Monday, November 10, 2008

An afternoon in San Francisco


Watching a street musician, originally uploaded by jessicafm.

Last Saturday seemed like a good day to take David on his first cable car ride. He's so enthralled with trains, buses and trucks, Mark was working at the shop all day and Davey and I had no plans. I called Mom and told her about it and she thought it would be a fun time, too, so joined in on the adventure. I thought we could head over towards Ghiradelli Square, park the car and either let Davey run around the Square there and then go for a cable car ride, or ride the cable car to Union Square, let him run around THERE and then ride the cable car back to our car.

By the time we left our house, it was time for Davey to take a nap and he fell asleep shortly after we hit the road. We made a quick stop in to Sausalito to deliver a couple of pralines to Mark, which Mom had brought back for him from her recent trip to New Orleans.

Once we got close to Sausalito we saw that what was gray overcast in Novato was a very low to the ground, dense fog and threat of rain. Hmm. We continued across the Golden Gate Bridge and, seeing as David was still conked out, Mom suggested we head to the Ferry Building to get some lunch at Out the Door before heading to the cable cars.

Hanging out on the embarcadero

David woke up just in time, as I pulled in to a parking spot outside Shanghai 1930. He was cheery and looking forward to whatever we had in store for him. We then walked the two blocks to the Ferry Building and oggled the stands at the Saturday Farmer's Market. Davey and Mom enjoyed listening to a street performer playing his steel guitar.

Texas moves to San Francisco

We grabbed some take-out lunch for Mom and me, picked up a basket of strawberries (straw-beech) and a Dagoba dark chocolate bar as a treat for Davey (I had packed a lunch for him already) and we quickly inhaled a bit of sustenance while Davey squirmed around and wanted to explore.

Once we reemerged from the building we found that the fog was so thick it was hard to tell if it was fog or rain. Mom and I agreed that this wasn't, perhaps, the best weather for the cable car. And, besides, we already had a parking place there. Why have to deal with that all over again in an even more touristy part of San Francisco? So, instead, we fed the parking meter and headed to a trolley stop on the Embarcadero.

The trolley was packed with people but a nice gentleman gave up his seat to Mom, who was holding David. A little while later, the gentleman next to Mom and David offered up his seat to me.

Riding in a trolley for the first time

Needless to say, Davey LOVED riding on the trolley. "Trolley" is now, of course, a new word in his vocabulary, often said in a chant.

We rode the trolley a good ways up Market Street before getting off and walking down the sidewalk for a little bit. We headed in to the Westfield Mall for a short stroll, as I haven't had a chance to see what's in there since it was expanded. Mom and I agreed that we'd really like to go back there, without David, and shop together (unlike BOTH of us to want to shop). blIt was jam packed, bustling and I would never have guessed there was a recession based on how many people were in there shopping. Afterward, we emerged from the mall, got in line and hopped on to the next trolley heading back to the water. Trolley, trolley, trolley!

Just off the trolley

Next weekend, maybe we'll get on the cable cars.

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