A balmy Thursday by the Bay

Today involved much walking. Beginning with a hurried search for breakfast on the way to Adam's class, the result of that was not spectacular, but adequate. I wandered back up and down streets and alleys, and eventually to an open-air art-mart in Union Square. Largely paitings, and largely well out of my budget, this art fair also showed some of the striking contrasts of the city - art shoppers juxtaposed against the aimless, homeless lurkers in the shady corners.

After a stop back at the hotel to pick up the pocket map I forgot, I wandered vaguely towards one of my CityPass destinations. In between here and there, though, turned out to be THE shopping district, complete with a Macy's, Nordstrom, Nieman Marcus, and Tiffany's. After stopping into Macy's long enough to spot at $368 made in Korea t-shirt, I realized they were probably scanning my credit cards remotely and charging me for breathing their air, so I stuck to the sidewalks after that.

I eventually arrived at the California Academy of Sciences Steinhart Aquarium, in its "temporary" but still impressive two-storey industrial warehouse home - the permanent facility in Golden Gate Park is under development. This aquaria-focussed tour still included much of terrestrial and airborne California ecology, and more than a few impressive fish, amphibian, and reptile displays. Their oldest fish is an Australian Lungfish about a year older than my Dad, and several of their animals have reached their 50's.

My wanderings took me on a MUNI bus to the Ferry Terminal, where I thought to use my CityPass on the Embarcadero Streetcar line - only to discover that today was a Save the Air day -MUNI was free for all, and consequently VERY crowded with lots of folk who might otherwise have been on foot. Many trolleys went by without stopping. I eventually did catch one, and wound up at Fisherman's Wharf. I stopped at Pier 39 long enough to pick up a coupon book that went with my CityPass then run from the rest of the insane hordes of tourists.

A late lunch happened at one of the walk-through seafood booths serving crab cakes, and then I stopped by the Boudin bakery and Museum - the History of San Francisco as related to Sourdough! Did you know that this bakery company was saved from extinction in the 1906 quake and fire when the proprietess had the presence of mind to run from the collapsing bakery having dumped the "mother dough" into a bucket to take with her? The "mother dough" is the yeast culture completely unique to San Francisco that has been kept going since the 1840s and lends a distinct flair to the many breads from Boudin.

After picking up an authentic Sourdough loaf, a local goat cheese and equally local artichoke/olive spread for a picnic dinner, I waited almost an hour at the cable-car turnaround for my chance to ride one of the San Francisco cable cars, now part of the MUNI. The wait was long due to the "free ride" day (usually a $5 fare, compared to the $1.50 for the bus), but still somewhat entertaining as I watched the cable cars come in, and the ritual of the turn-around was performed. The operators must get out and manually trip the turn release, then push the car around to head back the way it came. There are two operators on each car, one at the front and one at the back, and at each stop and onload/offload they communicate via a pair of bells, the rear operator ringing the "all clear" before the driver will engage the car again. Quite an impressive choreography, and a fun way to navigate the extreme hills.

After trying a local Merlot at the end of wine hour at the hotel, I caught Adam in the lobby. We had our picnic dinner in our room, and then wandered out to do a little bit of shopping for gifts for the younger of the Hu clan we will see Saturday. Now it's back in the room, Adam is studying for his exam, and I'm here on the blog. Tired but awake, I have more plans for tomorrow than I have hours, but I'm looking forward to it.