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Wednesday 30 August 2017

Safely home - long flight, no earthquake

We are safely home after a LONG flight over the Pacific.  For once, we saw the sunrise behind us on the way home.

And we survived the San Andreas fault.  I decided that I would still go to SF, but wouldn't stay longer than necessary.

Now going through a different kind of jet-lag.  Am ready for dinner, but it is only 2pm!


Tuesday 29 August 2017

Last day in SF - and finally a bell-rope!

We are at SFO airport, ready to go home.

We managed to find a bell-rope today! It is in St Mary's Church in Chinatown.  It is a single bell, used for weddings we were told.

BART

San Francisco's Bay Area Rail Transit is a convenient way to get to and from the SFO international airport. The journey takes little more than half an hour and at just US$8.95 it is also very cheap. I remember there was a lot of publicity when it was being built in the 1960s, especially in terms of its engineering feat in an area highly prone to earthquakes.

We took the BART from Powell station, which is just round the corner from our hotel at Marriott Marquis. When we bought the ticket with credit card at the ticket machine, we quickly found that we had to pay in round dollars, and with taxes it came to US$10. Still cheap.

The train came on time and was fast, but the noise level rivals that of Moscow subway.





Chinatown

The last on our sightseeing agenda prior to departure was Chinatown, apparently the largest in the world. I had learnt years ago that among the early Chinese migrants to San Francisco (and Melbourne) to join the gold rush, a majority were from the Siyup speaking regions, the four counties west of Guangzhou that included the birth place of my grandfather. So it was with more than the usual interests when we walked into the streets of SF Chinatown.

Although I grew up not speaking the dialect, a variation of Cantonese, I have had enough exposure to identify it when someone speaks it. Right on cue, just a few metres into Stockton Street, we passed by three elderly gentlemen conversing on the footpath in the distinctive dialect. Kay egged me into talking to them, and when I did, one of them immediately answered that he was from Toishan and asked me where my “old village” was. I was able to tell him it was “Sun Hui” (Xinhui) and he agreed it was not far from his village. Just neighbours, he commented.

While the main streets over many blocks had the usual restaurants, grocery stores and souvenir shops, the smaller side streets housed numerous home village associations, places where early migrants approached on arrival for support and advice. It is amazing that they still exist.

Chinatown has the reputation of having hundreds of good restaurants serving the one of the world’s best cuisines, but we managed to walk into one that disappointed us. The dim sum was dodgy and the wonton was just passable in tasteless soup.  We should not complain I suppose, the bill came to just US$12, perhaps matching the quality and the decor.  After the meal, we escaped into an Italian bar at the edge of Chinatown to wash that down with an espresso and a macchiato.

Kay's Chinatown pics:
The main gate.
 Kan's restaurant..
Fusion cuisine - chocolate covered moon cake!
A pretty old  chef.

 

Where else but California...

We went to Denny's Diner for breakfast.  How nice to see an over 55s menu!

I have always thought of the US as the epitome of a neo-liberal state.  But there are some local rules....like health reports - yes the whole thing - have to be posted in the window.  Although this one was dated 2014.
And the whole menu has an accompanying nutrition menu..
if you can read it all!



Monday 28 August 2017

Painted ladies, artwork, police and buses.

There are many gorgeous Victorian houses in the Haight area.  Here are some.
 
The most famous is a group of 7 houses along Steiner Street, opposite Alamo Square.  They are so famous that tourist buses overwhelmed the street, so now they (the buses) are banned from the area.  Also, I noticed that there are no overhead wires outside these houses.  It is hard to get good shots of other houses because of this.

And if you have a message you want to get out, these residents have an advantage!

And this person has made very artistic use of her sewing cotton stash!
And for those of us who grew up with Karl Malden and his "buddy boy",  a very young Michael Douglas in the "Streets of San Francisco", here is one of the police cars.

We have done well with transport.  Senior tickets can be had for a bit over a dollar.  They have a generous time limit on them, which I can never correctly calculate, but the driver will tell you whether it is still valid or not.  The only catch is the machines don't give change, so we have to make sure we have three one dollar notes, and then we are "good to go".  Tomorrow we get to try the BART to the airport.



Haight-Ashbury

Using Kin Mun's bus knowledge, we went to Haight-Asbury - the heart of the hippie movement in the 60s.  And apparently this year is the 50th Summer of Love in 1967. 

Some pics.

Iconic.  And the only intersection in SF that doesn't have the signs hidden away on one corner!



Sunday 27 August 2017

Attempt to walk across Golden Gate Bridge

This morning we set out to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  But the bus couldn't stop nearby and had to drop us off at the Palace of Fine Arts - which is a rotunda, pillars and statues of the female rear-view.  Its main purpose seemed to be as a photo-op for wedding parties. Pic below thanks to Google...
and Kin Mun

Apparently there were rallies planned, so roads were closed.  We knew nothing about this until we saw the police presence.  Oh well, we walked to the GG Park through Crissy Field.  When we got there, all cafes, snack bars were closed "to assist public safety".  So we needed the reserves of muesli bars and chocolates we had bought just in case.  And our water.

We also had "farg" today, and almost began to see its beauty! The bridge was protruding above the fog, which would hide the bridge, then reveal some of it, cover it again - and so it went on. 

Due to the fog-restricted view, and our limited rations/water we opted to walk out to the first tower and then back.  Then we had to walk ALL the way back to the Palace of Fine Arts.  So we had a lot of walking today - about 8km I think, whatever that is in miles.

And it turns out that the alt-right cancelled their rally after all that!
First view of GGBridge from Crissy Field.
 A bit closer.  The views kept changing.
Walking on to the GGBridge.
First tower.
Another view of first tower.  The fog is swirling around the top of the tower.

We heard this sound all morning.  Poor neighbours.  Not only do they have to suffer fog, they also get non-stop foghorns!

Kin Mun has mastered the public transport system, so we caught a bus back to the Fisherman's Wharf and had some lunch at 3pm at the first place we could find!

The buses are pretty rattly, not always air-conditioned, and the drivers are patient and very helpful with information.  We are finding SF is a sprawling city, walking is not as easy as it is in London and New York where there is more to see as you walk.


Another young American

One of the hassles of shopping in the US is that the prices are round numbers, but they don't include tax, which means that you can have any number of cents added to your bill.

Kin Mun and I were in McDonalds for one of our lunch stops.  I was served by a young girl, probably just shy of 20, with all sorts of coloured hair.  She had already had to cope with my incomprehension of the ordering process in US.  (There are choices to be made at every step!)  Anyhow, the coffee order came to $2.17.  I handed over $10.00.  She was about to give me my change, when I then gave her a 25c coin (a quarter).  She stood there, frozen. In her hand she had the seven dollar notes calculated by the register.  So I said give me back 8c (in coins).  She was still frozen.  So I said, just give me back $7.08.  Thank you so much she said, I appreciate it, my maths is no good,  I had problems at school, I was dyslexic.  When I went back to the table, I realised it was MY maths that was wrong - it should have been $8.08!  So I am not sure if her gratitude was a one dollar tip.  But I don't think so.  She seemed genuinely grateful that I had done (some kind of ) maths for her, as she was completely lost without the calculator.  She was a lovely young girl and some of these encounters are very touching.

And Maccas in the US is just like in Sydney - I think.

Saturday 26 August 2017

San Fran

Today we had a bus tour of SF.  It was an introductory tour of SF.  Then after lunch we walked around the shopping district, and our farewell dinner is tonight.  Below are some pics.

View from Twin Peaks - the bane of SF - "farg".
Gorgeous Victorian houses.
Famous SF Cable Car. Hoping to get a ride but the queues are long.
Another kind of coffee shop. Sorry Mary, your name didn't make this one!

I didn't know you could get inorganic ice-cream!

We couldn't get close to the City Hall because of rallies.  When we asked why, we were told it was because of the "goings on" in the White House.   I just read that the pro-Trump people have cancelled their rallies.

I went to look at an Icebreaker shop - a NZ company that makes woollen T Shirts etc etc etc.  I was shocked to find their prices MUCH higher than in Australia.  Good to know I guess.  It is usually the other way round.

Tonight is our farewell dinner.  After that, Kin Mun and I have 2 and a half days to get around SF on our own.  We hope the long-awaited big earthquake holds off for a few more days. So far, not even a wobble.

Friday 25 August 2017

Today's bits and pieces...

You can't buy a gun just before closing time.  Glad there are some restrictions.

Spelling?

Also at Maccas.  Had to google "panhandling" - I thought it might be someone cooking in competition.

Fusion indeed - US diners and Chinese cuisine!





Eureka, Redwoods, San Francisco

We saw a couple of wooden Victorian homes in Eureka.

Today was more Redwoods after yesterday's introduction.  They are remarkable.  Even the ones that have fallen over.  Here are a couple of pics
.
A bit blurry - but you get the idea.
 This one had fallen over - and they cut a path through.



Then after a long bus trip, we arrived at San Francisco, over the famous Bridge.  We just beat the fog - fortunately.  It is a beautiful bridge. 

Found a Vietnamese eatery, then went for a walk to Chinatown.  Really good to be walking after the days in the bus.  City tour tomorrow.