Monday, April 21

Our day started with a quick breakfast in the RV, and then we went out to figure out the transit system. We took a bus from a stop near the RV park to the BART station. That system goes throughout the whole bay area, and took us into the heart of San Francisco. There we bought a pass that would give us day access to the MUNI system, which is within San Francisco itself, and includes the busses, cable cars, street cars, and everything else. We walked up to Chinatown, which wasn’t really what we expected at all. We had pictured streets packed with people, but they were not at all crowded. We went up the main “touristy” street of Chinatown, peeked in shops, and found a restaurant that was mentioned in our guide book. It was a good place. The lunch wasn’t as spicy as we would have liked, but still very good. Aidan even ate the pot stickers and some veggies pretty well.
From there we took a cable car. We had planned to stop at Lombard Street (the “crookedest” street), but decided to save that for the next trip, especially when we missed our cable car transfer. The car took us up into Fisherman’s Wharf, so we just rode it to the end. We went to the National Maritime area, which turned out to be a National Park, so we were able to use our annual pass to get in. Bonus! We looked through the visitor center, then went out on the dock to walk on one of the boats. Aidan had been asking for boats all day, and loved seeing them all and walking on one. One was enough when touring with a 2-year-old, though, and we headed toward Pier 39, the famous pier of Fisherman’s Wharf. We started at the Aquarium of the Bay, at which we discovered our MN Zoo membership allowed us half price entry. The Aquarium was great. It is full of animals found in the Bay itself, which I thought was pretty cool. Aidan spent about half an hour in the first room, which had just a few small fish tanks. We could barely get him to leave the moray eels and the lobster. The main part of the aquarium was a tunnel you walk through, similar to Underwater Adventures at MoA. There were fish and sharks swimming right overhead as we moved on a conveyor belt. Aidan had as much fun with the conveyor belt as he did with the fish. Finally, it ended with a touch pool. There was to be no touching of the sting rays, skates, or sharks, but Aidan finally got up the nerve to touch a few starfish. Naturally there was some time spent playing in the gift shop. We tried to get him to pick out something he wanted, but I don’t think he fully understood. He finally decided to bring a little stuffed sting ray home with him. We think the name “Waterfall” will stick, but he still occasionally tells us that is not his name. It is one that Aidan picked out himself, though. Other possibilities have been “Boy” and “Stingy”.
Next we walked along the pier hoping to catch a juggler act that was supposed to be starting. When we got to the stage, it looked like someone was packing up his stuff. It was very windy for juggling, anyway. I guess we missed whatever show had happened. Aidan was getting pretty cold by that point, anyway. We went out to see the sea lions in the harbor. There were so many! I guess they have built up the area and make it a place they want to come, as some stay year round now instead of migrating with the rest. Then we were off to find some dinner in a nice, warm, enclosed restaurant. This was more challenging than expected, because the first place we tried was very expensive, and the next two attempts were closed. We finally found one that worked, had our seafood and sourdough bread, and made our way home for the evening. We caught the street car, which took us all the way back to the BART station. We hopped on, and checked the timing on our local bus schedule, and realized we would probably miss the next bus. Sure enough, someone told me she saw our bus pull out just as we got there. Of course, the next one didn’t come for about 50 minutes. The station was sheltered, but there wasn’t really an indoor area. We huddled up on a bench and looked at the pictures we’d taken so far on the trip. That kept us busy for most of the wait. It was after 9:00 by the time we finally got back to our RV park. We’d done such a good job of planning all day, and meant to plan the return trip but never got to that part. Oh well, another lesson learned. Aidan had fallen asleep on the bus home, but we still had to get him in his PJs. He half slept through that and settled right in to sleep quickly. Overall, we had a great day in San Francisco.