Our first day of beautiful clear skies was followed by typical summertime cold, fog and wind, not days for picture taking! 
So, we headed downtown to the two-story B&M Mei Sing Cafe on Second and Jessie Streets, between Market and Mission Streets, where we have been eating since about 1975. B&M were formerly located in a tiny space across the street but soon bought the current building to accommodate the huge throngs of office workers lining up to eat there each day. The attraction was simple: great, cooked-to-order Chinese food in plentiful quantities and very cheap, always a recipe for success. Although we have since retired and moved to Arizona, we still return whenever we are in "the City."
On traveling around the city to our old haunts and the many
attractions, we noticed a number of small yellow open three-wheeled vehicles called "GoCars." They are rental cars for two people and equipped with GPS units to guide tourists around the city and, when near an attraction, they automatically give a description of the site. They apparently are available in a number of major cities around the world; and yes, they are mulit-lingual! The cost is from $90 for two hours to a maximum of about $180 for five-plus hours. We thought they were really cool, at least until it rains!
Fort Funston is on a bluff overlooking the ocean beach on the southwest side of the city and has become a part of the Golden Gate National Seashore, a huge area along the California coast reserved for public recreation and activities. The Fort dated back many years and, in the 1930's, had large coastal gun emplacements to protect San Francisco from attacking ships - attacks which fortunately never came. In the 50's, during the so-called Cold War, a Nike missile silo was built here as well, but likewise, was never called upon to fire in anger. N
ow the area is used for hang glider flyers who leap off the cliffs and soar over the ocean surf; unfortunately, no one was flying while we were there. Another use of the area is for exercising dogs, one of few areas in the city where they are allowed to run freely and unleashed (but still must be voice-commanded), and there were many dozens of them, some quite large, mostly well behaved but a few........oh, well!
On Sunday, with the improving weather, we again visited Twin Peaks together with Fran's sister, Judy. On a bright sunny day there were hundreds of tourists there as well, many arriving in three large buses and it seems the latest fad is to take very animated photos rather then the time-worn stills we are all familiar with.
On the count of three, they would all jump into the air with arms waving in all directions while the camera registers them for posterity. Of course, I sneaked in a photo of my own just for fun. 
The tourists were from all over the world, speaking in many languages, and some sporting flags of their home country. But it can get really crowded on the small roadway circling the top of the twin hilltops. The adjacent picture with Fran and Judy shows the northern half of the city with Market Street providing the vertical slash at the left of the photo, a sight we never tire of seeing.
So, we headed downtown to the two-story B&M Mei Sing Cafe on Second and Jessie Streets, between Market and Mission Streets, where we have been eating since about 1975. B&M were formerly located in a tiny space across the street but soon bought the current building to accommodate the huge throngs of office workers lining up to eat there each day. The attraction was simple: great, cooked-to-order Chinese food in plentiful quantities and very cheap, always a recipe for success. Although we have since retired and moved to Arizona, we still return whenever we are in "the City."
On traveling around the city to our old haunts and the many
attractions, we noticed a number of small yellow open three-wheeled vehicles called "GoCars." They are rental cars for two people and equipped with GPS units to guide tourists around the city and, when near an attraction, they automatically give a description of the site. They apparently are available in a number of major cities around the world; and yes, they are mulit-lingual! The cost is from $90 for two hours to a maximum of about $180 for five-plus hours. We thought they were really cool, at least until it rains! Fort Funston is on a bluff overlooking the ocean beach on the southwest side of the city and has become a part of the Golden Gate National Seashore, a huge area along the California coast reserved for public recreation and activities. The Fort dated back many years and, in the 1930's, had large coastal gun emplacements to protect San Francisco from attacking ships - attacks which fortunately never came. In the 50's, during the so-called Cold War, a Nike missile silo was built here as well, but likewise, was never called upon to fire in anger. N
ow the area is used for hang glider flyers who leap off the cliffs and soar over the ocean surf; unfortunately, no one was flying while we were there. Another use of the area is for exercising dogs, one of few areas in the city where they are allowed to run freely and unleashed (but still must be voice-commanded), and there were many dozens of them, some quite large, mostly well behaved but a few........oh, well!On Sunday, with the improving weather, we again visited Twin Peaks together with Fran's sister, Judy. On a bright sunny day there were hundreds of tourists there as well, many arriving in three large buses and it seems the latest fad is to take very animated photos rather then the time-worn stills we are all familiar with.
On the count of three, they would all jump into the air with arms waving in all directions while the camera registers them for posterity. Of course, I sneaked in a photo of my own just for fun. 
The tourists were from all over the world, speaking in many languages, and some sporting flags of their home country. But it can get really crowded on the small roadway circling the top of the twin hilltops. The adjacent picture with Fran and Judy shows the northern half of the city with Market Street providing the vertical slash at the left of the photo, a sight we never tire of seeing.
That's all for now. Bye!
Wow, looks like you had really great weather! Awesome.
ReplyDeleteBlog is looking good.
ReplyDeleteWe've been looking at the calendar and it doesn't look like we'll be able to work a foothill trip in. Sorry about that.