Trip Report: March 14 - 25, 2002
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
CULTURAL TOUR OF THE PACIFIC COAST
SAN FRANCISCO
Saturday, March 23, 2002
This morning we decide to try the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental, right across California Street, for breakfast. Their restaurant is low key, bright, and airy. There are morning newspapers, and a $15 healthy cold buffet available, $18 including the hot entrees. While the price is higher than some other cities we have visited, the quality of the food and the service was very high. Large portions of my favorite, fresh berries, were available. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.
The day is bright and sunny with puffy white clouds and a cool breeze, the perfect San Francisco spring day. We are scheduled to meet a former colleague from Palo Alto, Ellen, a retired travel agent owner who is also a maritime expert. We walk one block down California Avenue to Powell Street to pick up the Powell Hyde Street Cable Car. [Photo 906] As we expected, the next cable car was jammed packed with other tourists, but miraculously we were able to squeeze onto the back platform and enjoy the thrill of a ride down to the Hyde Street Pier, near Fisherman's Wharf.
Ellen has invited us to a book signing by Carl Nolte at the Maritime Museum. He has just published a book called "USS Pampanito, A Submarine and Her Crew". The Pampanito is a World War II sub which has been on display at the Maritime Museum for many years. There is a short program, with refreshments, on the pier beside the sub. After a short talk by Mr. Nolte about his book, a guest speaker is presented, Mr. Charles McGuire, Yeoman First Class, retired, of the Pampanito. Charlie is in his eighties and walking with a cane now due to a recent stroke, but his memory is as sharp as a tack as he recounts his wartime days aboard the Pampanito in the Pacific from 1943 to 1945. A genuine "Greatest Generation" war hero.
After the program, I have my copy of the book signed by the author, and then have my photo taken with Charlie. As we stroll along Fisherman's Wharf, we enjoy watching the restored streetcars which now run along the Embarcadero from Market Street. We lunch at the Franciscan, with a view of the Pampanito and the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O'Brien.
After lunch we just have to ride a streetcar and catch the first westbound PCC car. As it loops around to head east along the Embarcadero, it loads up quickly until there is hardly standing room. This ride takes me back to my years of growing up in Pennsylvania, when a ride in a Pittsburgh Railways spanking new 1948 PCC car was a thrill to a youngster. It is still a thrill, being pushed back in my seat with the acceleration, hearing the clang of the bell, and the sound of the rolling steel wheels on steel tracks. The fare is $2.00 and this takes us along the Embarcadero, past the Ferry Building, and along Market Street.
We disembark at the new Four Seasons Hotel on Market, and explore the wealth of art work on display in the lobby and public rooms. Ellen is returning to Palo Alto on Cal Train and takes the No 30 Stockton St. Muni bus to the Cal Train Station. We check out the Powell Street cable car turntable, but find the double line to be over a block long, and decide to walk back up to Nob Hill. We are gratified to find that we can still do it. On the way we check out the newly restored Hotel Union Square on Powell Street, and find the lobby to be a haven of calm.
Tonight we have tickets at Davies Hall to hear the San Francisco Symphony perform the Elgar Cello Concerto and Richard Strauss' Thus Sprach Zarathustra. For you non-classical music fans, if you have seen the film, "2001", you will recognize the opening bars, Sunrise, from Thus Sprach. It is one thing to hear this on a theater surround sound system, another to hear it on a home stereo, but when it opens at Davies with the low C note rumbling on Davies' 9000 pipe Ruffatti organ, this is an entirely different experience.
Travel Tip: By now you know what kind of experiences we have had finding a taxi after a concert. We had planned to walk over to the Inn at the Opera, have a nightcap, then have the doorman get a cab for us. But, lo and behold, there is a security man outside Davies Hall organizing a taxi queue.
So we had just a very short wait for a taxi.
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