We must have both been exhausted. After a very nice dinner at Mourad, the Missus and I basically slept ten hours! We got up and with no real plans in mind, decided to take a stroll. Since it had been over a decade and a half since we'd been in the city, we thought a walk along San Francisco Bay might be fun; starting at the Ferry Building, ending near Fort Mason.
So, we headed down Market Street. We passed Lotta's Fountain.
This brass fountain was a gift to the city of San Francisco from Lotta Crabtree, a well known Entertainer, you can read more about her here. According to Atlas Obscura, Lotta loved San Francisco and donated this fountain to the city in 1875. And that would be just a "nice story" if not for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The earthquake damage and fires left the city in ruins. Lotta's Fountain though, was still standing and became an important landmark and meeting place for survivors of that disaster. Even though the last known survivor of the earthquake died in 2016, a quake remembrance and ceremony is held at this spot at 512am on April 18 of every year. The exact time the quake struck San Francisco.
This one is the Mechanics Monument,
The five figures in the monument are working a metal punching machine.
And then there's the Vaillancourt Fountain.
A fountain build of concrete squares that folks love to hate. One of the searches that comes up when typing in "Vaillancourt Fountain" is this:
We crossed the street to the Ferry Building, which we had visited before.
And picked up Cold Brew from Blue Bottle Coffee.
It had wonderful fruity tones and was just the pick-me-up we needed.
Blue Bottle Coffee
Ferry Building, One San Francisco Bay Trail
San Francisco, CA 94111
And caffeine in hand we were on our way.
It was a slightly hazy day, but the sun was out, and the temperature was fifteen degrees cooler than San Diego.
We wandered out to Pier 7, and enjoyed the view of the Transamerica Building.
We enjoyed a rather brisk walk up the Embarcadero……..eventually getting to all the tourists at Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.
The haze had started to clear out and I finally got a decent shot of Alcatraz Island.
We meandered past all the tourist traps and got to Ghirardelli Square. Man, I don't recall it being so packed in like this when we last visited all those years ago.
As we neared Laguna Street, we noticed folks carrying bags filled with produce, so we followed the trail and ended up at Fort Mason Center where it was Market Day.
We spent a good forty-five minutes checking out the various stands and sampling the fruit….man, that yellow watermelon was so good.
It was a nice break….a little slice of life. If we lived in the area, this would truly be a weekly stop for us.
Fort Mason Center Farmers' Market
Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94109
Sunday 930am – 130pm
From here; the plan was to grab an early lunch from one of the places on Chestnut Street, so we headed off in that direction.
But after sampling the produce at the Farmers Market and checking out the eating establishments on Chestnut Street, The Missus remained uninspired. So She told me; "let's head back to Chinatown". By heading back, She meant "walk". And then added; let's do it via Lombard Street. Yikes……
So I huffed and puffed my way up Lombard.
Instead of walking down that crooked one block part of Lombard Street we headed a few blocks over and walked down Filbert.
Eventually we made it too Columbus Street, then Jackson. Now the question was, where to eat?
Stay tuned!