We took the Ferry back across to San Francisco to the Ferry Building under the Oakland Bay Bridge, sans luggage this time, so that we could ride a historic (ca. 1930's) streetcar,
as opposed to the more expensive cable car (1873), down Marketstreet. At the southern end we saw where the people of a particular lifestyle hang out. Then on our way back up to Embarcadero by the piers I and the older 5 kids got out by the Levi complex with beautiful grounds to make our
ascent up to
Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. George, Rebecca and the camera hung out at Pier 39 with the Sea Lions while we ascended the 530ish (there are conflicting, and I mean confrontationally conflicting, counts among my eldests, well it's 4 against 1, Jared, who's supposed to be the math genius, but in this case he's just plain wrong) stairs up the steep, tropically be-gardened and wild parrot-ed hill up to the tower, where the view of the city and the Bay is absolutely magnificent. We got videos instead.
Then we walked down the famous Lombard street, met up with George, had hot dogs and garlic pizza on Fisherman's Wharf and finally got in line for our excursion to Alcatraz Island that needs to be, and thankfully was, reserved a month in advance.
Comments
Okay, the steps: there was one point where there was a pause to look around, and I noticed that those counting, (after other numbers were introduced into the conversation) seemed to pick up at a higher number than where they left off. Nevertheless, they were quite convinced that I was wrong, so I figured that I must have been mistaken (though their conviction was so strong I couldn't resist prodding about it here and there; I apologize).
I do find it interesting to note, however, that the only online statistical count for these steps (that I could find) is in fact 444. . .
-Steven Wright
Though the statistic I got did include at least the wooden stairs (with the parrots) up to Coit tower, I really am not sure whether it included all of the way that we walked, so it may not be valid in any case. I actually have no idea how many stairs there were on that climb; if you told me there were 600, I would doubt it, but I wasn't counting, so I have no way of telling.
. . .But the parrots sure were nice. . .