I left my calf muscles in San Francisco

   We had a fairly uneventful ride from Oakhurst down into the San Joaquin Valley and then into San Francisco.  It was overcast and sprinkling most of the day so I wasn't able to take any pictures along the way.  Then, the first ones I attempted from the Bay Bridge came out a little below par.  I don't know if I was holding on tighter because of the traffic or the wind, but either way my photography skills suffered.  

   As soon as we arrived we took off on one of my infamous "I don't care what the guidebook says, we are going to see it all" treks.  I have such a strong desire to see as much of a place as possible, that it doesn't matter how few hours I have, I will make the most of them.  Here is what we accomplished in 5 hours:

 Nob Hill, shopping in Chinatown, Little Italy (including a great pizza at Tony's Napolitano Restaurant and of course a stop for gelato,) Insert here - watching Josh take a cab back to the hotel because he does not enjoy my death marches . . . and then we continued on with Washington Square, walking up the steepest hill I have EVER hiked to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, a walk along the Embarcadero, then Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradelli Square and a cable car ride past Lombard St. and Russian Hill back to our hotel.  

Here is the link to the rest of today's pics.  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151647259662456.1073741832.677627455&type=3&uploaded=86

Here is the reason why we ate in Little Italy instead of Chinatown:

       My first view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  My sister Liz, was born at a military hospital right near here.

   One of the more antiquated systems I have ever seen.  The cable car gets to the end of the line, where a man has to physically push the padded railing in front of him to turn the car around.  Then another worker joins him and they both use their backs to push the cable car over a hump in the track.  Then once it is facing in the right direction, they s l o w l y load it full of tourists.  Then all of the tourists sit in the car until the ticket taker pushes his way though.  (You may ask "Why didn't they just take your ticket as you were slowly loading? . . . . I have no idea!)  THEN, everyone sits/stands and waits until the preceeding car gets far enough up the cable to safely start and THEN you hold on for dear life while trying to take cool photographs for your blog, because it isn't about the trip anymore, it's all about capturing interesting photos for your blog.  HA HA HA

   Speaking of interesting photos . . . as we were walking along fisherman's wharf, we started to read all of the advertisements for the fishing trips and tours of the bay.  We came across this sign.  Notice the lower left corner where someone has written in PENCIL - $16.

Now, note the actual condition of the boat.  Yes, that's a sofa that looks like it came out of college dorm.  No, it actually looked a lot worse than that.  

I am convinced that this boat is docked there as some type of joke, but Jerry and Zach say it is a legitimate tour.  

   Zach is on  his way to the BART station as I type this.  He is going to the airport to pick up his wife, Jessica.  The airport is down to one runway because of the fog tonight, so she won't arrive until 10:45 p.m.  Tomorrow, we head out across the Golden Gate bridge to begin our trip up the coast.    

   By the way, to my friends Christopher and Jenny in Germany.  You must be lonely in Germany this month. It seems that all of your countrymen are on holiday in the United States.  Das ist gut.