Part of Day 2 in San Francisco

Our initial plan for the day was to try and get on one of the San Francisco Cable Cars at the lower end of the Powell-Hyde Line, which is the line that travels along the steepest route. However, the lower part of the line was out of service. Therefore, we simply decided to walk the steep hill up Powell to keep our plan in place. After going up the hill on Powell, we walked through Chinatown - where the above picture of the "Red Headed Siren" - was taken.

We headed east on Filbert to get to the Coit Tower. To get to the Coit Tower, we had to walk up this hill - the Filbert Street Steps which has a gradient of 31.5%! As you can see the cars are parked at a 90 degree angle. Most other streets in San Francisco that have hills of any sort require you to, of course, engage your parking break and turn your wheels toward the curb on a downhill and toward the street on an uphill to prevent runaway vehicles.

As we were waiting to board the Cable Car to head south, this is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge still partially enshrouded by fog -- at 2 p.m. in the afternoon.

Yes indeed, we made it to Ghirardelli's for a peanut butter hot fudge sundae (me) and a hot fudge sundae (Waverly) that set Dad back about $17. I guess you can say, "When in San Francisco, do what the San Franciscans do." Well, almost all of them.

As we were walking up Powell, we saw a long line outside of this restaraunt - Sears' Fine Food - for breakfast. (We had eaten the buffet at Jasmine's in the Marriott Courtyard.) Later this evening, after an afternoon nap, of course, we came back here after one place we went to we sat there invisible for about 10 minutes or more. It turned out to be a very good mood as the food here for dinner was excellent. I had Aunt Mary's Italian Sausage and it was very good.

Our waiter was named Eddie. I was wearing my long sleeved Texas Marathon shirt (the red one from this year.) He asked if I was from Texas and I responded generically, "The greater Houston area." He said that he moved permanently to San Francisco in 1988 and that he had worked for the Spring ISD at Bammel Elementary and Wunsche Middle School. Small world.

Earlier in the day, as we were walking up Powell, we met a couple who said that they were from the Highway 6/Westheimer area and that she had graduated from Conroe High School.