Golden Gates, Good Days

So as promised, I am writing for a second time in a row YAY me! Sorry for the Crazy Long Delay, been super Busy, and tired, also, for the lack of major details...without any more delay:


We started the day by finding a garage in San Fran, the internets helped us find a place called The Garage. Getting there meant getting across the bridge from Berkley, which meant 6 lanes of traffic! Surprising enough this was easy, and gave me a new found love for toll booths. When everyone stops, it is easy to gun the engine and scoot across to where you need to be!

On the way across we stopped at Treasure Island, which is a man made island, and was a "secret" military base in its past. There we got a great view of the city, and during the summer it has lots of events to check out! Then we drove straight to The Garage, which meant getting the GPS to understand that, not, I did not want to drive back and forth across the bridge all day. At The Garage we met the mechanic, who told me that if it is an easy short to find the cost will be minimal, but if a diagnostic needed to be run the cost could be 180$, I consented, the price was the price, and we needed those damned signals! I left him with the keys and a phone number, and we went on our way.

To Market Street we walked! Interesting fact, San Francisco has a really large homeless population, which once one is aware of, not really a problem, but Tak and I were not, so surprised we were. Most were non-aggressive, and we soon learned whom to stay clear of.

This only lasted 5 or so blocks, then we were in the more traveled areas, so there was no problems to speak of. We spotted a sign for "best breakfast in town" at a place called "Munch Haven", and went in. It had simple decorations, but good food at good prices, and we were seated.

Down, down we walked toward the piers, stopping at the Apple Store (for a charger) and at Lenscrafters (sunglasses for Tak), till we reached the piers. Art and Statutes met us there, plus plaques with local history. Then we called "The Garage. It turned out that all that was wrong was two, not one, fuses were burned out, the one for the hazards was the real problem, as it is need for the turning signals! We then left to pick up the car immediately.

We took a street car up Market street, a fun experience, and arrived, and to our surprise the mechanic refused to let us pay, said it was just two fuses, and that we should have a good trip! This was totally unexpected. He could have charged me for labour and parts, or worse, easily told me a lie and charged me a ton for repairs, but no, he took the high road, and for that I am indebted!

Back to the piers! We had lunch at a place called In-N-Out Burger, a fast food place that lives up to its name! Small menu (maybe 12 Items), inexpensive, and good quality! We then went around the piers for a while, finding an arcade with antique machines, like Victorian picture viewers, and player pianos!  They also had early to middle arcade games, pong amongst them! We then looked to get tickets to see Alcatraz  unfortunately, it being Columbus day (or Thanksgiving in Canada), it was all booked until Wednesday, so we left the area, stopping only to observe these fellows:


Driving around San Fran is not too bad, but it has its ups and downs. Har har. The hills were steeper than I have ever tried with this car, and I was surprised at how well the car handled itself. Even when going down Lombard Street (the crazy zig-zag one) the car felt in control! Once that was done we went to the art palace, which was impressive, as shown:

Crossing the Golden Gate was next, stopping at the view point on the other side.

Then to Golden Gate Park, which is as immense as it is impressive! A walk around a man made lake a a quick trot up a hill was what we did, making us very hungry!

Then we went back to Berkley, had supper at the Elephant Bar, and then saw Frankenweenie which was much better than I thought is was going to be!

After all of that we went back to the motel, and had a good night's sleep.



More happened during the day, but I will allow my fellow travellers to expand on what i have written, as today was exhausting (Wednesday).