San Francisco: Day Two. The "til Death Do Us Part March"

I love to walk. I love to find out where roads and other things lead. This is not always a shared passion, although Carolie gave it a good go today as we pretty much walked up one side of San Francisco and down the other, and then back again.

Back when I worked in Manhattan, my mom and dad came to visit and I pretty much walked 'em the length of the island. My dad called it a "forced march." Carolie calls today the "til death do us part march."

It was fun.

We started off riding the cable car over Nob Hill to Union Square. Carolie thought it would be fun to sing that Judy Garland song. That's never been done before, I'll bet.


We're not much for shopping, which is bad since Union Square is full of about every big department store ever. We stopped in at Macy's, though, because there's a Post Office there and Carolie had to mail postcards. But not before stopping to to try out for a mannequin.



Union Square is the scene of some big violent protests on the eve of the Civil War. Carolie things that's "union" as in "the north," whereas I think it's "union" as in sweatshops. We never did find out which it is, although we did find this guy singing "When you're smiling (the whole world smiles with you") So Carolie sang it back at the guy, we threw some money in the bucket and took a picture.



I notice when cable cars come by, you end up with a picture of people taking a picture...



Then we stopped at the Cable Car Museum, where all the, ummm, cables meet and where the power comes from. This was a very cool place. To move, the driver adjusts a clamp onto the cable that is always moving at 9 mph.



Using the handy, dandy guide book, we navigated to the "crookedest street in the world," although we had to walk because the cable cars were all full as they came by.



The street wasn't as interesting to me as the flowers and plantings along it. It was lovely. Then we tried to find Chinatown. It a long, long, walk, mostly because I couldn't figure out which bus to take. But we found it...



See that look on Carolie's face? I've seen that look before. I saw it in Manhattan once. So we had lunch.

I didn't take any pictures but it was very fascinating, although I'll admit the best part was in a park where lots of men were playing cards and gambling -- and so were lots of old women -- and some old lady was chasing a drunk guy with her cane. We don't know what it was about because we don't speak the language but all the other old ladies were cackling. Very funny.

So we checked off the "Chinatown" chapter on the guidebook and, it was about 3:30 by then, so we headed for the "romantic San Francisco tour" in the book, which started along the Embarcadero near Pier 17 with lovely views of the bay and Bay Bridge. We couldn't really see anything because the piers are in pretty bad shape and were closed.

So we headed up the stairs near Filbert Street. Very high to the top and houses built into the side of the hill all had lovely gardens. So Carolie stole, yes stole, some to put in her hair (there's that song about going to San Francisco with flowers in her hair). Taking your own picture results in mostly goofy looks, so here. This was halfway up the stairs.



Oh, speaking of lovely views...



A few hundred more steps took us to the top ... and the Coit Tower (shown here earlier as viewed from the crookedest street.



I took a picture of downtown.



And a nice picture of a lovely couple with very little scenery to help in the background...



Then, following the guidebook exactly ("I'm doing San Francisco 'by the book,'" I told Carolie). We ended up down in a park in the North Beach section, which is a heavy Italian neighborhood. This church behind Carolie was where Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe posed for a picture after their wedding. I'm pretty sure, by the way, that Carolie and I have lasted longer than they did.



I looked on the Web, but couldn't find the picture of them. They married at City Hall, by the why.

Then, again by the book, we stopped at a small shop for some truffles, then headed for dinner, stopping to buy a rose for Carolie (the book said to ), and then to a little Italian cafe for pizza and wine.



I took this picture on the way for my son, Patrick, to show how there are special parking places for motorcycles. I think the one in the middle is the same model as his. I'll bet Patrick would have fun with his motorcycle here. He could go up the hills really fast and then go airborne at the intersections like Michael Douglas and Karl Malden did in "Streets of San Francisco."

Tomorrow, we're going to try to walk or bike across the Golden Gate bridge.