Two Days Until the 3-Day!

I am in San Francisco! And in less than 36 hours, I'll be walking in the 3-Day. Okay . . .deep breath. I need to calm down! I need to get some sleep. But because sleep is eluding me for the time being, I'll tell you about my day, which did not at all start out as I'd intended.

I had to work late last night (which feels like much more than just a day ago), which meant that by the time I got home, I really didn't feel like packing. Lest you think I'm completely a procrastinator (instead of just slightly one, which I am), I had set aside all of my 3-Day gear and put it in a neat pile. But it was not placed in any sort of luggage-type item, and I had not yet picked out my clothes for the three "non 3-Day" days on this California trip. Rather than dealing with this, I set my alarm clock for 2:00 am and went to bed shortly after 11:00 last night.

When my alarm went off just three hours after my head had hit the pillow, I was angry with myself for not having packed earlier. That thought was fleeting, however, because as soon as I stood up, I thought, "Oh no!" and promptly ended up in a sorry state. I'm not sure if I ate something bad or had a little bug or was just really tired, but suffice it to say, very early this morning, I was sick enough that I thought I'd have to withdraw from the 3-Day. Seriously. It was that bad.

I figured I should probably call United to see if I could fly out later than 6:40 this morning, which was the flight I was booked on, but I was so sick that I couldn't even contemplate picking up the phone. Instead, I decided to go back to bed and set my alarm for 4:15 (just 15 minutes before I needed to leave to get to the airport in time!). I figured that if I woke up at 4:15 and still felt sick, I'd see if I could rebook my flight; if I woke up at 4:15 and felt better, I could proceed to the airport as planned after packing like a crazy woman.

So, my alarm went off at 4:15, and thankfully, I felt better. Not 100%, but capable of making it to the airport. I called the cab, finished packing really quickly, and was on my way to Dulles by 4:40 or so. I had a few moments in the cab where I felt really queasy, but by the time I arrived in the departures area at 5:35, after checking in and clearing security, I started to feel a bit less panicked about flying all the way across the country and began to believe that the contents of my stomach (if there were any left!) would stay put on the 6-hour plane ride.

After my adventurous early morning, I was very appreciative that my flight was smooth, and upon arriving at San Francisco Airport at about 9:15 this morning, I collected my bags and took a cab to Mom and Dad's hotel. We visited for a few minutes, and then I walked the two blocks to the Courtyard Fisherman's Wharf to drop off my bags. Much to my delight, I was actually able to check in as soon as I arrived at about 10:30. After checking in and taking a shower, I finally started to feel much better. While I was getting ready, I heard from Bonnie, who reported that her flight from Phoenix to San Francisco had been cancelled. Ack! After some back and forth with Southwest, she was able to make reservations on another flight, but rather than arriving in time for dinner with Mom, Dad, and me, she's not due to arrive until closer to 11:00 this evening. After not seeing each other in more than 20 years, I guess another few hours won't make a difference! Anyway, once I was cleaned up, I left the hotel and took this picture of it from the outside before meeting up with Mom and Dad.

By the time I arrived at Mom and Dad's hotel, it was close to noon, and we decided it would be a good idea to have some lunch before exploring San Francisco. We walked a few blocks to the Buena Vista Café, where Dad had eaten a number of years ago. The Buena Vista is best known for introducing Irish coffee to the United States. Back in 1952, the owner of the café tried to recreate the Irish coffee served at the airport in Shannon, Ireland, after being convinced to do so by a travel writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. It took a while, but eventually, he came up with a recipe that tasted just like that the travel writer remembered from Shannon. Today, the Buena Vista serves as many as 2000 Irish coffees each day! We opted to skip Irish coffee at lunchtime, although Mom did enjoy an American coffee, and Dad and I each had a Buena Vista Ale with our meal. Mom had crabcakes, and Dad and I both had a crab salad sandwich.

After lunch, we walked across the street to enjoy the views of San Francisco Bay (with the Golden Gate Bridge just visible above the low-hanging fog) and of Ghirardelli Square.

From Ghirardelli Square, we moseyed over to Pier 39, which I'd first visited on a business trip to San Francisco in April 1998, back in my days with API. I have visited the pier on every trip to San Francisco since then because I get such a kick out of watching the sea lions who congregate there, and the same was true today. Many of the sea lions were dozing, but there were a couple who almost seemed to be having some sort of argument. One of the larger sea lions was sitting up, barking repeatedly at the sea lion lying at his feet. Ultimately, the sea lion who got the talking to slipped into the water and swam away!

After hanging out with the sea lions, we continued on our eastward path, and Mom took this picture of Dad and me with Alcatraz Island behind us.

I love the view below of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, the sailboat, and the hills of Marin County from Pier 39.

As we walked away from Pier 39 and continued our way along the Embarcadero, I stopped to take a picture of a seagull who was out enjoying the beautiful day.

From the Embarcadero, we walked away from San Francisco Bay, headed toward Coit Tower, which is in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood, considerably higher than the waterfront. On our long climb up to the tower, during which we climbed several steps (we stopped counting at 211), we saw many gorgeous flowers and trees.

As we continued our climb, the views of San Francisco Bay and the Bay Bridge were beautiful and well worth the many flights of stairs we climbed to get to this point.

And then, finally, our destination came into view! Lillie Hitchcock Coit, for whom this tower is named, bequeathed one-third of her estate to the City of San Francisco "to be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city." Coit, whose nickname was "Firebelle Lil," was a well-known volunteer fighter, and the tower was built four years after her death as a monument to the firefighters of San Francisco, using money from her estate. Contrary to popular belief, however, the tower is not meant to resemble a fire hose nozzle.

Once we had climbed the final set of stairs, we stopped to admire the view from the grounds before going inside the tower. Through the trees, we were able to see Treasure Island, which is where I'll be spending the night during the 3-Day!

Although I had driven by Coit Tower on my first trip to San Francisco on a family vacation in July 1989, today was the first time I'd gone inside the tower. Much to my surprise, there were many murals (26 to be exact) hanging on the interior walls. The murals, painted in 1934, were created under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, the first of the New Deal programs for artists. Many of the painters were faculty and students from the California School of Fine Arts, and the murals depict different scenes, including a bank robbery, a harbor scene, the interior of a department store, as well as several agricultural scenes. Apparently, the murals were at first highly criticized for the "subversive and Communist themes" thought to be shown in some of the murals, and the opening of Coit Tower was delayed for several months because of the controversy surrounding the murals.

Dad bought us tickets to take the elevator to the top of Coit Tower, and from there, we had a 360-degree view of our surroundings, including Alcatraz and the skyline of downtown San Francisco.

After our return trip down to ground level, we spent some time exploring the area around Coit Tower. From the wall surrounding the grounds, I had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.

Before we left, I took a picture of the tower and of this statue of Christopher Columbus, created by Italian sculptor Umberto Culbertado, which was donated by the Italian-American community and was unveiled in 1957.

Leaving Coit Tower behind, we continued our walk, heading westward to our next destination: Lombard Street. This street starts west of here, inside the Presidio, and runs in an east-west direction all the way to the Embarcadero. Lombard Street is most famous for a one-block section on Russian Hill, in which the street makes eight hairpin turns, pictured below.

This part of the Lombard Street is at a 27% grade (although it seems steeper!!), and the switchbacks were implemented in 1922, because otherwise, the hill would be too steep for most vehicles to climb. Pedestrians can get to the top of this block of the street by climbing the long staircases on either side.

The hill here is lined with beautiful hydrangeas, and even though most of them were past peak, a few of them were still blooming in full color.

Once we finished climbing the long flight of stairs to the stop, we realized that the trip had definitely been worth it; the view was incredible.

We didn't really have much of a plan after our visit to Lombard Street, so we continued wandering with no particular destination in mind, enjoying the beautiful afternoon and the views of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge from Hyde Street.

Eventually, we found ourselves at the Visitor Center for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood. We spent about 30 minutes at the Visitor Center exploring the exhibits and watching a video about a 1930 trip around Cape Horn.

We all nodded off a little bit during the video, so once it ended, we decided to go outside, thinking that the walking would wake us up, which it did. Right across the street from the Visitor Center is Hyde Street Pier, which is home to several historic boats, some of which are in various stages of renovation.

The Hercules, pictured below, is a steam tug built in 1907 in New Jersey, and upon completion, it sailed from there to San Francisco, via the Straits of Magellan in South America. Initially, the Hercules served as an ocean-going tug, towing boats from San Francisco up to the Washington State area. By the mid-1920s, the Hercules was shuttling railroad car floats across the bay from Oakland to Alameda. In 1975, the California State Park Foundation acquired the Hercules, which was restored, and became a national historic landmark in 1986.

On the opposite side of the pier is the Balclutha, a square-rigged ship built in 1886 in Glasgow. The Balclutha sailed around Cape Horn in southern Chile 17 times in 13 years, carrying wine, oil, and coal from Europe and the eastern United States to various ports in the Pacific. In 1904, the Balclutha was renamed the Alaska Star after striking an island near present-day Alaska, and after extensive repairs, was used in salmon trade. In 1933, a new owner purchased the ship, which subsequently appeared in "Mutiny on the Bounty." The San Francisco Maritime Museum acquired the ship in 1954 and changed the name back to Balclutha, and it was designated a national historic landmark in 1985.

Leaving Hyde Street Pier, we went back to Mom and Dad's hotel for about 90 minutes, and then we walked over to Fog City Diner for dinner. I hadn't eaten there since my first visit to San Francisco more than twenty years ago, and I enjoyed going back. I ordered grilled Loch Duart salmon, toasted gnocchi, and summer corn salad.

By the time we left the diner, it was dark outside, and we had a great view of Coit Tower.

It's now after 1:00 tomorrow morning East Coast time, and what a day it's been. I guess I should get ready for bed, because tomorrow promises to be another day full of fun adventures!