Playing Tourist #5 -- December 8, 2013

Today we played tourist. I had some one-day Muni passes that we needed to use by the end of the year.  We parked at Daly City BART and rode to the Embarcadero.  We stopped at the Hyatt Regency to look at the Christmas village in the central fountain.  We caught a California Street cable car whose decorations were sponsored by the San Francisco Symphony.  We got off at Taylor and found that a concert was about to start at Grace Cathedral, so we moved on.  Huntington Park was not decorated.  I guess it has not been since a friend retired.  We went to the lobby of the Fairmont and looked at the Christmas tree and the giant gingerbread house. 

We walked down Mason to the cable car barn.  This was the first time I had seen the new Chinatown Recreation Center completed.  It looks nice.  We liked the lions sitting in one window.  In the barn, we saw that the Powell Street cable was stopped.  A group of shopmen was splicing the cable.  It was interesting to watch.  We had a chat with Jose Godoy, who was excited about a new cable car book and a patch he had designed to celebrate Muni's centennial. 

We caught a Powell-Mason car out to Bay and Taylor, were I took this photo of car 16, whose decorations were sponsored by Ghirardelli Chocolate.  We had pumpkin pancakes at the IHOP.  We walked along Fishermans' Wharf, which was very crowded.  The crab smelled good. 

We got in line for a Powell-Hyde car at Hyde and Beach.  We waited about 45 minutes, but the view was nice.  We got on a car sponsored by the Buena Vista.  As we waited to leave, someone came on the radio to plead for traffic control around Union Square.  The Powell Street cable had been repaired, so we made it all the way to Post before traffic stopped completely.  We looked at the animals in the windows at Macy's, then got back on BART.