Day 2 (February 16, 2018): The city of hippies, hipsters, vagrants, flagrants, and artsy-fartsies!

"A four-hour time difference?! Child's play!" I told myself on Thursday. At 3:30AM this morning, however, I was feeling a wee bit less nonchalant about it, as I was wide awake, staring at the ceiling. "It's 7:30AM back home," my brain kept telling me, "time to get up!"

We simply had a wonderful day today. As the photos show, the sky was a perfect blue, with 17C. We left the hotel at 7:45AM, equipped with our "Muni Passes" on our phones (the transit system covering all electric buses, trams and cable cards is called "Muni"), and set out to find Mel's Diner for breakfast. Mel's goes back to 1947, and is about as old-school "diner" as it gets. With a great breakfast under our belts, we set out to conquer San Francisco, the city of hippies, hipsters, vagrants, flagrants, and artsy-fartsies! And I swear, we saw them all today.

Our day went something like this:

(1) The Embarcadero Ferry Terminal (redone as a market), with amazing views of the Bay Bridge to Oakland;

(2) The Fisherman's Wharf area, with its resident barking sea-lion population;

(3) Coit Tower, with sweeping views of the entire city;

(4) Lombard Street, with its famous section of zig-zag roadway through pristine gardens;

(5) A ride on the famous Powell & Hyde cable car;

(6) Ghirardelli Square, former home of the chocolatier's factory and now a high-end retail-hotel-eating area with built-in salutes to the Ghirardelli Chocolate empire;

(7) The Golden Gate Bridge -- the piece-de-resistance of any trip to SanFran! And walk it, we certainly did! BOTH WAYS!

(8) Alamo Square, a hilltop city park, famous for its views of six townhomes that have withstood fire and quake.

By the time we made it back to the hotel at 5ish, we were feeling tired, but very content with our day. We watched some Olympic coverage and then ate an amazing chowder dinner in the hotel restaurant, as we sadly watched Canada lose to the Czech Republic in men's hockey.

Tomorrow, we will rent a car and head across the Bay to wine country - or at least the part that wasn't horribly scorched in the recent fires.

G'night from SanFran!

Embarcadero Ferry Terminal has been rejuvenated as a high-end market

Pam (and friend) watching the ferries from Sausilito and Oakland arrive, with the Bay Bridge behind her.

The Fisherman's Wharf area covers the north shore of the San Fran peninsula, with more kitschy attractions, eateries, boat tours, and souvenir shops than you could have nightmares about!

A giant crab welcomes you to Fisherman's Wharf. Note that the tulips are all in bloom!

The clowns of Fisherman's Wharf are the incredible sea-lion resident population. An area of the marina was simply given over to them years ago -- there was no getting rid of them! Today, people show up at Fisherman's Wharf to see the sea-lions, as much as anything else.

A US Navy submarine and supply vessel from WWII are preserved as museum pieces at Fisherman's Wharf.

View of the city from the Pier 39 area.

Inescapable Alcatraz sits hauntingly in the Bay. We did the Alcatraz tour back in 1997 and decided not to repeat it.

One of the best viewing points in SanFran is Coit Tower, dating back to 1933.

View of the Bay Bridge from Coit Tower

View of the Financial District from Coit Tower, with the iconic TransAmerica Pyramid in the fore.

Lombard Street. Almost every home and apartment building features the unmistakable bay window, which gave extra room to a living space.

Cherry blossoms already in bloom.

Washington Square.

The famous switchback section of Lombard Street. I recall seeing this in National Geographic as a little kid and was spellbound by it! "I have to see that someday," I promised myself back then.

We have seen some amazingly tiny and efficient trucks and cars here!

The famous Powell & Hyde cable car. The cable car system here is over 100 years old! And it still remains as an icon of SanFran.

Ghirardelli Chocolate used to have its factory in the upscale world that is now Ghirardelli Square.

Finished in 1937 and having seen over 2 billion vehicles pass over its decks, the orange Golden Gate Bridge is perhaps the other best-known icon of SanFran. At 1.7 miles (2.75km) long, it is indeed an impressive structure.