Good morning from San Francisco
Another cool night last night and it's pouring rain again here today.
We hit up the park manager to get a ride into the city on their shuttle bus - return cost us $12 with a few options of return times. We decided the latest time slot of 9pm. The RV park is quite basic so we might as well take every moment to adventure this beautiful city.
We popped into a cafe for some breakfast which was run by some Italian guys. They were having a laugh at our accents emphasising the word H-am & Sa-almon. It was quite funny hearing it repeated.
After breakfast we jumped onto the Muni Cable Car and did a lap of the city to figure out where we wanted to go. Along the ride we met a family here from Chicago here for the spring break searching for the sun again like all the others.
The Muni Cable Car dropped us to the shopping centre where we planned on getting some new jackets in preparation for New York next week. We picked up 2 jackets both at half price. That's the good part of shopping for winter in spring I suppose!
The Cable Car is a rail system which works on a cable. It was established between 1873 and 1890. It has been revamped a number of times but it's a beautiful way to travel around the city not so fast where there is still a chance to see each corner store & cafe but doesn't drain the legs too much up those big hills. Even if it was pelting rain & freezing cold there is no doubt how much fun we had on the old commuter it certainly brought big smiles to us.
On our return there was more rain again. Once we hopped off Muni we decided to head into a bar called "The Parlour" to try and keep dry until the rain stopped.
The bartender was Irish man named Patrick and we later found out the building was made from bricks recycled from the 1906 earthquake and fire. It seems to be holding good shape. While at the bar we met another fellow also named Patrick and also of Irish descent. He was very helpful with a good insight into New York and gave us some ideas of heading to the rangers hockey game or the baseball while we are there. He is from Long Island and in San Francisco for business. We ended up staying a little longer than originally planned but it was great to chat with someone so helpful. He said his family will be quite envious when he tells them he spoke with us as they all want to go to Australia.
Once we dragged ourselves from the bar the rain had stopped & we headed for something to eat. We popped into Rainforest Cafe where they have a volcano & animals which become live every 15 minutes or so. It was a real Oasis in the restaurant designed like a rainforest with lots of fake trees but also huge fish tanks on each wall with all types of saltwater fish and a big water feature in the middle. The food was excellent and they had Fajitas just like Cactus.
By the time we finished it was 8.40pm and we were a very long way from our pickup point. It was pelting with rain again. We raced back to our pickup point in the pouring rain. We must have walked so many blocks from the wharf back to Chinatown. We made it back just in time and the bus was waiting. It was 9.02 and bloody amazing we were dry under our new jackets! Woohoo!