Hallelujah! I looked out the window first thing in the morning and was excited about what I didn't see. No rain!
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| Early morning view of Coit Tower from our hotel window. |
I grabbed a seat and Bob stood on the running board and hung on to the side. I was a little nervous about doing that. I guess growing up in the U.S. you learn that anything fun must not be safe OR legal and why in the world do they let you ride like that anyway??
Every time you board one of the cable cars the fee is $7 UNLESS you have a pass. For $20 we were free to jump on and off as often as we liked all day long. I had debated about getting a 3 day pass, but wasn't sure we would use it enough to justify the higher cost of $31. (If I had only known what the future held!)
With our first ride only lasting 3 or 4 blocks, I was already glad we had bought the pass. When the cable car stopped at Lombard Street we got off. Lombard Street has a one block section on a steep hill with eight hairpin turns and is known as the world's crookedest street. The cable car had let us off at the top of this hill looking down the twists and turns of the street.
To get a good photo of the street would require an aerial view or a drone. I was happy enough to just take a photograph looking down the steep hill. Bob is always looking for opportunities to get just a "little more" exercise so he grabbed the camera and headed down the hill to get a photograph looking "up".
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| Looking down Lombard Street |
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| Looking up the hill on Lombard Street |
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| Looking the opposite direction on Lombard Street |
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| Sidewalk |
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| The entrance to one of the homes on Lombard Street. |
I had read about a fortune cookie factory in Chinatown that was open to visitors for free. The entrance to the factory was in an alley...56 Ross Alley to be exact. Using a paper map AND Google Maps AND an app called Citymapper on my iPhone we still managed to get confused and take a few wrong turns. I swear every time we went the wrong direction it involved climbing a hill to get back on course!
Eventually we found the place and it was nothing like I had imagined.
The entrance off the alley led into a tight little space where a couple of women were sitting at a contraption that resembled tiny little waffle irons on a circular conveyor belt. I had flashbacks to an "I Love Lucy" episode as I watched the lady trying to keep up with the process AND jump up to handle customers and visitors that walked through the door.
The little slips of paper with fortunes written on them had to be placed inside the warm cookie immediately after the she removed it from the conveyor belt using an ice pick-type tool. At that point the lady folded the sides of the cookie to the middle and then bent the cookie into the familiar shape over a metal bar. If she got behind in the process then the flat cookies were discarded into a barrel sitting next to her. If a cookie was not hot off the iron it would break into pieces when she tried to fold it. I guess that's where the phrase "That's how the fortune cookie crumbles" came from! :)
Some of these flat, fortune-less cookies were also set out in a pan for visitors to sample. Bags of fortune cookies (both white and chocolate) and almond cookies were available in small bags for purchase. (Disclaimer...I did not take these photos...I found them online. At the factory there was a jar with a sign above that said "50 cents to take picture". I didn't have any change so I just watched.) Bob did purchase a small bag of the almond cookies that were delicious!
San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and the oldest in North America. The streets were bustling with people as they visited the local markets.
Being a paramedic, the sign for the Chinese Hospital caught Bob's eye. We also saw more than one clinic offering acupuncture!
Chinatown was such a short distance from our hotel but yet we felt like we had been transported to another country and culture.
There were many eating establishments with signs for "Dim Sum" which was something new to us. Bob loves Asian food so he went into one place and ordered dim sum. When the lady behind the counter asked him "what kind?"...Bob was clueless.
A lady standing next to him explained that dim sum was small dumplings and there were many types. He asked her to order for him and this is what he got. (We didn't know WHAT we were eating, but we both like it!)
Once again we pulled out the maps and zigged and zagged our way to the California line cable car stop. Going east, we went as far as we could and then walked the last little bit to the Ferry Building.
I had asked to use the restroom back at the Dim Sum restaurant (interesting in itself!) but Bob hadn't and now was starting to get desperate. Across the street from the Ferry Building was this unique public restroom with an automatic door. Problem solved!
Inside the Ferry Building was a marketplace featuring food related shops of all sorts...cheeses, coffee & tea, cookware & dishes, meats, etc. One stand even specialized in all kinds of mushrooms!
As we were browsing through the Ferry Building I happened to notice that I had a missed call and a voicemail on my phone. Seeing it was from an 800 number, I figured it wasn't important and didn't bother to listen to the message.
After walking all morning long (much of it up and down hills!), I needed to rest. Bob and I walked out behind the Ferry Building and found a bench overlooking the Bay Bridge. I was having fun photographing the seagulls when I heard my phone ding. It was a text message that said "Norwegian Cruise Line has an important message for you. Please call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx."
Before I even attempted to call, I went back and listened to my voicemail. It was also a message from Norwegian telling us that "in order to give the best guest experience, the cruise was being delayed by a day." Immediately I called the Columbus Motor Inn and asked to extend our stay another night...and also to reserve an additional night for our friends, Kent & Laurel, who were due to arrive within an hour. We were able to keep our room for one more night, but the hotel was totally sold out and nothing was available for our friends.
At that point we decided the best plan of action would be to go back to the hotel so we would be there when Kent & Laurel arrived. We got on one of the F Line vintage street cars that stop right in front of the Ferry Building and rode back to Fisherman's Wharf. From there we walked back to the hotel.
There were two couples in the lobby when we arrived and they were both very upset. They were also going to be on our cruise and had just gotten the news about the delay. Neither one could get an additional night at the Columbus Motor Inn and were trying to figure out what to do. One lady insisted she was going to sleep on the couch! I talked to the front desk manager and asked for suggestions for Kent & Laurel and got the name of one of their sister hotels that wasn't too far away. I texted this info to Laurel.
Back in the room, I got online to check what was being reported on our cruise roll call on Cruise Critic message boards. Someone had posted that due to all of the rain the day before the ship was just going to be taken out for sea trials that afternoon. At the same time I was reading this, I looked up and in the distance saw the ship sailing out of the harbor!! I grabbed my camera and zoomed my lens as far as it would go and started taking photos...
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In the middle of the excitement of seeing the ship, Laurel called that they had landed and were on their way to the hotel. She had called the hotel number I had texted her and although it meant transferring to another hotel, they had a reservation for the next night.
Their room at the Columbus Motor Inn wasn't ready yet when they arrived so they brought all of their luggage to our room. It had been about a year since we had last seen them so it was fun catching up...although we were all a little stressed thinking about the change in our plans.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
ahh, the joys of traveling!
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