Anyhow, so back to where I was...
After checking in to the hotel, we set back out, MUNI passes in hand. Except I d
idn't have a plan, a rarity for me. I had already accomplished one goal of seeing the Palace of Fine Arts. My other goal was to ride the cable cars, but we weren't going to wait 45 minutes to hop on one. We decided on the F-Market Street Cars, which are kind of retro and reminded me of the movie, Heart and Souls, starring Robert Downey, Jr. We decided to head to the Westfield Shopping Center, although we weren't really in the shopping mood, so we didn't stay there long. We ended up walking to Union Square, which I didn't think I've ever been to before.
Again, no plan, so much of the time was spent roaming! Across Union Square was the Disney Store, so we paid an obligatory visit, although we did not buy anything (personally, I think the Disney Store has gone in a strange direction in recent years, and I have little interest in it anymore). We stumbled across Chinatown and took a few pictures there. Then w
e walked. And walked. And walked some more. Next thing we knew, we were at the Ferry Terminal. I kinda wished we had gone in there, since we were there. I've read that there are a number of shops and restaurants there. But, I didn't have a plan, so we ended up hopping back on a street car back toward the Fisherman's Wharf area.We spent most of
the early evening at Pier 39, mostly looking at seals and admiring the beautiful sunset. We had dinner at Neptune's Palace, the same place we ate dinner during our last visit to San Francisco many years ago. We started with Caesar salad and calamari appetizer w/ really yummy accompanying sauces. Our entrees were a hazelnut crusted seabass with gnocchi, and the seared swordfish. Although it was okay and some people rave about it, the seabass wasn't really my cup of tea. I think it was too sweet. I was also disappointed in the gnocchi which seemed undercooked. That entree was rea
lly the only thing I didn't care for though. Everything else was terrific, including a mocha cake we got for dessert! The views were very nice, and service was good. The only thing that's kind of unusual about this place is that they have a $1 per person minimum wage surcharge. Apparently, restaurants are able to pass this on to their customers. It would have been nice if they told us about it, or had something explaining it, rather than it just appearing on our bill. I've read a lot of complaints on Yelp.com about it too -- most people think they should just factor this into their prices, rather than having it show up as a separate charge on the check.After dinner, we stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe in Pier 39. We are amateur pin collectors and make it a point to stop at any Hard Rock Cafe that is easily accessible. Our experience here was a little annoying. The girls at the counter decided it was more important to flirt with the guy in front of us, instead of one of them trying to help us while the other described some great clubs to go to in the area. Then, when we asked about their signature pin, the answer was, "well, they're all signature pins." Unless things have changed, there are only one or two true signature pins to each Hard Rock Cafe location. So we left it up to ourselves to decide which ones might qualify as signature pins.
After this, we walked even more and this time went to Ghiradelli Square. There wasn't a whole lot to see there, at least not by the time we got there, but it was still a nice visit. After that, we decided to check out the cable car line at the Beach and Taylor stop. There was no line! We were the first ones there. We had to wait quite a while before the next car left, and a number of people had joined us, but it was worth the wait. We got off at the turnaround on the other end near Union Square, and decided to check out the Virgin Records Megastore we had seen when we rode the street car earlier. We were very disappointed when the Megastore in Vegas closed, so this was a nice surprise. I think we must've been there for over an hour! It was a big store, and it was worth our while to go there.
By the time we left the Virgin Records Megastore, it was about 10:30 p.m., and time to head back to the hotel since we planned to get up early to ride the cable cars in daylight with few crowds! The cable car ride back to the hotel was really nice, especially once we started heading downhill and could see all the beautiful lights. It's amazing that a number of people were still riding the cable cars that late at night, including locals, but we were still able to get on the first car that arrived.
To be continued, again...
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