Day 3 - Bad for your feet
Today was the most walking I've done yet on this trip - I'm not sure how much more we'll do of walking tours after this, but I'm sure it'll be the most for the rest of the trip, too.
Started out as an early morning, heading out to the farmer's market out at the Ferry Building downtown. On the way, as we drove along Lombard St from our hotel, we got to see a very familiar section of road. As we continued our trip out east to the bayside, we found some parking and walked along the bay, passing by the Bay Bridge which we had taken the previous day out to Berkeley.
Walked around the farmer's market with mom/dad/unclemark and saw some pretty interesting things. Got to check out the Ferry Building itself which is also a market on non-farmer days as well. Stopped by a couple shops, and ended up getting some food from different places and eating outside, because it was such a beautiful day. Dad and I ended up sitting outside while mom and uncle mark disappeared for a while, and we just shared some sourdough and cheese which was a good way to start the day.
From there, we drove northward to Fisherman's Wharf, where we'd take our ferry out to Alcatraz. Yes, it is getting weird saying "ferry" so much when I'm in San Francisco, but I think I'm "ferry"ed out for the time being. Waited in line for a while, and managed to get a good spot up at the top of the boat, even though it did get a little chilly on the way over there. It did make for nice pictures, though. As we arrived on the island, we began our trek upwards after a discovery-channel feature during which I took a little nap. The whole walk is something like a quarter of a mile, but that's lengthwise. The climb is 40m, which is about 13 stories.
The tour of the cell house was fantastic. The audio tour was very well put together, and featured multiple former guards and inmates, which made the experience much more authentic, even if the main narrator sounded like Colonel Campbell. They allow you to check out a couple of the cells in d-block, including the solitary confinement, which I found quite creepy. In the end, very informative, and very cool. I had a sort of craving for Alcatraz-y stuff after I watched the recent Mythbusters episode about Frank Morris. Once we'd all completed our tour, we took the boat back to the mainland and drove back to the room.
Since I was hungry, and dad had been talking about them all day, we took a walk over to OBW (original buffalo wings). Uncle Mark told us their wings were superior, and that their home-made potato chips were also excellent. And indeed that was the case! It was a nice little outing, but did consume a bunch of time between returning and having to head out again.
For Chanukah, S 'n K got us tickets for a San Francisco food tour along Chinatown and North Beach. So tonight, we met up with our tour guide and the other people of our group, and started walking. After about 4 blocks, we stopped in what is claimed to be the oldest chinese restaurant in San Francisco (maybe the country... who knows...) for some Dim Sum. At this point I was very relieved and excited that our trip through Chinatown would be full of such awesomeness, since I had no idea how much food would actually been involved in this tour. On our way to our next destination, I got a nice picture by Double Dragon Massage, where I'm sure Billy and Jimmy know how to punch in the right places.
We stopped at a small fortune cookie factory. Did you know that San Francisco is the birthplace of the fortune cookie? Funny enough, it wasn't even in Chinatown. It was made here in its current form by a Japanese guy named Makoto Hagiwara, who also created and maintained the Japanese Tea Garden we saw on Day 1. Amusing! The next place we sat down was a tea shop where the waiter/clerk/maitre'd/blahblah puts on a sort of presentation/show with many different samples of tea. He was very, very funny, and the tea was also really good. Sam and Dad ended up getting some tea to take home as well.
After that we just walked and walked... Now some backstory... Earlier this winter my left foot was hurting a little bit but I thought maybe I stubbed it somewhere and it just hurt for a while. One morning when it was actually very uncomfortable, I had mom look at it, and she said there was some sort of cut on the end of my foot, possibly from dry skin cracking in the winter. My hypothesis is that perhaps I did just step on something that cut my foot and I didn't really know it, so I just made it worse. In any case, after I had it bandaged up and stuff, it felt much better. That is, until today, when I started feeling it a little bit at Alcatraz. I should've looked at it earlier in the day, but I guess I just didn't get the chance. So I marched somewhat miserably for the rest of this walking tour, where we didn't get to sit down again for another 45 minutes or so.
We walked through the beatnick part of town as well as the red light district, which was somewhat amusing. Our tour guide seemed to get more excited by that cultural stuff (especially the beat stuff) rather than the food in the area. So we stopped hearing about the food, and more about Jack Kerouac and whatever... Eventually, we were led to a small Roma-style pizza shop, where the hostess prepared for us 4 pizzas that were quite popular with the crew. Walked the many many blocks back to the car, drove home, and here I am!
Next time! Tomorrow we're heading up to Sausalito to Uncle Mark's place, where we'll have brunch at a seaside restaurant, and who knows what else!
It's a penguin up in that tree!
Started out as an early morning, heading out to the farmer's market out at the Ferry Building downtown. On the way, as we drove along Lombard St from our hotel, we got to see a very familiar section of road. As we continued our trip out east to the bayside, we found some parking and walked along the bay, passing by the Bay Bridge which we had taken the previous day out to Berkeley.
Walked around the farmer's market with mom/dad/unclemark and saw some pretty interesting things. Got to check out the Ferry Building itself which is also a market on non-farmer days as well. Stopped by a couple shops, and ended up getting some food from different places and eating outside, because it was such a beautiful day. Dad and I ended up sitting outside while mom and uncle mark disappeared for a while, and we just shared some sourdough and cheese which was a good way to start the day.
From there, we drove northward to Fisherman's Wharf, where we'd take our ferry out to Alcatraz. Yes, it is getting weird saying "ferry" so much when I'm in San Francisco, but I think I'm "ferry"ed out for the time being. Waited in line for a while, and managed to get a good spot up at the top of the boat, even though it did get a little chilly on the way over there. It did make for nice pictures, though. As we arrived on the island, we began our trek upwards after a discovery-channel feature during which I took a little nap. The whole walk is something like a quarter of a mile, but that's lengthwise. The climb is 40m, which is about 13 stories.
The tour of the cell house was fantastic. The audio tour was very well put together, and featured multiple former guards and inmates, which made the experience much more authentic, even if the main narrator sounded like Colonel Campbell. They allow you to check out a couple of the cells in d-block, including the solitary confinement, which I found quite creepy. In the end, very informative, and very cool. I had a sort of craving for Alcatraz-y stuff after I watched the recent Mythbusters episode about Frank Morris. Once we'd all completed our tour, we took the boat back to the mainland and drove back to the room.
Since I was hungry, and dad had been talking about them all day, we took a walk over to OBW (original buffalo wings). Uncle Mark told us their wings were superior, and that their home-made potato chips were also excellent. And indeed that was the case! It was a nice little outing, but did consume a bunch of time between returning and having to head out again.
For Chanukah, S 'n K got us tickets for a San Francisco food tour along Chinatown and North Beach. So tonight, we met up with our tour guide and the other people of our group, and started walking. After about 4 blocks, we stopped in what is claimed to be the oldest chinese restaurant in San Francisco (maybe the country... who knows...) for some Dim Sum. At this point I was very relieved and excited that our trip through Chinatown would be full of such awesomeness, since I had no idea how much food would actually been involved in this tour. On our way to our next destination, I got a nice picture by Double Dragon Massage, where I'm sure Billy and Jimmy know how to punch in the right places.
We stopped at a small fortune cookie factory. Did you know that San Francisco is the birthplace of the fortune cookie? Funny enough, it wasn't even in Chinatown. It was made here in its current form by a Japanese guy named Makoto Hagiwara, who also created and maintained the Japanese Tea Garden we saw on Day 1. Amusing! The next place we sat down was a tea shop where the waiter/clerk/maitre'd/blahblah puts on a sort of presentation/show with many different samples of tea. He was very, very funny, and the tea was also really good. Sam and Dad ended up getting some tea to take home as well.
After that we just walked and walked... Now some backstory... Earlier this winter my left foot was hurting a little bit but I thought maybe I stubbed it somewhere and it just hurt for a while. One morning when it was actually very uncomfortable, I had mom look at it, and she said there was some sort of cut on the end of my foot, possibly from dry skin cracking in the winter. My hypothesis is that perhaps I did just step on something that cut my foot and I didn't really know it, so I just made it worse. In any case, after I had it bandaged up and stuff, it felt much better. That is, until today, when I started feeling it a little bit at Alcatraz. I should've looked at it earlier in the day, but I guess I just didn't get the chance. So I marched somewhat miserably for the rest of this walking tour, where we didn't get to sit down again for another 45 minutes or so.
We walked through the beatnick part of town as well as the red light district, which was somewhat amusing. Our tour guide seemed to get more excited by that cultural stuff (especially the beat stuff) rather than the food in the area. So we stopped hearing about the food, and more about Jack Kerouac and whatever... Eventually, we were led to a small Roma-style pizza shop, where the hostess prepared for us 4 pizzas that were quite popular with the crew. Walked the many many blocks back to the car, drove home, and here I am!
Next time! Tomorrow we're heading up to Sausalito to Uncle Mark's place, where we'll have brunch at a seaside restaurant, and who knows what else!
It's a penguin up in that tree!