What I did on my holidays (part 2)
As mine host Gio pointed out there was no point coming to the US unless I was prepared to try the local cuisine - i.e. a genuine American hamburger. This establishment, he further assured me, was the best burger joint in San Francisco.
Gio still in negotiations. The trick with ordering a hamburger in the US is that you are going to have to state what you want with it. And you will be given at least 73 options including ketchup (tomato sauce) and mayonnaise. Now I dislike almost all of them and agree with Bruce Willis that it should be legal to kill anyone who tries to put mayonnaise on your food. To everyone's horror I asked for mustard only. To compensate for this deficiency I was given enough mustard to start a franchise.
What can I say? "When in Rome - do as the tourists do". Actually there are only three routes for cable cars but the hills they go up ARE impressive hence they are very popular with tourists. I gave up waiting for a turn and wandered off to do something else.
The Palace of Fine Arts, Marina District, was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exhibition celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal. It appears to be concrete coloured to look like stone but it is still a rather charming piece of Edwardian extravagance. Parts of it, such as the large dome shown here, are in need of repair. The Palace houses the Exploratorium, a hands-on interactive museum.
The contemporary American car looks Japanese (in fact most of them are) but a considerable number of these massive old "yanktanks" (our description, not theirs) do survive and appear to be well -loved by their owners.
These are houseboats gathered together in a little alternate community near Sausalito (across the bridge from San Francisco) which is relatively free of the usual taxes and charges associated with house ownership. The area is called "The Gates" because each section is at the end of a numbered gate that leads to the water. My guide told me it used to be very bohemian but has gone a bit upmarket of late (sigh).
No one tells you about the fog until you get there. San Francisco is separated from the Pacific Ocean by hills so in Summer cold air from the ocean creeps over the hills, meets warm air from the hinterland and... well, it certainly keeps the temperature down in Summer.
Say what you will, the San Francisco icons have to be the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars and these wonderful, unique wooden buildings. May her citizens always treasure them.