Panama Cruise 2025 Day 4 October 24 San Francisco

Today we got up early and were able to get up in time to see the Golden Gate Bridge just as it was starting to get light out. We were able to get off the boat by about 8:45 am and went straight to the Muni transit truck and buy a 1 day pass for all the trolley cars, buses and Street Cars.  We went to the Embarcadero and caught an antique trolley car all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf.  Wanted to check our emails and call home to check on everything so we stopped to enjoy the waterfront park and watch the swimmers in the bay.

We then headed to Ghirardelli square home of the old Ghirardelli chocolate factory where we had booked a walking tour with San Francisco City Guides. They are a non-profit that originally started with the Public Library and now they are their own organization. We first learned of them from our friends Stefan and Sharon and had done a previous tour of the Golden Gate Bridge with them. They have over 80 tours that they do around the city and it is a great experience.  Our tour guide was Julie and when we told her that we had just come in on the ship, she had seen the ship coming into harbour that morning and had taken a picture of it and was able to send it to me by text. 

She started the tour by asking the group what are the most iconic things about San Francisco.  The answers we came up with were the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Fog, Cable cars, Dungeness Crab, Sourdough bread, Ghirardelli Chocolate and Progressive politics and we could find all these things at Fisherman’s Wharf.

We started at the Chocolate factory where we were able to get a sample of what I think is the best American chocolate. This is a picture of a statue that is in the middle of square it was done by a local artist called Ruth Asawa.  It is a breast feeding mermaid, of course it was quite controversial and they did not want to install is so her and her team snuck in late at night and installed it themselves and once it was in they couldn’t take it out. This was the progressive politics.

We then headed to the waterfront park where the sun had come out and you could see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Julie belongs to one of the two local swim clubs called the Dolphins. This swim club had been around for over 100 years and has over two thousand members. She told us a story about a fellow who was celebrating his 81 birthday by swimming from one end of the Golden Gate bridge to the other on Saturday. She told us another about a fellow who had swam back and forth from Alcatraz 67 times. 

Alcatraz

We then walked up to where the street cars start and she told us about how in 1947 the newly elected mayor wanted to update the local transit system and get rid of the cable cars, however a lady named Friedel Klussmann ran a campaign to save them, she succeeded in saving them and now they are synonymous with San Francisco.

We then headed to a local Crab and fish market that has been in the area for over 60 years and the granddaughter of the original owner came out and told us all about how the crabs are caught.  We then went to the docks to see some of the boats, most of them don’t do a lot of commercial fishing anymore, mostly charters but they did have a few boats that look like ones from years past. We finished off the tour at Boudin Sourdough bakery. Sourdough was brought to San Francisco during the gold rush and the Boudin bakery started making it commercially. When the earthquake and fire in 1906 happened it is said that Mrs. Boudin ran back in the bakery and saved the mother starter in her apron and it still being used to this day. It is also said that sourdough made in San Francisco is gets it tangy flavour because of the fog.

Our next stop was to take an actual ride on the cable cars, as we waited in line we were able to watch how they turn the cars around. They are pushed on to a turn table where they manually turn then around to head back up the hill. 

Our first stop was Lombard St, which is the crookedest street in the US. It is difficult to get a picture of it but it has 8 hairpin turns and you can only drive one way down the street.

We then hopped back on next car and went to the Cable Car museum.  Cable cars came to San Francisco because the horse drawn carriages that were being used at the time had difficulties with the hills, they often slipped and there were cases where horses died on the streets, it was also very unsanitary with each horse depositing at least 10 lbs of droppings per day not to mention the urine.  A gentleman named Andrew Hallidie who’s father had made it big in Comstock Silver mines in Nevada started producing wire rope which the used to build bridges and later started to use in the mines to transport the ore. He called it the continuous loop and it operated like a modern day ski lift and used a gripping devise that would later be used in his design for a cable car system.

The cables run under the street and  meet at central location. The cars grip onto the cables to run, the tighter the grip the faster the car goes, the looser it slows down, when it stops brakes are applied and the grip is loosened enough to for the cable to pass through without dropping the cable.

After the museum we hopped back onto another car and went to Chinatown to check out the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, this was where fortune cookies were invented.

Saw this fellow in Chinatown delivering his goods riding his pallet jack up the hill

We then took our final cable card ride down to the end of the California line, took a picture at the I love San Fransico sign, toured the Ferry building and returned to the ship.

Saw our first autonomous vehicles, they were all over the wharf area.  Didn't take a ride but did talk to someone who did who said it was very weird not having anyone in the front.

We finished off the evening with a fantastic dinner and the ball game on the big screen, it was great to watch the Blue Jays win.