Our visit to the San Francisco Zoo and Muni bus cars where the Gorrilla enclosure was the highlight and then back to Fishermen’s’ Wharf where I bought a clam chouder soup in a sourdough bread bowl and a seafood cocktail.
We tried a different routine for breakfast and enjoyed the change. We dropped off at "Oh La La's", a continental breakfast buffet besides "Johnny Rocket's" in the hotel courtyard. For $5 (adults, children half-price) you could have cereal, muffins, fruit and juice, coffee etc in any combination or quantity and this suited the children in particular. We then took the cable car down to the end of the line in Market Street and took the "Muni" municipal railway for the journey to San Francisco Zoo. The Muni is a cross between an underground "tube" or "metro" on the one hand but then changes into a surface train or tram driving down the centre of suburban roads and taking power from overhead wires which made for a different trip to usual. For the $15 cable car weekly pass, you also get onto Muni and any other municipal buses free as against $3 for each adult cable car rise.
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The children paid $1 for cable and 25c for the bus/muni. The weather was fine and sunny and we enjoyed a slow walk round the zoo, taking refreshment regularly. This was very relaxing but I kept having to search out the toilets as a result. We saw all sorts of animals including lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos and hippos but the best compound had a family of gorillas and we watched them for a while. Back by the same route and then Di bought herself and the girls meals from McDonalds whilst I bought a clam chouder soup in a sourdough bread bowl and a seafood cocktail to follow from Fisherman's Wharf.
Whilst we relaxed in our hotel room, the sounds of group playing South American Mountain (Andes-type) music came wafting up towards us. I walked down to the bay front to find a 6/7 piece group of musicians called Markahausi (pronounced Mar-ka-wa-see) performing music for the passers-by. I enjoyed their music so much, I returned later and bought a tape from them for $10. Others clapped and applauded and three girls swayed and bobbed to the music so that I was in good company. Where else but San Francisco is there so much multi-cultural appreciation and outside entertainment? This music once pleased the Incas, having been played on the same type of instruments since ancient times and is making a come-back.