San Francisco Part IV

So if you look at my day summaries below, you'll notice that the days are becoming less packed and less rushed.  In case you were wondering, that's when I got caught up on my blogging and got some rest! 

Today in a nutshell:

• July 23, 2012 - Fisherman's Wharf & USS Pampanito, cable car
• July 24, 2012 - UC Berkeley, dinner in Santa Clara with Uncle Tony & Aunt Surina
• July 25, 2012 - Palace of Fine Arts, Coit Tower/Telegraph Hill, flight to London

 



Highlights:

• The Palace of Fine Arts is pretty neat.  It looks like one of those old Greek and Roman monuments, but it was actually created in the 20th century by a local architect.  However, the really cool feature about this is that it incorporates the surrounding vegetation into the structure.  However, it's not that easy to get to without a car.

oops ate half while I was waiting for the picture to be taken...  Guess I was hungry!



Lowlights:

• Fisherman's Wharf - I went because you're supposed to go to the big tourist traps in a city, but this place is a bit too touristy for me.  They sell all kinds of weird tourist things there (ie, Hawaii macadamia nuts and pearls, which I don't get because it's SF, not Hawaii) and it's crowded as hell.  I will say, however, that going on board the USS Pampanito (a retired sub that did a few patrols in the Pacific theatre during WWII) was pretty cool.  It's pretty close quarters in there, and it was one of the few times in my life that I didn't mind not being taller!
   

The view at night along the cable car route

Can't Miss:  Taking the cable car, I guess?  I had to wait 45 minutes to get on, and the thing moves really slowly but going up and down those hills is a pretty neat feeling.  Sometimes you feel like it won't make it up the hill and won't be able to stop on the way down, but it always seems to end up ok!