Cruise Line Terminal

Today we have another fun filled adventure from the activities in out City Pass. We make a lunch and head over first to the Aquarium of the Bay. We decide to try the street cars for our commute. It's a nice ride, they seems new but have an old fashioned bubble look to them. We see many different models of these cars as we cross them from the other direction.

The Aquarium of the Bay is nice, this place has an immersive tunnel aquarium. We are under the fish and see lots of interesting species. It is really hypnotizing to see a school of fish all around you move so quickly and also synchronized. There are also sharks in the tank, they are ones that are naturally present here in the bay. We see various types of jellyfish, again watching these creatures is hypnotic. It amazes me that these things are alive; they are translucide and seem to be a blob of floting gelatin.

After the aquarium we head to Pier 39, this Pier is full of places to eat and shop. We head to the end of the Pier as there are sea lions that come to take a sun bath. The odour of these guys is pretty strong and not the most pleasant. Most sea lions are there resting and tanning, from time to time one of them gets a power trip and tries to knock everyone else off. It is quite the show to watch.

From here we get our tickets on the Rocketboat, an "unforgettable ride" if the advertising is accurate. We will ride on a speedboat in the Bay with rock music blasting over the speakers... I have to say, it was pretty fun, we were able to sit right in front and enjoy the view. The captain like to make huge 360 turns and jump the waves, lots of fun for me. It was very windy in front, I was glad that we brought our wind breakers.

After the amazing ride we go back to the Aquarium to see the feeding of the otters. These guys are so cute. Did you know that they have as many hairs in a square inch of their body as the total amount of hair on our heads. Quite the hairy little guys... They also need to eat 10% of their body weight every day.

Exploratorium is next, this place is a museum where you get to touch everything and try everything. It is really well done, the instructions are clear on what to do and then they give an explanation of why or how it works. You can probably spend the whole day with kids or big kids in here. After my brain has been saturated with new science facts we take another street car back to Market and Powell street.

From there we head over to the cable cars as we have to try it at least once while we are here. The line up is pretty long but hey, there is lots of entertainment while we wait. A couple of guys are playing street music keeping us happy. LPT. There is a trick to beat the lineup if you come to SF: go one or 2 stops further and you can get on if you don't mind standing up 😉. Doing this ride standing is lots of fun, you have to try it.

The cable car brings us to fisherman's wharf. There are lots of restaurants here. We chose to visit Cioppino's. It's an Italian seafood place. Their bread is sooo good and we order roasted olives to go with it. It is really yummy, I need to try this at home. For dinner I have a fish and chip as that was what I was craving all day. I know, I can have this anywhere, I was not disappointed. It was really good and there was not too much batter on the fish.

The cable car was lots of fun so we decide to take it again. Before hoping on we take a detour to go see Lombard street, this street is a popular one where everyone drives down on it. I am not sure why but it zig zags and has a view of the Bay. We gotta climb up this street to catch our cable car. Once we catch the cable car without having to do the long lineup, we head back downtown which will allow us to take the bus back to the loft. I was wondering why they call it a cable car as you do not see any cables. While waiting for our cable car I notice that there are two tracks and a third one in the middle. I look down the crack and see the cable. Ah ha, that's why they call it like that. There are three levers for the driver. One to brake, one that grips the cable and the third is for emergency braking. Now I get it 🙂.

What a fun day. New memories to keep for sure.Leer más