Not so sunny San Francisco

John at Pier 39

Last time I was in San Francisco (2012) the weather was beautiful, but no so this time and it did more than make us wet!  In fact the ship broke its moorings, resulting in both the ramps breaking and falling down.  More of that later.

Caroline and baby Kent

Months ago, I got in touch with my cousin Caroline (a second cousin twice removed) whom I had stayed with two years ago.  She’s now had an addition to the family, a 13 month old named Kent after his father, and second name Nolan after his great grandfather, the apostle I’d met in Florida in 2009.  He’s the first boy in this generation which now numbers four great grandchildren for my cousin Shirley in Florida.  So John and I met them (Caroline and baby Kent) for lunch at the Hard Rock Café on Pier 39.  It was so nice to catch up with her and meet her toddler who appeared most bemused by this old couple from the other side of the world.

John and Marg at the Hard Rock cafe

Sea Lions

The weather was getting worse and worse so after finding and photographing the sea lions which have decided to make Pier 39 their home, we headed back to the ship.  We bumped into our American friends from Oregon who told us that no one could get on or off the ship.  We thought they were kidding us, but no.  We were sodden by then, despite the Hard Rock Café ponchos we purchased, and arrived at Pier 35 to find many passengers banked up – all with the same idea, to get back on board out of the rain as quickly as possible.  In fact it took another 90 minutes to do so.

One of my friends, Maxine described today what had happened.  During the early afternoon storm a strong gust of wind hit the ship and the bollards or whatever you call them holding some of the ropes bent, the ropes and the ship moved away from the dock.  This resulted in the ramps falling to the ground – luckily no one was on them at the time.  Maxine said it was quite frightening to watch. It made the local papers.

We were able to get on board after considerable queuing, with John having no problems.  One of the ramps was not a stepped stairway.  But later, having gone out again, I noted that that ramp had been replaced with a stepped stairway.

And the following morning, when John and I both attempted to disembark, only stepped stairways were available.  There were quite a number of wheelchair users on board, and they were mostly carried off in their wheelchairs if they couldn’t walk, but of course that was no use to John.  His wheelchair weighs 102 kg.  He was extremely cross and disappointed.  We couldn’t understand why they didn’t leave the ramp they used the day before to get everyone on.  We hope they don’t make a habit of this, or John won’t be able to get off anywhere!

Cable car

John had particularly wanted to go on a one hour ferry trip around the harbour and to see the cable car, even if he couldn’t ride it.

China Town Gates

But he said don’t let it spoil your day, so despite the dreadful weather – very heavy driving rain in patches of 30 minutes or so for most of the day – I caught the bus downtown.  They should call it uptown, it is so hilly.  The fare is just 75 cents and the same ticket can be used for about three hours.  I travelled through China Town and Union Square to Market and Powell Streets which is where the most popular cable car goes.  I found a Subway with half decent coffee (they don’t sell it after 11 am), found a very up market Westfields with a Bloomingdales department store, and then walked down to Macys where I had some Nut Pumpkin soup in a Boudin roll. Very nice.

Boudin roll and pumpkin soup at Macys

  I took advantage of the marvellous range of clothing and purchased three tops.  Tip: if you are in town from o/s they give you a 10% discount on top of any sale discounts.  I reluctantly bypassed their handbags this time after purchasing two in 2012.

Bookshop at New Beach

After this, despite the miserable weather I walked through the financial district and up to New Beach which is a student/hippy area and found a marvellous bookshop.  Not being satisfied with just one bookshop, I walked back to another bookshop in 2^nd Avenue.  Despite what many people kept telling me, there ARE still bookshops in San Francisco.  But the chain bookstores like Borders have certainly all closed down – too much competition from Amazon.

We had been hoping to meet up with another Moxon (well she was originally one), Dani from Paradise about two hours north, but the weather was too unpredictable, and in any case John was stuck on the ship.  And I couldn’t use the Internet – it turned out that everyone had trouble; Cunard’s server was down for some reason.

I used Macy’s free wi-fi whilst I was having lunch to catch up with my emails and the Sydney Morning Herald, but otherwise we were off-line for 36 hours.

Macys

American poverty is certainly on display in San Francisco – lots of obviously poor people in wheelchairs, some quite out of it, and others begging on the streets – not just black people either – all races.  On the other hand I did not see any indication of American wealth – too wet for the pampered classes to be out and about.

Over half the passengers (at least 1000) disembarked in San Francisco – lots of Americans of course but also Australians and Kiwis planning tours of the USA, and English flying home to the UK.  Many more people embarked of course, and this time a younger cohort.  The ship never seems crowded except in the lifts, there are so many places for people to entertain themselves or be entertained.

At 7.30pm we said goodbye to San Francisco and are now on our way to Costa Rica, and getting warmer every day.