Way Out West - Day 4 – Union Square, Cable Car Museum and more.

wickesy

<font color=royalblue>Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love y
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After a pretty restless night I woke up still not feeling too clever and finally got up at 8:45. By 9:15 we were out of the room and walked around the corner where the Powell and Mason Cable Car route begins.

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As you can see at this time of the morning there was no queue and we were able to jump straight onto the waiting car and get a seat outside. The plan had been to do the cable car museum first but as we were passing it at 9:25 and it didn’t open until 10:00 we decided to head on to Union Square and do the museum on the way back.

We were at Union Square by 9:30 and had a wander around before heading over to Virgin Megastore arriving just as it opened at 10:00. We left after 25 minutes had passed and after I had spent $184.36 – it has become quite a tradition now that whenever we go away I spend a fortune on box set DVDs of various TV shows.

From Virgin we headed over to Williams Sonoma, a kitchen-ware shop where Dad bought some new oven gloves that are made of rubber as the ones we have are starting to wear through. We then headed over to the Disney shop only to find that it is one of those that has closed down and not been replaced.

Instead we went over to Bloomingdales where I bought some Jack Black after shave and we had a quick look around the shopping mall before going over to join the queue at the other end of the Powell-Mason cable car line. The queue was massive and although we joined the end of it at 11:40 we did not board a car until 12:40! Top tip here is to ride the cable car one way early in the morning and then get the F line streetcar back the other way later in the day as there will be far less lines – there are no Fast Passes for the cable cars. ;)

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We jumped off the cable car at the museum and spent half hour or so looking at the cables noisily beginning and ending their loops around the streets of San Francisco (what a great name for a TV Show) and had a look at the various exhibits they have there. If you have any interest in the history and workings of the cable cars the museum is a great place to spend some time and admission is completely free.

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These are the actual cables that pull the cable cars along. Above the cables you can see the names of the four different routes.

Once we had finished in the museum we went to a café across the road where Dad had a frappucino and apricot bar and I had a traditional lemonade and slice of banana bread. We left the café somewhere around 2:00 and decided that, as it was downhill all the way, we would walk back to the hotel which we did passing through Chinatown on the way.

We arrived back in the room at 2:20 where we dropped off our purchases from the day and headed back out to Boudin Bakery where we were finally able to do the tour – which is actually more of an exhibit and place to watch the bakers at work than a tour.

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This is a large alligator made out of sourdough bread.

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From the bakery we headed over to the Musée Mecanique, which is a free museum housing all sorts of old arcade machines, including “What The Butler Saw” type things, test your strength machines and, to my dismay, they even have an old Pole Position machine which I can remember spending many a 10p on in the amusement arcades on day trips to Brighton when I was a kid – I must be getting old.

From the Musée I went back to the room to have a break while Dad went off to have a look around the book shop next to the hotel.

---cont.---
 
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the Internet and packing ready for our transfer to Disneyland tomorrow and then went out again at 6:15 where our first port of call was the USS Pampanito, an old WWII submarine.

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After going round the submarine we went back up to Pier 39 where we had a hot dog each and Dad had a cherry Coke while I had a root beer. We then walked back to the room stopping on the way to buy a calendar for the kitchen at home.

We were back in the room for the last time by 8:00 where we spent the evening relaxing before going to bed at 10:00 bringing the first stage of our trip to a close.

Tomorrow: Day 5 - Disney!
 
you managed to fit a lot in today! love the photo's :thumbsup2 It all looks like a movie set!
 
The museums all look really interesting, musee mechanique is definitely on our list :) I never realised there were such long queues for the cable cars! :scared1:
 

Sounds like you had a really busy day. I can't believe the queue for the cable car, it was massive. The first stage of your trip was great, can't wait to read more :)
 
David, I'm so impressed with your careful planning. Once again you've managed to pack a day with fun and memories without turning it into a forced march. Can't wait to see if you were able to maintain this level of efficiency during your Disneyland days.
 
Wow...you really managed to get so much in to your few days in SF! Great photos and lots of info for me to make a note of! :thumbsup2

Can't wait until Disney!
 
Excellent-you done alot today.I can't believe the queue for the cable car-are you kidding me??.x.
 
Excellent-you done alot today.I can't believe the queue for the cable car-are you kidding me??.x.

The camera never lies, you can see from the first pic of the cable car on the turntable that the queue goes down, around the back of the cable car and back up the other side to the yellow line on the left. From what we saw last time we were in SF the queue at Ghirardelli Square gets even worse. I think the queue at Bay Street is supposed to be the best of the three during the day.
 
The camera never lies, you can see from the first pic of the cable car on the turntable that the queue goes down, around the back of the cable car and back up the other side to the yellow line on the left. From what we saw last time we were in SF the queue at Ghirardelli Square gets even worse. I think the queue at Bay Street is supposed to be the best of the three during the day.

Unbelievable.
Loving your trip reports by the way :thumbsup2 .x.
 
love the pictures of the cable cars, another lovely day :goodvibes
 
That is a big queue for the cable car!! Lovely day though and fab piccies :thumbsup2
 
Once again your photos really tell your story. Such a great way to spend your 4th day



susan
 
Another great day. the alligator made out of bread was brilliant:thumbsup2
 
Sorry you still weren't feeling too good, hope it wore off as the day went on. Great, busy day, I would love to see all those old arcade machines.

Laur's princess:
 
Another interesting day David, the only thing that we're looking to do that you haven't is the Alcatraz trip.
 
Another interesting day David, the only thing that we're looking to do that you haven't is the Alcatraz trip.

We did the Alcatraz tour a couple of years ago, which is why we didn't do it this trip. I would definitely recommend it but you should book it before you go as it often gets sold out.
 












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