Return to San Francisco

May 29, 2011


We had decided about a month ago, that we would go to San Francisco for a day after State Field Day, and mainly because my dad wanted to go after he heard about Sarah's and my trip back in April.  This time around, we decided not to drive into the city, for we were expecting it would be a zoo since it was a holiday weekend.  We drove down to  the city of Concord, where we took the BART into downtown San Francisco.  For those who don't know, the BART is a train system in the bay area.  We got our tickets, we got on the train, and took the almost hour ride into the city.  I just kept looking out the window looking at the bay area cities, Sarah read her book, my sister was listening to her music, and my dad just was chillin.

We arrived into the city, we got off at the Powell St/Market St. Station.  This just happened to be the location of one of the turntables for the historic Trolley Cars.  The plan was to take the trolley car to China Town.  After we explore China town, we were to head back on the cars down to Pier 39.  The first thing we did when we got to the trolley car was get each of us a one day pass to ride all the trolley cars, light rails, and city buses, all for $13.00.  Its a good deal since public transportation in San Fran is more expensive than many other places.  Once we got the tickets, we headed over to the turntable, and noticed that the line was very very long.  We felt it would take forever to get onto the trolley car.  Then we looked up the steep hill of Powell street, and started to think.  I asked if we should just walk, because we only had this day.  I got quite thoughts, no one said anything, and I got tired of waiting, so I said alright, looks like we are walking.  We started walking up Powell Street.  At first it seemed fine, but then the road got steep.  After we finally got to the top, and after hearing the complaints from people, we continued on, and headed right into China Town.

     We walked through China Town, and looked through a few shops.  My dad had a mission to get some tea, which he could have easily found at home, but he felt he can only get it in China Towns.  I had a mission to find the fortune cookie factory.  In the second shop we went to, my dad had found his tea.  I was bored and just walking around.  While looking at things, this random mid aged chinese guy started talking to me out of nowhere.  What did he say you might ask?  Well he started with asking me "You know what you really need?"  I asked what?  He said I needed ginseng.  It is way better than viagra!   Right away I was thinking WTF!?!  Does it look like I need viagra or anything that helps guys get it up?  Hellz no!  but I kept my mouth shut.  He kept claiming its all natural, and way better.  Of course I do agree that anything natural is way better, but man idk why he brought up the topic, and randomly to me.  At that time, I walked towards the front of the store, and he found me and continued on.  At that time, I noticed he was holding a large beer can in a brown bag, and he was drinking it from a straw.  That made sense, he was drunk.  Maybe he is having issues with "keeping it up", and as he is drunk just started talking about that stuff.  Anyway, he followed us down the street.  Noone knew what he was talking to me about.  He started talking about the best places to get chinese food in town.  Then he talked to my dad, and asked if he knew what I really needed?  Then went right back to the viagra stuff.  I have to say that was kinda embarrassing.  After a little bit, we walked away, and we waited for a little bit before we continued on.  It was a very strange moment.  We continued exploring China Town.  We looked at a few more shops, then we stopped to have some Asian food.  I tried some type of pork roll, which I didn't like.  It was too sweet which was strange to me.  It also tasted a little weird, and didn't takes like pork to me.  Also had a sesame seed roll, which was good.  My dad considered this lunch, which this didn't fill me up at all.  After the food, we found the fortune cookie factory, which was in an ally.  Sadly, we had to pay to take photos inside the factory, so I didn't get any photos of that.  Afterwards, it was time for us to adventure down to Pier 39, and explore other parts of the city.  We decided to just continue walking.

     We ended up walking through little Italy, which was cool.  We stopped off at a pizza place where I got a pizza slice, because I wanted something to eat.  It was New York style pizza, which I normally doesn't like, but this was good.  I shared some of it with Sarah, and she liked it as well.  We got to Pier 39, and we walked around.  Sarah and I didn't have as exciting of an time at the pier as my sister and dad, but thats mainly because we were there just a month before this trip.  This time around, the pier was full of tons of people, so it made things a little crazy.  After the pier, we walked over towards Fishermen's Wharf.  We stopped to watch the British Street Performers again that we saw a month ago.  They did the same thing, but still fun to watch as before.  This time I took video instead of photos. The video is below.  Yeah yeah, ignore the spelling errors.  I can do that from time to time.  

Afterwards, we explored some more.  We stopped in an old school arcade, looked at some of the crazy things they had back in the past.  All I have to say is im glad I live now and not then.  Love new technology.  After we walked around, we wanted to sit and take a break.  We felt the best way was to take the F line, a light rail train that took up back up to Market Street.  Yes, the train was packed, but it still gave us a break.  I think it was about an hour ride.  We got right back to were we started, at the Powell/ Market Street Trolley Car Turntable.  This time, the line was small, so we waited to get on.  I was very excited, for all the times I had ever been to San Fran, I had never had the chance to ride the trolley car.  We got on, and headed for Fisherman's Wharf.  We ended up standing in the middle inside the sitting area.  It was tough at times holding on, at times running into others when the trolley jumped around.  At one point, we needed to turn, and when the trolley cars turn, they turn onto a new road by momentum, and not by the cables.  A car got in front of us, and the operator had to stop the trolley or we would of hit.  This made us stuck on the track.  We had to sit around for about ten mins, before a truck with a large bumper came to push the trolley to the track that has a cable to pull us.  We got to the Hyde St. Turntable, and we headed back to explore more of Fisherman's Wharf.  We stopped to eat dinner.  We had dinner at Capurro's Sea Food Place.  I had a shrimp Alfredo pasta which was really really good.  We also had great calamari before our meal.  While having dinner, my sister started complaining that she really wanted to go to Japan Town.  Things were getting late, and it seemed that we kinda had to head back to the BART Station.  Japan Town seemed out of the way.  To have her shut up, we agreed to try to make it there.  We finished dinner, and we headed back to the trolley car turntable on Hyde St.  We took the trolley back to the Powell turntable, and this time, I got to hang on to the outside of the trolley car and everyone else sat on the outside bench.  It was a nice and fast ride unlike the one before.  We didn't make it to the turntable, for we got off at a few stops before the turn table.  From there, we got onto a city bus that took us towards Japan town.  

    At this time, things were getting dark, and we didn't know were we were going.  We had finally arrived at Japan town, which wasn't anything like China Town.  It seemed Japan Town was just a large building with Japanese stores inside.  We got inside, and most stores were closed.  Of course this pissed my sister off even more, and claimed each time she is in San Fran we had to skip it.  In my opinion, she didn't have room to complain much because for the 7 times I have been to San Fran in the past 6 years, I have wanted to to go Alcatraz, including this trip, and we had to cut it out of plans due to time or money.  While in Japan town I did see a cool wooden Darth Vader helmet which was cool to see.  We looked around a little bit, and got back on the bus.  We got off at Powell street, and walked to the BART Station.  We got on the BART and headed back to Concord.  The original plan was to take Sarah home, but she agreed to just having her stay in the hotel with us again one more night.  In the morning, we drove her up to her house, then we drove all the way home.  We stopped off at Jimmy Johns in Clovis.  My dad drove home, while I slept, and he drove us the 99 instead of the 5.  He thinks its faster, but I have tested it, and it takes longer.