Day 5 - Sightseeing

Having finished exploring all of our potential neighborhoods, we spent today being tourists and seeing some of San Francisco's more famous sites.

From our hotel, we walked up Grant Avenue under the arch and through Chinatown. Wow. We've both been to Chinatown in New York, but this one was much bigger. On a positive note, it seemed a lot cleaner and didn't have the same bad smell that New York's has. We took our time strolling through it and finally reached North Beach - the Italian neighborhood in San Francisco.

We found a great little Italian restaurant on yelp.com called E' Tutto Qua. The host was definitely right off the boat - he spoke with his hands while telling us about the lunch specials in a thick accent. We had a wonderful meal, capped off by an espresso and panna cotta for dessert.  Neither of us had ever tried this custard made from milk, cream, sugar, and gelatin, but boy are we glad we did!  We will definitely be back!

After lunch, we walked up Columbus Street through the heart of North Beach, checking out the various shops, restaurants, and bakeries along the way. We strolled by the base of the Transamerica Pyramid and took a few pictures - it looks just as cool from underneath. Then we saw a sign for Coit Tower, and decided to take a detour. Getting to the base of the tower required a hike up yet another hill, but at least the sidewalk had stairs. Once we got to the tower's entrance, we paid $4.50 each for a ride up the elevator to the top. It was the best $9 we spent all day. From the top, we got a picturesque view of almost the entire city and the bay. We saw Lombard Street (the almost-crookedest street in the world) from the top of the tower, which was where we headed to next.

When we got to the base of Lombard Street, we saw a bunch of people taking pictures as well as a steady stream of cars driving down it, slowly weaving their way back and forth. It was a hike up to the top, but we got a few more pictures from there.  We felt sorry for anyone who actually lived there as the stream of tourists driving down the hill never waned while we were there.  

From Lombard Street, we took a short stroll down the hill on Hyde Street to Ghirardelli Square. While we did get a free piece of chocolate when we wandered into the store, the Square itself was a big tourist trap full of restaurants and knicknack shops. We had been warned to pretty much avoid the Fisherman's Wharf area in general, and it was pretty apparent why once we got down there - the whole area is one big tourist trap.   We will be sure to avoid Pier 39 (the worst of the tourist sections in Fisherman's Wharf) now that we have seen this part.

Fortunately, we did find a couple of neat things down there. We had an excellent Irish coffee at the Buena Vista, which claims to have brought it to the US in 1952. And we saw our first sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge from a pier in front of Ghirardelli Square. The pictures we took didn't quite capture the incredible breathtaking experience that it was.

Finally, we rode a crowded bus back downtown and ended up at an Indian/Pakistani semi-fast food chain for dinner, Naan-N-Curry. We noticed a BYOB policy on the menu out front and took advantage, relaxing after a long day of sightseeing.

Day 5 - Sight Seeing a la Tourists