Riding on Cable Cars

San Francisco Bay Area
10 July 2006

Do you know the way to San Jose...?

After arriving on short notice late on a Sunday night, Kurt and Beth’s good friends Chris and Shellie graciously opened their San Jose home to us. T. Snaab was in need of a checkup and servicing, which was getting particularly urgent due to our pididdle status as well as an alarming (though isolated) roof malfunction in L.A. We found a Snaab dealer in San Francisco, figuring that a city location with good public transit and stuff to see would be the best place to be without a car for the day. This is not San Jose, which we suspected would be, and in fact, turned out to be “nowheresville”. Well, not a good place to be without a car, anyway. As Shellie had the day off from work, and Beth wanted to scope out the area, Kelly got up at the crack of dawn to get to the Snaab dealership in SF super early to get our boy on the Monday schedule in the vain hopes of being in and out within the day.

The hospitable (and thankfully, nocturnal!) Chris and Shellie in San Jose!

After staying up quite late being rowdy and boisterous with Chris and Shellie, Beth and Shellie enjoyed a leisurely Monday in the San Jose area. Similar to Kelly’s day, a day of aimless puttering was welcome. Beth remarks that she had some really good berry pie.

Both anxious at their first hours apart in weeks, Beth has a chat with Kelly.

After a bit of a false start, Kelly did find the friendly Ellis something or other Cheverolet and Snaab in the center of San Francisco (two blocks away from the terminus of a cable car line, no less!). Thanks to the friendly and cheerful Kevin, even if not particularly helpful in getting the silly little sideview mirror sensor in a timely fashion. Happily, our friend Alys was able to join Kelly for much of the day as she waited for the car to be serviced. Not much to say, just a nice, cool day of errands and puttering in San Francisco. We did walk around North Beach for a bit, took a taxi ride down an extremely wicked steep street and had some really tasty Indian food that came with the disclaimer before we entered: “Now, it’s best to just ignore any bugs you see, also this is not the place you want to use the restroom – but it’s the best chicken tikka masala in the city – I promise you.” And, indeed, the food was mighty tasty.

11 July 2006

Betsy: Editing Job open at San Francisco Chronicle...

As the Snaab needed to be held overnight to wait for a part that was ultimately not delivered, Beth took the CalTrain up from San Jose the next morning and we spent the day with Alys, crawling around the city. Well, not really… we got a day transit pass and hopped on the cable car to head to Mama’s, a really funky and yummy brunch restaurant. But while on the cable car, Alys got this wild look in her eyes and started raving about some sort of chocolate truffles that were located nearby. Don’t have to tell us twice – we headed to XOX for a ‘cup of coffee’ – the coffee there comes with a free truffle. Word. And these are fine truffles – in dozens of fall-to-your-knees flavors including cognac, champagne, lemon, amaretto, coconut and hazlenut and carmel and … (you see where we’re going – and, yes, we’ve sampled them all).

We love Cable Cars!

Beth and Alys on board!

Kelly wants to go again!

We walked with our coffee for a bit, until Kelly was summoned by a park bench that was veritably glowing “sit here!”. So we did, we sat on that bench for a good long while, smiling up at the vivid California blue sky, and observing a very happy puppy as well as the famous Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Apparently, a resident some years ago most likely had some parrots that got free or were set free or who knows what, but now there are a flock of green parrots that live in the neighborhood. Definitely beats pigeons any day of the week. We interrupted our bench-sitting for a while to have some fantastic food at Mama’s, and then resumed sitting on different bench perpendicular to the first for a different perspective to aid digestion.

Beth's new puppy (who was unfortunately owned by a creepy guy
who probably just got him to lure chicks like Beth).

With our sitting quota reached, we enjoyed a healthy walk up and down some treacherous San Francisco hills en route to more cable car riding. Seriously, what inspired people to build homes and businesses on these hills? In a city, no less? I can’t imagine having to walk home with a load of groceries or laundry on these slopes!

We then picked up the less-touristy California Street line cable car, which was far less crowded than the “Rice-a-Roni” Van Ness line that goes to Fisherman’s Wharf. Kelly and Beth were having a ball hanging off the side handles (it gives a great stretch!) – so much so that when we got to the end, Alys suggested staying on for another trip. Why the heck not? So we turned around and enjoyed the journey again. Beautiful! Even better is that the cable car dropped us a couple of blocks from the Snaab Dr. where Kelly sprung her baby, gimpy side-view mirror or not.

While crossing the Golden Gate Bridge...

Kelly acheives Fahrvergnugen.

The Snaab rests after hiking the Marin headlands

Following a brief stop at Whole Foods to procure makings for Alys’s famous out-of-this-world rosemary roasted chicken and potatoes, we dropped the top and took a brief spin over the Golden Gate bridge in the evening sunshine, and then headed up to the Marin headlands to enjoy the view over the city. On our way back, we cruised down Lombard Street “The crookedest street in the world” (although this may not really be true, Beth says there’s one in Iowa that claims to be more crooked), and also Kelly got to drive the scary 2nd steepest street in San Francisco for herself. It’s really freaky to not be able to see any road whatsoever beyond your windshield. Wowza. Alys then took us back to her temporary abode in order to make us salivate for two hours while we waited for chicken. We love home cooked meals! Best of all, she packed us up a doggy bag to take on the road when we left the next day. To say that it beats EZ Cheez is an understatement.

If you're not gnawing at your computer screen right now, you don't know what you're missing.

12 July 2006
We dropped Alys off at work the next morning, and resumed our northward journey along the PCH, including a stop at the world’s best located, but also disturbingly creepy Taco Bell right on the beach in Pacifica. Beth says she has had this disturbingly not quite right feeling only once before, on the Isle of Wight. We were both glad to leave.

Creepy Taco Bell

We cruised through SF one last time, at this crossing, the Golden Gate was shrouded in fog – a completely different and yet still compellingly beautiful drive. We may not have left our hearts in San Francisco, but between the truffles and the chicken, we may well have left our stomachs there.

So long, San Francisco!