too quickly so we decided to stop for lunch. We
ate delicious hamburgers at the Super Duper Burger place and continued to the
water where we joined throngs of tourists mulling about the market.
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| City Hall |
The sun came out in the late afternoon and we spent most of
the day by the water, which provided fantastic views of the bridges and city
skyline. A few piers down we found the Exploratorium! There were lots of
hands-on sciency activities, which clearly I would love and so we did all of
them. There were wheels demonstrating the characteristics of sediments of
varying clast sizes in the bay and model bridges that showed how San Francisco
managed to build the world’s longest suspension bridge of the time. My favorite
was an Aeolian harp humming in the wind. From there we continued walking and
found Pier 39 with crowds and crowds of people. We skipped 39 and walked down
40 where we could observe the sea lions and tourists and Alcatraz from a
distance.
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| Forever a child at heart... |
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| How gravel moves through water |
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The cement block in this suspension bridge essentially separates
the bridge into two smaller suspension bridges, which allows
the bridge to withstand stronger wind and earthquakes as the
maximum amplitude of movement is decreased, making the
bridge more sturdy and safer to travel on! |
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| A pretty skyline of the city |
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| LOVE THIS |
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An Aeolian harp. The wind vibrates the strings and the
disks amplify the sound! |
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| A human sundial. It actually was 2:30! |
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| Sea lions on Pier 39 |
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| Alcatraz |
After walking around the water, Aidan told me that he wanted
to show me some bread so we went to a giant bread company that made lots of
goofy looking sourdough bread. After that we went to the real store of
interest: the Ghiradeli factory. Aidan and I got a cookie crumble sundae to go
(I just made up that name) and then waited in line eating free chocolate
samples for half an hour. Eventually we got our obscenely sized sundae and
walked down to a park by the water to eat it.
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| The fancy Sourdough Bread company |
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| Chocolate... yum. |
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| I don't think he could actually fit it in his mouth... |
By now it was nearing dinnertime, though both of us were
thoroughly full of ice cream so we decided to walk up to Lombard Street and
watch all the crazy cars drive down. From there we continued to Telegraph Hill
to look at the Coit Tower and the scenic surrounding San Francisco area. We
then came down the hill for a culture walk down Grant Street. We started in
North Beach with all the cute little Italian tratorias and boutiques and then
continued south through China town. I kept my eyes open for the giant bags of
flat fortune cookies you always bring home, but unfortunately did not find any.
We did find some interesting items including a kite store, fireworks, and
tights that were 3 for $10, but didn’t purchase anything.
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| Lombard Street |
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| The Golden Gate Bridge! |
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| Coit Tower |
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| A view of the city |
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| Chinatown! |
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| A really cool map. Though missing the most important state! |
Anxious to get closer to the train stop before dark and with
our tummies still full of ice cream we continued down Grant Street until we
were just a few blocks from the station. There we found a restaurant called New
Delhi with delicious Indian food. They had a sign outside talking about how
they made their special bread. They slapped the dough right on the oven and if
we asked we could see a demonstration. Of course we asked, but unfortunately they
were busy and unable to let us see. Regardless, we still had a delicious meal
and enjoyed an evening with real food and no dishes to clean by a campfire.
After dinner, we hopped back on the BART and caught the
shuttle to our hotel. After a week and a half since our last showers in the
Grand Canyon, Aidan was really stinky! The showers at the hotel were much
anticipated and enjoyed. I am now ready to fall in bed exhausted. Tomorrow we
are planning to drive a third of the way across the country, all the way to
Salt Lake City. Hopefully there are some good radio stations on the way. We
really enjoyed the day in San Francisco and already have a list of things to do
if we ever go back.
I hope you are enjoying your summer and that I’ll get to see
you sometime at home. Take care and God bless.
Your friend,
Emily
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