It really is uphill both ways

I am sore. And beat. And did you know you have muscles in your shin area? Well you do. I know this because mine hurt. But I don't feel guilty for eating that crepe, though.

We did a ton of walking today. The weather has been beautiful (sunny and in the low 60s) for the most part, so it was a great day for a long walk. Tim went to his conference this morning, so I explored the area near our hotel. Apparently, there is a swanky neighborhood just across the street full of old, victorian and art deco architecture. I started walking up a hill, turned right, walked up another hill and came to a park. What do you know? There was a hill in the park. I felt like a mountain goat.

After picking up Tim at the hotel (wow, that sounds naughty, but it really wasn't), we had lunch and headed back to China Town. I couldn't let him leave San Fran without experiencing that. We made a bee-line for the fortune cookie factory. Since I already had a photo of cookies being made, I opted for a photo with the adorable little old man who acted as "host" of the shop.



After China Town, we met up with my new travel friend, Laura, at City Lights Books. The bookstore is famous for being owned by one of the Beat Poets, but I didn't see him there. I did see this mural behind the building, which I thought had some pretty sage advice:



The next part of our adventures led us up, up and up hill. A lot of up hill. We wanted to go to the top of Coit Tower, which was built to honor the firefighters that battled the post-1906 earthquake fire. Some people say it looks like a firehose. Others say it looks like a, well, AHEM. I think it looks like a lighthouse.



After climbing to the top of a very steep hill and then taking several flights of stairs to the base of the tower, it turned out you couldn't go to the top because it was under renovation. Figures. But the view from the tower area was nice and we got to go though some really beautiful backyard gardens on the way down.

Our next stop took us to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in San Fran. It has eight switchbacks that cars have to navigate to decend the hill (it's a one-way street). They also have to navigate tourists jumping into the road for a photo. We started at the base of the hill and walked up more stairs to the top. It was a nice walk, beautifully landscaped, so it didn't seem bad.



At the top of the hill, we all decided it was time for a drink and a snack. Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39 were only a few blocks away, down this street:



We made it to the bottom and thought we should check for the sea lions that frequent the bar area of the warf. We smelled them before we could see them. Cute animals, but woof! SMELLY! Alas, it was naptime:



Tomorrow my new friend Laura and I are going to Muir Woods. Then Tim and I leave San Fran and start making our way down Highway 1 toward Caramel and San Simeon, and eventually L.A.

Seeing the sites of San Fran

I had a very busy day. It's helping a lot that my body hasn't fully adapted to Pacific time, so waking up at 6 a.m. feels like sleeping in to me. I'm telling myself it is the jetlag that got me to Ghirardelli Square at 9:15 this morning, not the excitement over being in a store completely devoted to the consumption of chocolate. Makes perfect sense.

After taking in the free chocolate samples and smells of the square, I made my way down Fisherman's Warf. Between stores and restaurants, you can sneek peaks at the bay, Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After a little retail therapy, I visited the aquarium. A school of sardines and anchovies were swirling above me in one of the tunnels:



The aquarium made me hungry for seafood, so I called Tim and he joined me on the warf for lunch. I enticed him with crab sandwiches, which did not disappoint:



After lunch, we headed back to the hotel so Tim could work on his presentation for Wednesday and so I could figure our what kind of trouble I could get into next. I opted for China Town.

I caught a trolley (Think: Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat! Ding-ding!) to Grant Street, which is right in the heart of China Town. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a blast. I began by looking for a fortune cookie factory and on the way, I met a woman who was also touring by herself. We ended up exploring China Town the rest of the afternoon together.

We started by sampling tea. The tea shop had at least 40 teas to sample.



You start by telling the shopkeeper what kind of tea you like. They then tailor your tasting around what they think you will like. Sitting at a bar, the tea person gives you a tiny cup--smaller than a child's tea set. She made us several samples of tea to try. It was a lot like doing shots of boiling water. As fun and educational as that was, by tongue is still a little raw. The last sample we tried was called something like Iron Goddess Something or Other. It was a great tea, which I wanted to buy for home. Note the past tense of that sentence. The tea cost $120 per pound. Uh, I'll go with the cheaper jasmine tea, thanks. We also sampled tea that had monkey in the name and we were assured there were no monkeys harmed in the tea making process. But by far the most interesting tea we sampled smelled and tasted like buttered popcorn, which was very enjoyable.

Leaving the shop hopped up on caffeine, tongues blazing, we began looking for the elusive fortune cookie factory. The discription in my guidebook was a little misleading. I thought factory: assembly line, a dozen or so workers, a cash register. Not at all. This was a tiny store front (we passed it several times. I finally asked a tiny old man where it was, and patting me on the hand, he pointed about 15 feet behind me). Inside a little old man gave you a hot-off-the-cookie-maker sample as you walked in to his "store." Further in, an old lady was sitting at the cookie maker pouring batter, folding and stuffing cookies with fortunes. It was 50 cents for a photo of the cookie making in action. Totally worth it. Plus, when you paid for the photo, the little old guy gave me another two hot cookies--score!



Leaving the fortune cookie factory, we bumped into a woman who was a tour guide. She told us we couldn't leave China Town without seeing the oldest temple there. So we followed her over a few blocks to Waverly (Amy Tan wrote about this street in The Joy Luck Club). In a very non-descript doorway, up four flights of stairs, you walk into a Chinese temple. No photos were allowed, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was beautiful and ornate and red. In such a tiny space (it was maybe 15 feet wide and 30 feet deep), around 100 lanterns hung from the ceiling all with red papers attached to the bottom. Prayers of thanks and requests for spiritual help hung from the ceiling in front of the altar. By making a donation to keep the temple operating, I was given a packet of tea and a good luck charm of red fabric and string.

After the temple, we continued our stroll and found a Chinese kite shop. If you can think of a shape, they had a kite. These were just two of the really interesting kites we saw:



We wrapped up the night with dinner with a high school friend of mine and his wife. It was my first experience with Indian food and it was fun. It was great to see a familiar face, especially one I haven't seen in more than 10 years. Thanks!

Not sure what the plan is tomorrow. You'll just have to tune in and be surprised.

A short jaunt to the happiest place on Earth

Tim is still working on his Ph.D. in civil engineering. Because of his studious nature, we were fortunate enough to go to Hawaii last year.

Well, the hits just keep comin.'

He's presenting at a conference in Orlando next month. Neither of us was too excited about the travel possibilities here until he called to make reservations at the resort and was asked if he wanted a view of the castle.

That's when things got interesting.

After a little more research, it turns out, Tim only needs to be at the conference for 90 minutes total. Basically, he gives his presentation and leaves. So, I decided I can wait around 90 minutes for him to finish up, then hit the theme parks.

Neither of us has ever aspired to go to Disney World. It's not as if we swore we'd never go there, it just wasn't on the radar. But when a nearly free trip presents itself...

So, we're going to give it a shot. The park passes are reasonably priced, with the military discount Tim gets with his work ID. And, there's supposed to be a big spring flower celebration at Epcot while we're there. So, I'm excited about that.

We're using our Holiday Inn points we accrued with our credit card. Tim's airfare is paid by Wayne State.

For a spur-of-the-moment trip, we're doing this pretty economically.

So, Internet. Have any tips?