One of the projects I'm working at work involves rolling out new tools for designing electrical substations. The group who will be using the tool had previously been in discussions with Pacific Gas & Electric on their experiences with the tool and decided it would be beneficial to get together for a day to share knowledge. This meant a paid trip down to San Francisco so I thought it would be a good idea to go down a few days early and check out the sites. A good idea except for the fact that the Giants made it into the World Series making it somewhat difficult to get a hotel.
It took some work but Kerry finally found one near the airport. Not a great location for site seeing however they have a free shuttle into town. A 45 minute bus ride later and I'm in the heart of downtown San Francisco at Union Square. I hadn't put much thought into what I was going to do first because I had no idea what was at Union Square. It's mostly shopping but it also happens to be the starting point for a cable car that goes all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. After about a 45 min wait I was riding a form of transportation that's over 100 years old.
The cars are powered by a single electrical motor in a central power house. As I was walking down to them there was an odd screeching sound coming from the street. It was only when I saw the first street car go by that I realized it was the sound of the cables dragging underground. The trip was about 30 minutes and went from Union Square all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. I'm not sure how they do it but it manages to go both up and down hills and make turns. I was expecting a single straight line up and down a hill but it was much better. Amazing technology for the time.
After a brief tour of some older ships including one of the oldest tug boats on the west coast I stopped at Lou's Fish Shack for some fish and chips. It didn't disappoint. It wasn't your typical beer battered fish but was very crispy and the tarter sauce was perfect. I'm a bit of a fish and chips connoisseur and this was up there on my list of favorites. After lunch I took a stroll down the peer and there was a boat advertising tours of the bay for $15.00. It wasn't a big ship but there were already about 30 people on board so it was ready to go.
The boat took you out past the Golden Gate Bridge and included your typical tour boat commentary and corny jokes though this one included a bit more political commentary than usual. Not Democrat or Republican. Just anti-government in general. The trip was only an hour which was the perfect amount of time and the weather was nice most of the way with the exception of some fog around the bridge. That just added to the experience. After we rounded Alcatraz and headed past some slumbering sea lions we were back to the dock.
Further down the dock was the San Francisco Mechanical Museum. Mostly made up of old penny arcade machines and amusement park novelties all converted to quarters. I started Callie collecting crushed pennies after a few of my previous trips and she's hooked. A nice cheap hobby. She would be in heaven here. There were crushed penny machines everywhere. A combination of electric and hand powered with multiple images in most of them. And they were only 50 cents where most are a dollar. I had change for five of them.
After the museum I headed to Pier 39. I had heard about it before but it wasn't originally on my list of things to check out. I'm glad I did though. The atmosphere was great and there are lot's of restaurants, tourist shops and sweet stores. It will be a great place to go back to on Sunday so I can pick up souvenirs for everyone. Callie picked the crushed pennies and all Carter wanted was chocolate. I'm covered nicely on both those items.
By this time I was ready to head back to the hotel. Unfortunately my Blackberry has a map but isn't great for planning your travel. I had hoped to find a transit map by now but hadn't come across one yet. I knew Fisherman's Wharf was as far as I could go so I decided I would just hop on a bus and see where it took me. It was a neat old electric trolley bus and it had two drivers seats for going in opposite directions. Very neat and it got me back to a Bart Station that I 'knew' would get me home. A bit of a story there that I will discuss tomorrow.
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