Shopping

When we pulled the blinds up San Francisco had disappeared into the fog. Over the next hour the buildings gradually became visible and a fine day ensued. We had breakfast in our room and then set off for Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. We walked a couple of kilometres and then managed to get on a cable car and ride to the top of Lombard Street.

There were people everywhere. A couple of tours and many small groups like us. It was hard to get space to take a photograph. We walked down along with the hoards and then walked the rst of the way to Fisherman's wharf. To our surprise there was space on the cable car going back to Union Square, so rather than catching a bus we jumped on the cable car. The trip down the hill from California Street to Union Square is almost like a roller coaster as the cable car seems to hurtle down the hill. All good fun. The line at Powell Station to catch the cable car back to Fisherman's Wharf was massive. Probably at least 2  hours.

So the shopping began. H & M, the Disney Store and the Sketches shop, then to Marshall's. In part we went Marshall's  to see if they had any cheap Sketches or Nike's. Marshall's sells remaindered and last seasons clothing. We came away with quite a bit of stuff but no shoes. later we went back to the Sketchers store where Lynda and Aimee tried on several pairs but none were quite right. So the decision was made to go to the factory shop.

This meant a couple of buses and travelling to a part of the city which was dirty and showed all the signs of poverty. People sleeping on the footpath. Rubbish on the footpaths and buildings in need of care and repair. The factory shop was worth the trip however. In fact it was amazing. The prices were much lower than the city store and the special sale discounts still applied. We had a ball and came away with several pairs of shoes.

By now we had too much stuff to carry. Fortunately the bus when back past our hotel so we headed back for a rest and to be able to continue without our parcels.

Aimee had been wanting to see the Golden Gate bridge without fog. It had been a beautiful day in the city so we caught the bus to Fisherman's Wharf again. Sadly the bridge was totally fog bound. I had hoped we could catch one of the historic trams back to Union Square. They have historic trams, or trolleys from every major city in the USA painted in the original colours. It was not to be. The buses and trolleys which came to the stop where we were waiting, with lots of others, were so full they didn't even stop.

By consulting the map we worked out we could get another bus. We had to walk about a kilometre and got a bus which took us back through china town. After a couple of photographs with the San Francisco hearts we made our way to the Cheesecake Factory on the top floor of the Macy's building. There were people everywhere, so it was no surprise that there was a one hour wait for a table. Lynda and Aimee were lucky enough to get a seat while we waited.

Eventually around 9pm we got a table. Lynda had a pizza, David and Aimee Burgers, then cheese cakes for dessert. Yummy but probably not at 10pm. We got a taxi back to the hotel rather than wait for buses or the cable car. It would be fair to say we were pretty tired by the time we got to bed.