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<\/a>Building Number One<\/p>\nThere we were in the middle of Silicon Valley: two long-time Apple and Macintosh Computer users! Cupertino, California, the world headquarters of Apple, was a mere six miles away. We decided to make the pilgrimage to the official “Visitor’s Center”. :-)<\/p>\n
We did<\/strong> know that they didn’t sell computers at the store. Jeff had checked it all out before we arrived. They sold just t-shirts, caps, and other small computer accessories. Of course, they had several models of the latest computers on display to try out.<\/p>\n I was very surprised to see that the place was crowded! Apparently there are many other Apple devotees who wanted to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Grail!<\/p>\n Of course, our goal for the day was to reach San Francisco so we tore ourselves away from Apple Headquarters and continued North to the “City by the Bay”.<\/p>\n Yes! This is a real photo of San Francisco (not Photo-shopped) with a 100 percent cloudless blue sky!! We certainly were lucky!<\/p>\n We left our luggage at the Inn and continued to Fisherman’s Wharf to return the car to the Hertz office located there. There was lots of traffic and people and noise and confusion, but we made it and dropped off the rental car. San Francisco is not an easy city to drive in!<\/p>\n It was an extraordinarily beautiful day and it was a relief to get rid of the rental car. Now we were free to roam the city without the responsibility of someone else’s car. :-) We were in Fisherman’s Wharf – a BIG tourist destination, so we decided to start our explorations there.<\/p>\n This is a large area of San Francisco which historically was the fishing center of the city. Today, it is mainly a tourist destination filled with restaurants, shops, and street entertainment. It was packed with lots of tourists from all over the world.<\/p>\n We walked around the wharf looking at the shops and the tourists. It was a noisy and carnival atmosphere and there was a lot to see. I’m not a shopper so I’m never tempted to buy lots of chachkas and junk.<\/p>\n I love these old trolley cars! I remember the first time I visited San Francisco with my two young sons, sometime in the late 1970s. We had fun riding on all the different kinds of public transportation vehicles: trolleys, buses, cable cars, trams, trains, etcetera. We discovered that San Francisco was a transportation wonder-land.<\/p>\n Jeff and I stumbled upon the Musee Mecanique. It is a free museum sponsored by the City of San Francisco and houses hundreds of old mechanized amusements. See the website for the history of the collection: www.museemechanique.com<\/p>\n We had a late lunch at the Boudin Bakery & Cafe. Then looked around at their shop and took photographs. There was a big area showing the bakers rolling and baking bread. San Francisco is famous for “sour dough” bread.<\/p>\n After lunch, we walked further down the wharf to Pier 39. Jeff had seen seals here on a previous visit and we wanted to see them again.<\/p>\n There were just a few seals on the docks. A sign explained that the seals go elsewhere during the summer to raise their young. Then they return during the cooler weather and spend their winters here.<\/p>\n The sign also explained that the seals first arrived on these docks just 22 years ago, after a particularly strong earthquake. They have returned every winter since then. Jeff said that all the docks were full of seals when he saw them.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Visitor’s Center at Apple Headquarters<\/p>\n<\/a>Inside the Visitors Center<\/p>\n<\/a>Our First View of San Francisco<\/p>\n<\/a>Up Powell Street Hill<\/p>\n<\/a>Down the Other Side of the Hill<\/p>\n<\/a>Fisherman Wharf Sign<\/p>\n<\/a>At the Wharf<\/p>\n<\/a>Old Fashioned Trolleys<\/p>\n<\/a>The Musee Mecanique<\/p>\n<\/a>The Thimble Theatre<\/p>\n<\/a>The Oldest Amusement in the Museum<\/p>\n<\/a>Moving Toothpick Construction<\/p>\n<\/a>Another Mechanical Amusement<\/p>\n<\/a>Boudin Bakery & Cafe<\/p>\n<\/a>Sour-dough Bread For Sale<\/p>\n<\/a>Bread Basket<\/p>\n<\/a>Sign for Pier 39<\/p>\n<\/a>Sleeping Seal<\/p>\n<\/a>More Sleeping Seals<\/p>\n<\/a>Carousel on Pier 39<\/p>\n