Well hello World!! Up early this Saturday, 6/30... it's 0500 West Coast time, 0800 East Coast. Actually, got up at 0430 to take a shower and clean-up a bit - couldn't make myself sleep. We have a long day planned with lots of driving to get to where we want, to see/visit what we want to.
I'm sitting here in the dark in our Fairmont Hotel room, 679, about to begin my recollections on a excellent Day 1 here in California. This Fairmont is located in the famous Nob Hill area of San Francisco off of Mason St at one of the crossroads of the cable car routes... it's a rather nice hotel! :-)
On to yesterday's blog....
Up very early on this 1st day of holiday, ~ 0415. Rosie had set the alarm to go off at 0430 and it did. Not a very restful short night of sleep as is typical of us on the eve of departing on holiday. We were camping in our living room - the only room at the moment with a window air conditioner. Thursday, 6/28, had been quite hot. We spent the next 45mins getting cleaned up, double checking: luggage, carry-ons, accessories and, state of the house while we awaited the arrival of Terry's Taxi scheduled for 0530. The taxi was once again quite promplt, a little early in fact - 0520. Piled into the Honda mini-van with 2 pieces of luggage and 3 pieces of carryon. We had one false start. The first time we pulled out of the driveway, got to the end of our cul de sac when I realized I'd forgotten to put on my wedding band - I try wearing it on dates like these with Rosie. :-) So, went back, got it and off we went. All good. The start of this day was overcast.
Arrived at Newark Liberty 50mins later, at 0620, debarked the taxi, paid the fare ($90 = $75 + $15 tip) and, made our way to the Premier Access lines to check our 2 bags, none over 50#. No issues at security. Picked up a latte and yogurt at Starbucks before heading over to the concourse for Gates 70-99.
Coincidentally, turns out that Meg and Mike would be traveling out of Newark destined for Aruba on this day also, just a bit after we were scheduled to take-off at 0823. Found out their gate was 81 and headed over to await their arrival just to see them and visit for a bit before we had to head over to our gate, 90, for San Fran. They were running just a bit later than expected due to traffic but, made it to the gate in time for us to take some photos, exchange pleasantries and, have them walk us to our gate where we took more photos before they left back to their gate. Was very nice 'running' into them on this Friday.
There have been quite a few changes since Continental and United merged, many of which we have no clue about since we don't fly all that often. On this day the service personnel at the gate seemed a bit grumpy and the cabin crew, once we got onboard, just gave off a general sense of irritation... I was not impressed. I speculated that they were United folks trying to get used to how well Continental folks presented themselves. One of the changes that became obvious is how the 'new' United boards their passengers. It was initially a bit confusing and felt alot like SouthWest and/or JetBlue in that we were called forward based on the zone number on your ticket. Instead of having an Elite Access line and General Boarding, they now have Premier Access and General Boarding. The gate crew doesn't like it if you queue up before your zone number is called, we were zone 3.
I believe that the first handful of zones are for Premier Access folks but, really don't know.
I had upgraded our seats to Premier Economy which basically gives you a lot more legroom with guilt-free reclining... was very nice! Rosie and I were in seats 7B/C, first row behind 1st class in this Boeing 737-800/900 (a stretched 737 with winglets). By the time we took off at ~0830, the cabin crew had rubbed me the wrong way that I just refused anything they offered during the flight and stuck to the bottle of water I brought aboard. Rosie had a Starbucks parfait for breakfast and I enjoyed 1/2 a snickers bar. No real worries, got plenty of fat on my bones to sustain me for well past the 5 and 1/2hr flight to the West Coast. :-) We cruised at FL34000 and enjoyed a mostly smooth flight with only a few slightly turbulent episodes. Tried napping some during the flight, listened to music or watched music videos on my iPad. Rosie mostly napped, she can sleep on planes much better than I. Touched down in San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at ~1145 local.
The airport is quite large and located about 12miles south of the city proper. We pulled up to Terminal 3, gate 87 and deplaned. I had about 40 e-mails (not really that many) on my Blackberry and worked through most of them by the time we reached baggage claim to get our luggage. Down at baggage claim, level 1, we chatted up the information lady and found out that there was a few places to eat on level 3, where you also catch the air train, BART, to get to the rental car area. On we went.
Our intial thought was that we'd wait for Conor in the eating area. I was a bit peckish not having eaten since dinner the night before so, bought a bowl of SouthWestern Corn Chowder soup and a piece of sourdough bread for a quick bite. We saw quite a few people enjoying soup throughout the terminal which is what gave me the hankering to have some myself. Was excellent! Both Rosie and I enjoyed some before we changed our minds about waiting for Conor in the Terminal and headed over to the BART 'blue line' to make our way to the Rental location.
Having never been through rentals here in San Francisco, we walked over to the Enterprise counter only to be surprised at how long the queue was! Fortunately, I found a sign that had my name on it and proceeded down to level 2 and the Enterprise Plus kiosk. The Enterprise folks now greet you, shake your hand, and really try to make the experience personnel. We lucked out with getting the branch manager, Ryan, to help us pick between 2 nice SUVs. There was a bit of a mix up with the actual rental contract but, because we had a copy with us, he went with it's particulars including: unlimited mileage, one way drop off, all for less than $600! We had the choice of 2 fairly new SUVs to pick from... we went with the black, Buick Enclave, a bigger than mid-size SUV with only 800 miles on it. What a great rental! It was HUGE inside with all the amenities and 2 moon roofs, one in front and one in back, leather seats and the back seats were of 'captain' bucket seat style - perfect. By the time we'd sorted everything out, arranged to just loiter in Enterprise's parking area until waiting for Conor to arrive, it was 1245. Conor's flight had been delayed a bit. His flight landed at ~1315 and after he had landed, Rosie range him up to tell him where we were waiting for him. He'd checked no bags and had all he needed in his backpack. Rosie finally spied him walking towards us in the garage at ~1340 - he looked great! Did some quick greetings, a few photos... and we were out on the road to downtown San Fran by 1345 via Hwy 101N. The GPS, 'Annie', showed us about 12 miles to our hotel: the Fairmont on Nob Hill.
Side note: I had originally booked our rental with National, mostly because of the fact that you can pick the vehicle of your choice based on your Emerald level. They wanted ~$1200 for a one-way drop off and that never did sit well with me at all. Seemed very expensive. They'd quoted me a price of under $400 for a 9 day rental if I dropped it off back at SFO. So, a couple of days before we left New Jersey, I called up Enterprise to see what they could do for me (both National and Enterprise are Dell's corporate preferred partners). Turns out they would rent me an SUV, not just a car, for under $600! Cancelling my National and switching to Enterprise was a no brainer. :-) I really wanted to rent a big convertible but, unfortunately, none were available.
Needless to say we were all very excited to be together in San Francisco. The drive was fairly uneventful, moderate traffic for a Friday along the freeway. I'm always quite surprised at how 'hilly' the topography near and around San Francisco is - not to mention all the water that surrounds the peninsula leading up to the city. No wonder the entire area is referred to as the 'Bay' area. Traffic in San Francisco was just as heavy as any big city I've driven in with the one exception that makes 'Frisco different - the steep hills.
Finally made our way to the front of the Fairmont on Mason St and pulled up to valet parking. Parking in the Fairmont would cost $54/day - that's alot. Unloaded the SUV, gave it over to valet and made our way into the hotel to check in... it's quite grand and impressive. I went straight to the President's Club platinum members line and quickly got our key cards and a map before heading up to our room on the 6th floor, 679. The hotel's gone through many facelifts and survived many an earthquake. It's an old building with vaulted ceilings everywhere but, with all the modern amenities.
Took us longer than normal to get our luggage because I hadn't given our conceirge our room number. Had to call down to get our bags delivered. No worries, gave us enough time to just refresh ourselves before heading out on the town. So much to do, so little time! We attempted to queue up for a cable car ride down to the piers, the Fairmont being at the cross roads of 2 different cable car lines but, the two cars that came by were packed and there were people ahead of us.
So, we decided to hoof it. Wasn't that bad since the walk was all downhill and about 1 1/2 miles to the waterfront. We decided to target Fisherman's Wharf on Pier 39. The last time we visited we had pleasant memories of the wharf including seeing all of the sealions sunning themselves on floating piers made specifically for their use.
Well, we certainly didn't remember all of the build-up that's gone on since our last visit. Wasn't too much of a surprise to Conor. He'd been there in the not to distant past on CSUN travel. It was good having him to help us navigate around. My good friend, Russell, has turned me into a Hard Rock Cafe fan and I try really hard to visit them in those cities that have one in order to purchase pins and the occasional t-shirt. Turns out the Hard Rock in 'Frisco is right at the entrance to Pier 39! How convenient. :-) Since we were all a bit peckish, decided to eat lunch in the Cafe. Conor and I had their classic hamburgers and Rosie enjoyed the big sampler appetizer we ordered. We also enjoyed our first shared beverage together and enjoyed toasting our upcoming adventure.
The day was gorgeously blue, a bit on the cool side - no complaints - and very windy. We walked the length of the pier. Some of the vendors looked familiar, including the fresh fruit and veggie vendor we purchased cherries from last time we visited and, many of the shops didn't look familiar at all. Time does tend to place a veil of fuzziness on one's memories. Spent time at the end of the pier lamenting about the absence of sea lions. There was only 1 platform that had any on it. The rest were empty. We would find out later that a few years back, all the sea lions as a group just jumped off and left for Seattle! The Marine biologists still don't know why. We took alot of photos of the remaining sea lions, some of San Francisco including our hotel and, Alcatraz Island before reversing our path back along and off of Fisherman's Wharf.
From the Wharf I'd mentioned to Conor that I'd never visited the WWII boats moored a couple of piers away so, we headed over to go tour at least the submarine. Along the way we took a short pause to stop into Boudin's Sour Dough shop for bread. Conor'd been craving some of their famous leavened product for quite some time so, we had Rosie buy us some. I also had a double expresso because I was starting to feel the effects of very little sleep and 3 hours of time change. Felt more energized afterwards and the sourdough was excellent.
If I recall correctly, both the submarine, USS Pampanito (SS-383), a Balao Class fleet submarine and, the liberty ship, SS Jeremiah O'Brien, are moored at Pier 45. Both ships served with distinction in WWII with the submarine seeing action in the Pacific while the liberty ship actually took part in the D-Day landing at Normandy in 1944. Back in the day, over 18 shipyards built over 2700 liberty ships between 1941 and 1945, an incredible feat and demonstration of American Industrial might during wartimes! Only 2 remain today as floating museums - the other is the SS John W. Brown. If we had more time would have made our way to the SS Jeremiah O'Brien. On this day we were quite pleased with touring the USS Pampanito. One boards the submarine via gangplank and make your way aft to descend into the aft torpedo room. From there you head forward getting a very good sense of the cramped living conditions aboard a WWII submarine before ending in the forward torpedo room and exiting through the hatch that was used to onboard her torpedoes.
The pier that both WWII museum ships are moored at has a very large building on it that houses one of the oldest arcade gaming devices I've ever seen. Conor was quite keen to get back in there to play some of the games and just show us around. Just way different and very cool to see what games from a bygone era looked like and played compared with the high tech arcade game of today. Spent a good 30mins inside the arcade before leaving to find the cable car turnabout near Ghiradelli's.
By the time we found the Powel & Hyde St cable car turnabout, it was ~1745. The wind was still blowing 15-25kts and it was getting downright chilly and we weren't dressed for it. The turnabout had quite the line of folks waiting to hop on for a ride back to wherever. You can purchase your tickets at a booth right there. If I recall correctly, 3 1-way tickets cost us $18. Took quite awhile to make our way around the turnabout as each cable car that came in got manually turned on a turn table to point back in the right direction for travel. Each car can take a good number of riders - I didn't count how many - including up to 10 riders standing and hanging out of each side of the cable car. Before our turn, Rosie ran up to one of the street vendors on the street facing Ghiradelli's and bought us some $10 clothing to put on. Wouldn't have been too bad had there been no wind. After almost an hour and a half wait, we finally jumped into our car for the ride back up to Nob Hill and the Fairmont.
This was our first ride ever on a San Franciso cable car! I'm not sure what I was expecting of the ride but, it wasn't at all like I'd envisioned it was going to be. Unlike the Rice-a-Roni commercials and their addictive commercial jingle Rosie and I remember from years gone by, a few things stick out to me, namely: how noisy the ride actually is and, how quickly the cable car can move uphill getting pulled by an unseen underground cable that wends for miles below the streets of the city. I'm glad we did it... not to mention the fact that I was not looking forward to walking back up hill to the hotel at all! We reached our destination, jumped off at the hotel and made it back to our room by 1930.
We weren't that hungry but decided to go check out the restaurant/bar just off the lobby anyway. We took a look at the menu and weren't overly impressed. So, ended up just ordering drinks. Beers for Conor and I and wine for Rosie. Rosie was fading fast and didn't finish her drink before retiring up to our room for bed around 2130. Conor and I stayed and enjoyed a couple more drinks just chatting and catching up on many subjects before we called it a night and headed up to our room for the evening at ~2230. I made time to download all of the photos of the day before hitting the rack myself.
What a Great 1st Day in Northern California!!!
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