Westacular

We had dinner Friday night with our good friend Michelle and we had a very nice time.  On the way home we stopped at a light and Sarah Michael asked, “Why would a bicycle be in a Gas Station?!” I turned to see what she was talking about and sure enough, in the gas station was a man with a bicycle and he was indeed filling up– on air.  Some guy was using the air compressor next to the fuel pump to put air into his tires.

It gave Jessie and I a good laugh.

One of the San Francisco landmarks you can easily see from the Fisherman’s Wharf area is Coit Tower which site atop Telegraph Hill.  I’ve often seen this tower and wondered what it was, and I’ve also previously wonderered where Telegraph Hill was, so going up to see both was good for me.

In fact the way it went today was Sarah Michael asked us about the tower as we were driving on the waterfront, because it reminded her of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I didn’t know what it was, or what the hill or park was called, so I used Google Maps on my iPhone to determine that it was probably Pioneer Park.  Then a Google search informed us the name of the tower and the name of the hill.  Jessie and I got excited when we learned this was Telegraph Hill.

We were excited about Telegraph Hill because of the docmentary we’d seen, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, the subject about which I wager you can guess.  Jessie and I enjoyed the film (and we suggest you add it to your Netflix queue) and so to see the area in person would be special.

We drove up the windy roads to get to the summit, then waited in a line of cars for a parking spot, then enjoyed the views from the park.  We didn’t go up Coit Tower, but from the park you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, and Treasure Island (where we’ll be tomorrow night), Alcatraz and more.

The weather also cooperated.  While the morning had been foggy and cold, by this time in the afternoon the clouds had broke, the blue sky revealed and the sun warmed us up.

After walking around the parking circle in the park we found a path that went down into the neighborhood just blow the park, as I hoped that we just might get lucky and see the parrots.  I wasn’t hopeful, though, I really had no idea where the on the hill the parrots like to visit.

But we were lucky.  As we descended some steps we heard the sound of the parrots and saw a group of them fly into a tree just in front of us.  Before I could snap any shot, though, they flew away!  But they didn’t go far, I could hear their squaking just a few houses away.  Then one flew back to the tree in front of and I was able to get a shot of it (click here for large size).

Before we left I saw in the distance more of the birds flying around, and of course we could hear them, but no more landed close to us.

I was so pleased we were able to see the parrots, it really made my day.

After Telegraph Hill we headed to the nearby and famous Lombard Street.

Everyone has seen this street in commercials, television shows and films, and we thought it would be fun to drive down it.

I was worried there might be a long wait, but thankfully there wasn’t.  There was certainly a lot of tourists both driving, walking and looking at the hill, but there wasn’t any major jam-up.  There was traffic, of course, so there was a lot of stopping on the hill, but it was something to do and it wasn’t a problem.

You’ll see in the movie the two yellow three-wheeled vehicles in front of us.  We saw these little rental vehicles all over the place, they look like a fun thing to rent.

After lunch Sarah Michael and Jessie rode a merrygoround on Pier 39 then we went over to view a submarine we saw from the restaurant window while eating lunch.

The sub is the USS Pampanito which served during World War II.  Sarah Michael was quite anxious to see it, and wanted to go inside– until she got inside.  We climbed the ladder down into the aft torpedo room to begin the tour and she seemed fine, but once we had to walk through one of the narrow doorways to visit the rest of the ship, she grew scared.  We finally convinced her to go on, but she still wanted to get out.  Every time we’d enter a new room she would pull on my arm and say “Let’s go!!”

It was a fun unexpected tour to take, though Jessie and I would have liked to have spent more time taking it in.

Today was touristy-stuff-in-San Francisco day for us.  We started off going down to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the sea lions and have lunch.

The sea lions are entertaining, a lot noisier and active than those we saw in the caves.  These San Francisco sea lions are quite noisy as they battle each other for positions on the floating docks.  Some of the sea lions lay on the docks quite mellow, but others refuse to let another onto their dock and are happy to fight it out.

The San Francisco RV Resort where we’re staying here in Pacifica is not a bad place, but it sure is different than where we stayed outside Florence.  Just compare these two shots of our RV in its element…

Mapleton

Pacifica

Of course having the Pacific Ocean right beside us is a nice plus.