09/17/2011, San Francisco
I got an e-mail note from Aunt Bette, letting me know that I better get some rest 'cus we still had some really cool places to see while we are here in San Francisco. Boy was she right!!
On our second day into the city, we took the bus again, just like last time. This time when we got off, we got to go ride on one of the true San Francisco land marks....a cable car!! Because Tom & Jeanne bought that city pass, we even got to ride for free!! So we rode up to the top of the hill, and you know what? Those cable cars are kinda noisy!! Once we got off the cable car. We caught another bus, this one took us to the Exploratorium. This has to be one of the coolest looking buildings ever!! It looks like it was built in early Rome. I tried to visit with some of the good looking goddess's that were there, but they gave me the silent treatment! I also got a really big help from Tom, and flew way up high by the Roman Pillars. Jeanne got some amazing pictures of the building and the statues all around it. I might have snuck into a couple of her pictures, but I don't think she noticed!!
When we went inside the Exploratorium, I was very excited!! This place has just about every kind of cool experiment ever!! I got to play on the sand spinning wheel, and I tried to catch the marbles that Tom sent down the shoot, but I got caught in the rings...dang it!! I got to sit in a really huge chair, there were these funny mirrors that made me looking really big, and cameras that split our faces in two parts. They really made us look very funny. There were all kinds of things to teach us about sound, color and motion.
I am pretty sure that my favorite part was when I got to sail on my own sailboat!! It was just my size and it went where ever I wanted, well, maybe Tom & Jeanne helped out some!!
After we left there, we stopped at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I am pretty sure that I am not old enough to understand some of this stuff, but by the look on Tom's face I am pretty sure he was the same way. I mean I think I could paint some of those pictures that everybody was starring at...I mean, really, who is this Picasso guy anyway? One of the "art pieces" was a bunch of empty water bottles, with a little bit of blues water in each all tied up on a piece of string? Looked to me like it should have been put in the recycling bin.
There was one last thing that we had to go see before we left San Francisco!! The Rice-a-Roni Museum! You know, sing along now....Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat!! The museum was free, and they had all of the old boxes from back when it all started. It was hard to find because it had moved. It is now located south of market, between 8th and 9tb on Minna Street. Tom thought that it was pretty cool that Rice-a-Roni and him were both born in the same year. It used to be called Noodle Roni, and then in 1995 it became Pasta Roni. The funny thing is, the Rice-a-Roni company used to be owned by the Pepsi Company!! Now it owned by the American Italian Pasta Company...that sounds like a better owner to me!
Whew..i am bushed!! It is time to go back to the boat and take a nap!! Bette was right, I am sure glad I got some rest, because this tourist stuff is really tiring....and I didn't even have to do all the walking.
""Note from Tom" we will post a whole series of pictures from lefty's big adventure in the photo gallery, in a seperate S.F. gallery!! Hope you enjoy them as much as we did taking them...
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Comments [3]
Happy sailing tomorrow.
09/17/2011, Clipper cove
Eagle is still anchored here in Clipper cove, and it looks like the weather will cooperate for us to leave tomorrow morning. But today we get to enjoy the largest Dragon Boat race Festival in the nation right in front of our boat!! as you can see by the picture above, we have a great view from the boat!
There are 120 teams from all over the nation and Canada. the races are straight sprints, and they race about 500 yards. It is actually pretty amazing to see the diversity of the teams, from young high schoolers to people in their late 60's, and and almost all are co-ed teams.
The day started with virtually no wind, and the sun out. It is awesome! We took a few pictures from the boat, and then from the dinghy, before we went ashore to explore the many booths and displays set up.
While we were on shore, our good friend, and fellow sailor, John Spicher sailed into the cove, with his crew having just arrived here this morning from Seattle. They made one short stop in Newport, on their trip down to San Francisco. They are going to do the Haa Haa this year.
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09/17/2011, San Francisco
Monday morning came, and I have to admit, I didn't sleep very well last night. You see, we were going into the city, San Francisco and I was excited because I get to go along!! I have never been here, and Jeanne and Tom told me that we are going to do some really cool stuff!
The first thing we did was walk up to the bus stop that is right here near the marina. We were only waiting a few minutes, and along came a bus to pick us up. We have the boat in at Treasure Island, in a cove that that is part of an island, in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. There is a really big bridge, the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge that touches down on our island, so we can catch the bus and then it climbs a hill to get on the bridge going into town. My first bus ride, my first really big bridge...this day is going to be so cool!
Once we get into town, and get off the bridge, we started to walk toward the water front. The buildings are really tall here...some times I can't even see the tops. When we got down to the waterfront, we still had a pretty long walk, so Jeanne said that we needed to catch a ride on the trolleys that run along the waterfront. They are really old, and cool looking, so we catch a ride all the way down the road, called the Embarcadero, until we got to Pier 39.
Our first stop was the Aquarium by the Bay. We got to walk through this really big glass tube, that was inside the water. There were all kind of fish and rays and sharks all around us!! I tried to get close to them, but for some reason, they were afraid of me...what ever could that be all about? We also were supposed to get to see an octopus, but all we got to see was a big statue of one. Tom said that it was just about the same size as the one he caught when we were up at Sucia island. I didn't get to see that one, so I was pretty bummed. Oh well, one of these days I will. I did get to meet a lady who was showing us how to pet the sharks and rays, but Jeanne wouldn't let me!! Said I would get all wet...duh..isn't that what it was all about? Before we left, I got to hold a shark though, but he wasn't wet!
After the aquarium, we went down to look at the rest of the Pier 39 area. There are a lot of really cool shops there, and you can see all the way out to Alcatraz island. That looks like a scary place, especially since it used to be a prison where they kept the really bad guys!!
Then we came to the coolest shop ever!!! Lefty's!! It was a shop that had my name all over it. There were Lefty pens, Lefty cups, books about Lefty and even some really awesome shirts. One of the shirts said "Lefty Rules".
After all this walking we needed to get some food, at right there in the middle of all this was, The Eagle Cafe. The food was excellent, and Tom said it was one of the best Bacon Blue Cheese Burgers he had ever had. Almost as good as the ones at the Elliot bay Brew Pub, back in Burien.
Then we stopped into a really huge place that was full of nothing but chocolate. Every kind you could imagine. We only bought a few things, but I guess they are for later tonight after dinner. Jeanne said something about really good dark chocolate, with nuts and chewy caramel. The sign said they were turtles, but they don't look like the turtles I saw in the Aquarium.
Then we got to go for a boat ride...like we hadn't done that before. I guess we had free tickets so we went, and we got to go out under the Golden Gate Bridge again. We all got very excited when we were going under the bridge, and there was a boat sailing out in front of us. It was our friends on SV Pearl. They are going to go to Mexico too, and wanted to get going so they already left. We will get to see them later when we catch up.
When we got back to shore, we walked some more and got to see a submarine, and a really big battleship. Then we went into the building that was full of really old, very cool arcade games. I got to play with a couple of them, and Tom and I played Pirates of The Caribbean pinball. We had a lot of fun. I even got to ride a pony!! It was a plastic pony, and took quarters, but it sure was fun.
By now we were getting pretty thirsty, so we stopped at Starbucks, and had a small drink, Tom used his computer to send out a couple of e-mails, because we don't have e-mail while we are in the anchorage.
OK..I am tired now and need a nap! That was a very busy day, but I had SOOOO much fun!! I can't wait til tomorrow. I don't know what we are going to do, but we have so much fun every day out here on our adventure!!
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09/16/2011, Downtown San Francisco
Taking advantage of the City Pass we purchased last week, we headed back into the city yesterday. Boy, did we get our money's worth out of that little coupon book! We headed out to The Exploratorium, and the Palace of Fine Arts, a ride on the cable car- for Lefty, a quick trip through the Rice-a-Roni museum and a visit to the SF Museum of Modern art! Stay tuned for Lefty's take on the day! He was a 'ham' at several of our stops! See him hanging with the greek godess's!
We're anchored in Clipper Cove on Treasure Island right in the middle of what will be the 'dragon boat' races for the next two days! We've been watching them set up the race course and a few boats out practicing. So, far, there's one other boat anchored nearby, so we may have front row seats of the finish line, right off of our bow! The races start at 8am, and from the sounds of the loudspeakers on shore, we'll be up well before that. The race course hugs the shoreline and of course is the route we need to take to safely get out of this harbor on Sunday morning! Weather permitting, we're heading for Half Moon Bay, then later in the week to Santa Cruz to hopefully meet up with some Seattle and Oregon buddies.
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Thanks again for the kind words. :)
09/14/2011, Clipper Cove
Way back in late July, while we were in Jones Island, in the San Juan's, we got to meet a great couple, who upon sailing into the bay, had just about everything that could go wrong, do so. But they did it with such...well humor, that we felt compelled to lend them a hand. Since then we have gotten to know Bryn and Cierra much better, and they are just great people. They have such great attitudes about life and having a good time.
When we heard that Cierra was going to be in the San Francisco, we sure hoped that we would be able to catch up with her. This afternoon, she drove to Treasure Island along with her daughter, Julieanna (I hope I spelled this right) Her grams and friend Al. After a great lunch together at the marina bar and grill, we took a run out to the boat. Julieanna got to meet Lefty, and they were best friends right off! There were flying lessons, a rousing game of hide and seek, and a short nap together.
It was so great to see Cierra, and meet her family today! We really cherish the many friends that we have met out here on this adventure, and she is with out a doubt gem!
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09/13/2011, Clipper Cove
We are anchored in Clipper Cove, on the south side of Treasure Island. This is for the most part a man made island. In the mid 1930's the shallows east of Yerba Buena Island were filled in order to form an island that would be used to host a world fair and celebrate the completion of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges! This filling caused a cove to be formed, that has great protection from the winds in the bay, and still have great views of the city. It has been predominatley a military area until 1997, when the goverment pulled out, and returned the island to the city.The anchorage is free with a permit being required.
There is going to be a huge day of Dragon Boat racing here on Saturday, and then we are going to plan on heading down the coast, weather permiting
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