The streets of San Francisco

We arrived early into San Francisco this morning, as some people were booked on a bay cruise. This gave us 2.5 hours to explore Fisherman's wharf and the famous Pier 39.
The first place we came across was the 'Musee Mecanique'; a free museum full of old mechanical toys & old video game machines. It was a real blast from the past to see games like Phoenix, Galaxians, Pole Position and one of my all time favourites, Moon Patrol! They all still worked, so I had a go for old times sake.

We saw the sea lions (they smell really bad!) and had a wander around the pier, earmarking places to come back to tomorrow.

We had an early lunch at a place called Boudin's; this was recommended to me by a patient before we came away. They do the most amazing clam chowder, served in a sourdough bread bowl.
Sadly, Mr A can't eat shellfish so he had tomato soup instead. Both were delicious; I couldn't eat my bowl though as I was too full!
I think we will be back here again tomorrow.

In the afternoon, we had the city tour. We passed through all the little districts; saw a naked guy (tallywhacker and everything....as our guide said!) in Castro (nudity is legal here), then up to Twin Peaks for a great panoramic view of the city.

We drove through the Golden Gate park; this is where Karl Malden & Michael Douglas used to meet their informants in the tv show (hence today's blip title).

The highlight was the Golden Gate Bridge; although it's hard to believe the Humber Bridge is bigger, this is the icon of San Francisco and had to be today's blip.

Our hotel is just off the California St line (this is the really steep street that featured in the Steve McQueen movie 'Bullit').

We had thought we would do the hop on/off bus tour tomorrow, but we've seen most of the landmarks already today. We may head to Union Square tonight, and revisit Pier 39 tomorrow, since we need to be down there for our Alcatraz trip tomorrow night.
The only other things we want to do are to walk across the bridge and ride the tram on California Street.

I LOVE this place.
This is how I thought I'd feel about Vegas. It's hard to put into words how awesome this place is. I wish we had more time but we can always come back ;-)