San Francisco Trip

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This is the start of my adventures with blogging so I am using the San Francisco trip as my jumping off point. 

August 16, 2011

We took my brother Gary and his wife Doreen to the airport for their flight back to Montana and then we took our truck to long term parking so we could catch our flight to California.  Our carry-on luggage made it through the scanning but the plane was full so we had it stowed below as there was little room in the overhead compartment.  This is the first time we have flown on Frontier Airlines and the plane was about one-half hour late so we were late getting into Denver.  We made our flight but when we got to San Francisco we were missing my luggage.  We reported the missing luggage and they assured us that they would deliver it to the hotel within four hours after it arrived.  We went to our hotel by using BART.  This was an interesting experience for me as it was my first time on the San Francisco subway.  We dropped off at Powell Street and then walked the two blocks to our hotel.  After checking in, we went for a short walk and a little exploring.  We were staying at the Marriott Hotel right off Market and Fourth so we were right down town.  We had a beautiful room on the Seventh floor with a view overlooking the air conditioners.  It never fails.  

The tall ship Bugellala

August 17, 2011

Hardy shaking hands with his virtual cache.

Alioto's Seafood Restaurant on Pier 29

Sea lions at Pier 29

The luggage made it in so I picked that up then we went exploring.  We bought a seven day pass and took the cable car all the way to Fisherman's Wharf.  We had lunch at Alioto's on Pier 44 and then walked down to Pier 29 where I bought a jacket.  It was cool here and

my sweatshirt was just not warm enough.  A tall ship was in the
pier along with a paddle ship so I took lots of pictures. One interesting sight was the sea lions that make their home at Pier 29.  My great grandfather, John Alexander Campbell, came into this port around 1870 from Booth Bay Harbor, Maine.  We took the cable car back to the hotel then walked around the down town area.  We went to the Yerba Buena Gardens where Hardy found a virtual cache.  We ate at Little Delhi Restaurant and had very good Indian Food.  We then went to Mel's Drive In and had pie and ice cream. 
August 18, 2011 We found this little fast food Mexican restaurant called Del Taco where we could get two tacos and hash browns for $2.00.  Needless to say, this was the most inexpensive place we visited in San Francisco and we went there two times for breakfast.  Hardy got registered for the IEEE Sections Congress and I watched some television and then went shopping.  Later we went to Ted's Steakhouse and had a very good steak.  We walked up Powell Street and I found a Sketchers store and I bought two more pair of shoes.  I just needed to figure out how I was going to get them packed in my little suitcase.  We then took the cable car back down town and stopped at a little pizza joint and had frozen yogurt before walking back to the hotel.  We met some friends in the bar for some catching up on news. 

Powell Street

August 19, 2011 Hardy went to his meeting and I walked all around the block and finally ended at Mel's Drive In for breakfast.  It is quite expensive here but the portions are enough for three people.  I continued my walk around several blocks and ended up at the mall and walked around the mall area before going back to the hotel.  Hardy and I finally connected and went to lunch then he took a nap and I watched some television.  We went to the IEEE reception for a short while and sat with three women from Central America.  They were from Costa Rica, Panama and Nicarargua.  After the reception we went to Annabelles for dinner which is across the street from the motel so a very short walk.  This time we split the meal.  We walked up Powell Street again and took the cable car back down and stopped again for the frozen yogurt.
August 20, 2011 We went back to Mel's Drive In for breakfast but this time we split breakfast.  We stopped in at the IEEE vendors and met some new people and found some of our friends that we knew from previous meetings and conferences. Hardy left for his meetings and I went to find something for lunch.  There is a Walgreen's across the street from the hotel and they actually have fresh fruit so that has been a good stopping place for me.  The weather was beautiful but I had no plans so watched some television and read my book.  After the meetings, we took the cable car to the end of the line and then road it back down.  We ate at a little restaurant that had a 60's flavor.

Hardy with Babbage's Difference Engine

August 21, 2011 Hardy went to his meeting and I went to the mall. My glasses broke just as I got back to the motel and the lens fell on the floor.  Fortunately, I didn't step on them, so I went across the street to Walgreen's and bought a repair kit.  I couldn't see to fix the darn things so one of the staff at Walgreen's took pitty on me and did the repair.  Later we took a bus and went to the computer museum and saw all the old computers.  Some we had worked with years ago. There were drinks and snacks served so it was an enjoyable evening.

August 22, 2011

A little robot

On the boat

We checked out of the Marriott and moved across the street to the Mosser which is an old Victorian hotel.  The rooms were really tiny and the bathroom and showers were down the hall.  It was very quaint.  We took the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf and walked to Pier 44 and ate at Boudins.  San Francisco is well known for its sour dough bread and I think we ate as much as we could.  I bought another jacket as I was freezing down on the bay.  We took an enjoyable boat ride around the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz.  After the boat ride we walked to Fort Mason and went back and rode the trolly back to Market Street where we got off and walked.  There was a protest by a group of people concerning police, street people and BART.  It was interesting watching them march down the street with the police escort.  There were several colorful costumes but one guy was stark naked walking down the street.  We ate at Sears Restaurant for dinner.  This restaurant has been around since the 1930's and was very interesting inside and the food was wonderful.  We stopped at Walgreen's and bought some fruit for our trip home in the morning.

August 23, 2011

Hyde Street

We had a miserable night in our quaint hotel.  We had the windows open for some air and it was very noisy so we didn't sleep well.  We were up by 5:00 to make out 8:45 flight but it was not the correct time and we didn't leave until 10:45.  Hardy's IPOD had changed the time to match California time and we didn't realize it until we went to check in.  Anyway, we checked our luggage so we didn't have to pack it around and gave our left over BART tickets with some time left to the ticket agent.  We also gave her our cable car passes which also had some time left and she was going to use them that night when she went down town.   We killed some time by having breakfast at the airport and reading.  Our flight home was uneventful and our luggage arrived.  By the time we ate in St Louis and drove home it was nearing 10:00 p.m. so a very long day.

San Francisco sky line

Golden Gate Bridge

The yellow trolly we rode

BART protest march. Do you see the naked guy?

Alcatraz

August 24, 2011  Well, another night without sleep as Hardy snored to the point that I went to the couch.  I spent most of the morning doing laundry and we left for Springfield to go square dancing.  We stopped in Houston, MO for ice tea and coffee and went to pay and Hardy and forgotten his wallet.  I had just enough money to pay for what we had.  They had charged us over $5 for Hardy's coffee and said it was because it was such a large cup of coffee.  Anyway, we had no money left and he had no driver's license and I didn't feel like driving to Springfield and back again so I drove back home.  I painted the hummingbird feeder red to see if the hummingbirds would use it better and made food for all the feeders.  The little guys were letting me know they were out of food and that I had been neglectful.

August 25, 2011
This was a lazy day and I didn't feel like doing anything.  It was so beautiful out but I was just a couch potato.  I finally painted some wicker baskets for the bathroom and got them back on the wall.  We went to a dance in St Robert to a great caller, Ken Retucci.  I knew we had danced to him before but could not place him until he told us he had called for Randy in the "valley" last year when Randy went to Japan.  He called a very good dance.