Struggling with U.S. daylight-saving time we just had time for breakfast before touring the Maritime Museum at the other end of Fishermen’s Wharf, before across to The Cannery for a lunch of some Mexican-flavoured barbecued beef.
Then we took the cable car ride to Market Street and an hour or two in a large bookshop/newsagents before taking the cable car back to the hotel for tea at Johnny Rockets
We forgot the clocks had gone forward on U.S. daylight-saving time and could not understand why breakfast was nearly over at "Oh la La's!" by the time we got down there. The start to a fine, sunny morning spoilt by the girls arguing over the possession of yesterday's tram tickets which they each wanted to stick in their scrap books! We set off for the main Maritime Museum at the other end of Fisherman's Wharf, arriving just before one of the rangers was going to do a tour of a flat-bottomed, square-ended sailing barge. We had to scramble across a gap but enjoyed his guided tour with some other British people who joined the party. It seems that British visitors feature quite a lot at the maritime museum, proving that our sea heritage is second to none.
** "Read More" BELOW for the complete story**
Two of the boats on exhibit were actually built in Britain anyway, but the museum were incorrectly flying the Union Jack instead of the Red Ensign as they were merchantmen. We toured all of the exhibits before crossing over to The Cannery, the family being quite hungry from the delayed lunch. Instead of a restaurant, I persuaded them to have some Mexican-flavoured barbecued beef and, one after another, they all tried some and enjoyed at as I kept ordering more at $2 per stick. There were few tourists in the city today and the beggars and pan-handlers seemed to be outnumbering them! We then took the cable car ride to Market Street where we went over to the shopping centre and stayed an hour or two in a large bookshop/newsagents.
I reviewed the books on dogs (wherein I found little of interest and absolutely nothing on pointer/retrievers and a very poor selection generally) and also read up the guide books on local nature reserves and tourist attractions. The girls were fascinated by the range of Sweet Valley High books and other young adult fiction; just reading the slip covers to get the general idea of each story-line so as to see what was left in the series to read. The cable car back to the hotel for tea at Johnny Rockets but it was cooler outside than of late and so I persuaded the family to sit at the bar and we were not only served better, but enjoyed much more of the atmosphere of the place.
There are small "juke-box-type" music selection machines so that you can choose your own 1950/60's records for a nickel (5c). Diana wanted to go out for a walk afterwards and I joined her but was very tired. She would be in difficulty on her own these days with the increased number and persistence of the beggars. The position is now so sad that I turned down a "street collector for poor children" as I could not trust him to be genuine with so much pan-handling and trickery around. Another sunny and warm day but with a chilly wind.