San Francisco, the Beautiful! Print
Friday, 29 December 2006 16:00

Aside from the cool temperatures, today couldn’t have been a better one for us to spend it in San Francisco. We were up at dawn and on the road to the city at 7:30. By the time we reached the Golden Gate Vista Point it wasn’t even 9:00 and the place was deserted! Wow, were we lucky? No, actually it seems the smart tourists know how cold it is in San Francisco early in the morning so they wait until it warms up. But hey, the sun was shining and we had the whole place to ourselves, so we bundled up and enjoyed the morning.

We then headed downtown and went for breakfast at the Buena Vista Restaurant; apparently famous for their Irish Coffee!! (Who would know Buena Vista is an old Irish name, ha, ha!!) We skipped the coffees but Rick and I did enjoy their variation of crab benedicts while Christine had a crab omelet and Fred, a regular benny.

We toured Fisherman’s Wharf, photographed Alcatraz, browsed the tourist traps and then rode the cable cars, another San Francisco landmark. (We would have gone to Alcatraz if there were any available tours, but they were fully booked today.) The cable car ride was great; plenty of steep hills, awesome views, clanging bells, all the things we’d hoped for and more. We fought crowds in the shopping district and then headed back to the car which was parked at the wharf. After a drive down Lombard, America’s “crookedest” street, we headed out of the city and tonight we are staying in Santa Nella at a Holiday Inn Express, by far the best hotel we’ve stayed at so far. It is a perfect ending to a perfect day and our last night on the road.