After a lazy morning in bed, it was time to get up and go out for a stroll around the shops, watch the cable cars turn round then walked up the hill to Union Square to look at the Macy's Christmas tree and ice rink. Macy's always put on a good show with their Christmas tree but the ice rink was nowhere as big as the one in New York at the Rockefeller center but there were still lots of people waiting to skate and very busy in general around there.
With that done we walked into Stockton Street to catch the number 30 trolley bus to The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District, this is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site. We really enjoyed walking around here, fascinating to see such a grand structure set by the lake with no litter anywhere and defiantly no graffiti on any part of it, the weather could have been a bit warmer and not a very sunny on this particular day so we spent an hour or two here then took a short walk across the road to The Beach Hut Café & snack bar for a well-earned cup of coffee and a snack. It's a bit of an odd place this one, they're not much else around here in the way of getting food and drink and even though there were plenty of people about there was only one other person in there, it was just nice to have a sit down in the warm.
Time to be on the move again now so we headed out of here and onto Golden Gate Promenade were you get some classic views of the Golden Gate Bridge to the west across Crissy Fields complete with cloud covering the tops of the pillars, to the east across the Bay you can see Alcatraz glowing in the afternoon sun that had come out now. We spent a while here watching the hummingbirds in the trees for a bit, fascinating to watch if you've never seen one before. As time was starting to get on we decided to head east and back towards Fisherman's Wharf, it turned out to be a lot further than I thought it was to walk it but we did come across the local Safeway supermarket to stock up on some snacks. After a walk up a steep hill, we came across Aquatic Park which looks like a lido without the pool but a beach and sea instead all in an Art Deco style. You can still see the old tram lines that run in front of it and then into a tunnel to Fort Mason. We were both starting to get tired and hungry now so it was only a short walk to Fisherman's Wharf and Hyde Street Pier where there is plenty to eat and drink. We didn't spend much time on Hyde Street Pier, not really into maritime history but the boats were OK to look at but wouldn't pay to go on them. Fisherman's Wharf reminded me a lot of Blackpool the only difference was that the police had guns. It runs for about a quarter of a mile along the seafront and is a bit brash but we were hungry so it was time to find somewhere to eat.
Most of the places along here are seafood restaurants and we are not into seafood but we did come across a place called Cioppino's Italian restaurant, I was a bit dubious about going in at first as this was a big restaurant but hardly anyone was in there which makes me wonder why but I'm glad we took the chance. It wasn't the cheapest place to eat but the food was nice, we ended up sharing a pizza for one between us which was more than enough for us both. I still find it strange asking for one meal to share in a restaurant but no one seems to mind over there given that the portion sizes are so big normally. With a bill of just under $20 for a pizza, beer, and coke it wasn't too bad considering the area were in.
Now we had been fed and watered it was time to start thinking about heading back towards the hotel as we were a fair old distance from it now. The easiest and quickest way to get back was on the Hyde, Powell & Market cable car which turns around from where we were. There always a queue to get on these things but it's something you just have to do if your here, turns out we didn't have to wait that long in the end with only a twenty-minute wait. It was a bit of a struggle for Jane to get on as the steps are so high but she managed to do it in the end. The cable cars don't travel that fast up or downhill but it feels like they are going a lot quicker than they are plus when you see how steep the hills are that they travel up, it feels like a slow roller-coaster. It really is something to be on one of these and hear the bell ringing and the clatter of the leavers, brakes, track and the like. It was about a twenty-minute ride to the Powell & Market Street stop which was very close to our hotel, so after a bit of effort from Jane to get off this thing which seemed harder than getting on, it was now late evening so we called it a day.
