After leaving Yosemite, Cindy and Charles drove to San Francisco.   They completely ignored  the GPS woman and took the route north of town so they could drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.  But first they stopped to take more pictures.   Our luck with the weather was still holding out.  It was cool and hazy but at least there was no fog.

First stop was the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in Marin County, a large park with great views of SF Bay and the Pacific Ocean.  There’s the Golden Gate Bridge with Alcatraz on the left in the distance and downtown SF on the right.

Another view of the SF side of the bridge.

 Just another pretty view of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  There’s the GG Bridge on the right.

This is a lighthouse on Point Bonito in the channel leading into SF Bay.  That’s the Pacific Ocean.

Now we are driving across the GG Bridge.  This highway turns into Lombard Street, so Cindy had an idea.

She just kept driving up and up and up Lombard Street.  Then they started down the other side until they reached the Crookedest Street in the World.  This is the top of the crooked part.

And here we are nearing the bottom of the crooked part.  That’s more Lombard Street in the distance, but it’s just tree-lined which makes it look crooked, but it’s not.

The next day we took a Segway tour of the streets of San Francisco.  That’s right.  We were out there in traffic going up and down the hills on those gadgets.  Of course we had an expert leader who kept our group of eight riders in line while pointing out interesting sites along the way.  We wore headsets so we could hear what he was saying.  Segways are great fun and easy to master.  I highly recommend it.

About halfway through the two hour ride we took a break.

These are our Segways parked against a step on Fisherman’s Wharf.

Charles had a great time.  His dazzling smile says it all.

Cindy had fun too.

Our last stop was on a pier in front of Ghirardelli Square.

There’s Alcatraz behind Cindy.

Charles was a Segway whiz.  It’s a lot like driving a locomotive.

Cindy, however, looks terrified.  The group leader thought her hands looked cold, so he gave her some gloves to wear.

The Segway is conquered.

Go home, Greg.

This is the cable car museum.  It’s also the powerhouse that drives the four cables that move the cable cars.  Each line has its own loop of cable.  These wheels (sheaves) turn the cables that run under the street.  The California line is the longest with a cable over 20,000 feet, but it was down for repairs (that’s why it isn’t blurry like the others which are spinning).

This was taken from a cable car.  There’s Alcatraz out in the Bay.

Here’s our cable car.  It broke down and had to be towed.  I think the driver said that he dropped tha cable and couldn’t get it back in the grip.  I didn’t see a problem (as long as the brakes held out) because it was downhill all the way back to the turnaround.  We got out and walked back.

Fisherman’s Wharf sign.

Harbor seals at Fisherman’s Wharf

We walked through a submarine (USS Pampanito) docked at Fisherman’s Wharf.  It was interesting.

For a hefty fee you can actually spend the night on board this ship.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Also on the dock was a museum of antique penny arcade machines.  It was fun.  Most of them are still functional too.  Charles took a few pictures.

This is an early version of a Wii.

There’s Alcatraz out in the Bay.  We should have taken the boat ride and tour, but that will just have to wait until next time.