San Francisco: Day 3

I was up to watch the sunrise this morning, although this is not as big a feat as it might seem since the sun doesn't come up until about 7.

After breakfast we headed to Union Square where we hopped on an open top double-decker bus for a city tour. We had the top level of the bus almost to ourselves. The tour took us through the city, past the gates to China Town, down along the Embarcadero, past Fishermans Wharf, and the Presidio, and over the Golden Gate Bridge.



Upon our return to the city the tour continued through the area around Alamo Park, and the Painted Ladies, and down into the City Hall area. San Francisco's City Hall is an impressive Beaux Arts style building, much more attractive than Boston's bunker of a city hall. The area surrounding City Hall includes several other Beaux Arts style buildings. From there we traveled up Market to the area known as Soma (South of Market) where our hotel was a featured part of the tour. And finally back to Union Square.

We followed up the tour with a short shopping excursion to Macy's. This was necessary because the weather reports before we left home called for colder weather than we are experiencing and Amy didn't pack enough short sleeved shirts. After procuring several shirts, including one for me, we headed off in search of lunch. Lunch was procured at Max's, where we enjoyed tasty sandwiches and salad.

Once we were done with lunch we climbed a few blocks and explored the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. It's a small museum. Favorite pieces were a bench made out of oak (I'm a sucker for wood) which was a once hefty and delicate, some really elegant hand blown glasses, a table with legs that Amy described as a "three legged flamingo" and a bench which looked like squared off bright cannolis.

On our way back to the hotel we got to watch the "turning of the cable car". When the cable car reaches the end of the line, it is turned by hand on the round table before heading back on it's return trip.


We had planned to head over to the SF Museum of Modern Art after a brief stop in our room. But a need for a little rest over took that plan. A few hours later we headed out for a dinner at Long Life Noodles in the Metreon. It was a very nice dinner. The food was tasty with huge portions. We had, wisely as it turned out, decided to share a couple of things. Even so we did not come close to finishing it all.

We rounded out our Valentine's Day at the movies where we saw "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". It's a fun movie that picks up nicely on the original, although it doesn't have the same level of intensity.