Honeymoon With My Honey – Part 2

Tuesday – Tuesday dawns, and I go to rummage some grub while Cora gets ready. I head out and punch "McDonald's" into Google Maps, and had a gut feeling that it wasn't right. It took me down Powell to Market, and then right (west). This is taking me into "the Tenderloin" which is NOT where I want to really be walking. But there could be one there, so I keep walking. Blindly following directions, I end up at "MacDonald's Book Store".

Great. I bust my @$$ back up Market to where I know one is right by the Palace Hotel. It was at this point that I begin to regret not putting on socks, as my new shoes are starting to rub my heal. On the walk, I call Cora to tell her that I will be a tad late, and that I asked at the front desk, and that the hair dryer was hidden in a bag on the back of the bathroom door. Fetching the victual, I return up Post, and had to take my heal out of the shoe to finish the walk. Got back to the room as Cora was finishing up getting ready. A quick shower, some band-aids for the foot, and off we go…

To the lobby, where the concierge hooked us up with the San Francisco City Pass, and tickets for the Winchester Mystery House tour bus on Wednesday. The City Pass is a coupon booklet ($68 each) that has coupons admissions to some museums, a bay cruise, and most importantly, unlimited rides on city buses, trolley cars, and cable cars. To get the booklet, we had to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Tuesday was their "Free Day" so we didn't end up using our pass there.

On our walk there, we saw these great sculptures by Ugo Rondinone. The first one looks like Alec Baldwin in "Beetlejuice" and the second one looks like "Oogie Boogie" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I think my new daughter's Tim Burton addiction is starting to rub off. While there, we also saw a security guard roust one of the homeless who was trying to set up camp on the nearby benches. (THIS GUY, Scott Beale, has some cool shots over at Laughing Squid)

Aside from the huge, porcelain figurine of Michael Jackson:

FYI – This sculpture was created BEFORE Michael died, not after. Post mortem, it would have made an entirely different artistic statement about our society and its relationship to its celebrities. (So, I had to do it myself in Photoshop.)

Once again, so lifelike with the skin! A detailed shot of one of the flowers by his feet.

There were some other cool things that my wife took all the pictures of :-(. You'll have to see her blog to see if she posts them.

But since I was already playing with a new technique in Photoshop, here's a fairly uncomfortable chair made of of little bits of wood all hammered together.

Transit pass in hand, we left the SFMOMA and headed to get some food. We hopped on one of the streetcars (not cable car, they're different) that took us past the tourist traps of Fisherman's Warf, and on to The Cannery. We ate @ Las Margaritas. I have been to San Francisco twice before and both times had dined there, so it seemed fitting to take my new wife there. We had some pretty good Mexican food while the staff was engrossed in the Netherlands vs. Uruguay World Cup semi-final match. When the Netherlands went up 3-1, with goals at the 70 and 73 minute marks, our wait staff became more attentive. We didn't mind at all. But The Canary seemed a lot more dead than it had on previous trips. It's a nice place, located right between Fisherman's Warf and Ghirardelli Square, it should have been buzzing. But it was Tuesday at noon.

Bellies somewhat full, we marched on to the afore mentioned Ghirardelli Square. I'm married to a chocolate fiend. It's gonna happen.

Along the way, we caught a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge, peaking out of the clouds.

But my little chocolate lover would not be swayed, and on we went.

We poked around the shops, bought some post cards and Christmas ornaments for OUR TREE, and then both had wonderful ice cream deserts.

That almost fortified me for what was about to happen to me.

Hyde street.

To those of you unfamiliar with Hyde Street in San Francisco, let me explain:

It runs at about a 45% angle. Oh, I'm sure people will tell you that is not nearly that steep. We call those people "filthy lyres". They really should install ropes along the sidewalk to help pull yourself up. "Well, why didn't you ride a cable car up there, ya big dummy?" The waiting line for the trip is unbelievable, plus, then I would have nothing to bitch about. We climbed as far up as the world famous Lombard St.


After Lombard St. we lost our precious elevation and headed into the Italian section of the city. We (I) rested for a while in the park across from Saints Peter & Paul's church for a bus that would take us to the top of Telegraph Hill and to Coit Tower. The bus took us to a very high point, but didn't make any announcement, and headed back down hill. Cora and I bailed out, walked back up to the summit and shot some pictures before trekking up the path to Coit Tower. And seeing the bus stop right in front of it.

Fairly exhausted, we did what any sane people would do, we walk the mile back on Stockton to the hotel. Mostly. A great deal of the walk was thru China Town, where Cora and I couldn't help but monkey around a little. And then we took a cable car up California to Powell so we could be sure we got our ride in.

We finished the night with dinner at Les Joulin's Jazz Bistro, and a stop off @ our Walgreen's for provisions (water, pop, breakfast snacks, tape for the raw spot on my heal, etc.) before calling it a night. We did a lot of sight seeing, and a lot of walking. Killed ourselves the first day, but then planned a much easier day for Wednesday.