San Francisco, Day One

So in yesterday's post I made it sound like we went to San Francisco to visit my sister. The trip was actually planned because my brother needed to get his visa for his study abroad next year and had to appear in person at the consulate. This caused a lot of stress for both him and my mother.

So our first morning in San Francisco, they headed off to the post office and consulate, my sister went to work, and I had the morning to myself. I ended up doing quite a bit of walking, which is more difficult in San Francisco than it would be in another city due to the massive hills!

First I came across this landmark, which I believe is the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. It's very odd, but very cool, and it does kind of remind me of the assumption.

Next I continued down Geary and ran into Japantown! It's a pretty small part of town, but very cute. Unfortunately, I walked through way too early and all the shops were closed! But I got to see the pagoda and look in all the store windows at the cute kimonos and tea cups!

So then I basically just started wandering through the city using the semi-crappy map I got from the front desk of the hotel. I fortunately ended up at the San Francisco Cable Car Museum. Now, call me naive, but I had never really thought about how cable cars work. Did you know? There are actually cables under the street that pull the car! And the driver of the cable car basically uses giant pliers to either grip the cable tightly or loosely to control the speed of the cable car! Isn't that cool? The Cable Car Museum is actually in the same main building where all the cables run. You can see them moving.

It was really loud in there, but very interesting. I can't believe I didn't know how cable cars actually worked. I also learned that the inventor of cable cars was a guy who made cable for bridges for a living. Funny, eh? Some people are just good at creating job security, I guess.

So I was so excited about the cable car museum that I demanded that my mother take me on a cable car ride. She hadn't gone since she was sixteen so we decided it would be a good idea. And it was so much fun! We managed to catch a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf where we enjoyed some tasty crab cocktail. On the way up we snagged the best seats in the cable car, on the outside right at the front! I stood for almost the entire time, and it was actually a little terrifying!

After all that excitement we went and picked up my sister at her job at the veggie warehouse, and then had dim sum for dinner. After that we had some awesome ice cream, and by then I was pretty much ready to fall asleep in the car. I barely made it into bed at the hotel!