San Francisco Exploring

 

Decide to take the California / Van Ness Cablecar.  Not as many tourists, and there were no queues. We noticed the tourists queues at Powell/Hyde the other day.

The urchins rode on the outside, and the climb up California St is a massive hill.

Travelling on the outside, moving against the traffic was exhilerating. The cars and trucks were so close. US$7 per person one way.

Dragon Gate on Grant St

Got off at the Grant stop, and walked to China Town. We met up with Erik there, his work is only a few blocks away.

There are about 18,000 people living in these few blocks. Generations of Chinese.

The architecture and the language reflect their culture and values.

Visited the Tin How Temple on Waverley Street. Narrow staircase, and fascinating inside (no photos inside allowed). Nice view from the 4th floor.

Found a restaurant that had no Westerners,  making a decision for lunch more interesting.

Intestines, chicken feet, kidneys and lotus root on the menu.

Ginger duck soup

Chicken feet - spicy hot with sesame flavour

Tighe played it safe and got dumplings

Delicious

Sweet and Sour pork ribs

Fried steam buns

Lots of interesting food and supplies on Stockton street.

Some foods I recognized, others, I had no idea.  Many different smells, some not so nice, especially the sea food without refridgeration.

Waiting on the corner

We even found a kite shop.  Most of the shops on Grant St sell souvenirs. They all sell the same stuff, hats, T shirts, bobble heads, backpacks, San Francisco magnets / pens / pins etc, and the urchins got bored after a while.

Found the Fortune Cookie Factory,

These are our fortunes.

Need the translation, it's on the other side.

These rice crackers were nice, and not sweet, which made a change from the USA food we have been eating.

 Green Tea Pocky sticks.  Not as sweet as the chocolate covered sticks that we get in NZ.