Hey, all you out in Iowa, I hear that Iowa is setting all kinds of weather records this year. Well, so is San Francisco:
the windiest
the wettest
the coldest
And aren’t you all jealous? Yep, we have not had stellar weather. The wind has been 40 - 50 and gusty for the last 3 - 4 days (we have 6 tires on the ground along with 3 levelers and sometime, we sway in the wind), we’ve been waking up to temps in the low 40’s (think wind chill) rising to the mid 50’s during the day and we’ve had 2 days of rain out of the 5 we’ve been here. Next week 4 days of rain. Hmmm. What’s wrong with this picture?
We learned that parking is tough to find and expensive to pay for in SF so we decided to take the train into town today. I’m a big advocate of mass transit and have used it in Boston when we lived out there and in West Des Moines. Any one who reads this blog knows how much I like it. And, here in San Francisco they have several different types: trains, busses, trolleys and, of course, the cable cars, which are really for tourists now but which used to be a viable part of the city’s transportation. Today, we got a two-fer: we rode the train into the city and took the trolley out to Fisherman’s Wharf. We planned on making it a three-fer by taking the cable cars back into town but it got to be later and we knew that they’d be full so opted to walk back.
Of course, we’re newbies and buying the first ticket was a comic relief. But we’re now seasoned: we’ve bought both a Bart ticket and a trolley ticket now, we’re ready for anything. Bart was a smooth ride and the car was not too full at 9:00. But the trolley - packed and standees filled the aisle. It was difficult to find a pole or a strap and there were so many that I had a hard time finding enough floor space to spread my legs for balance.
When we got to Fisherman’s Wharf we noted that it was obviously school spring break since there were lots of families. We wandered up and down Pier 39 which is now mostly tourist shops selling all kinds of t-shirts, jackets, trinkets, magnets and FOOD - oh, yeah, lots of food. One of the primary tourist attractions on Pier 39 is not man-made - it is the Sea Lions which loll here. There are approx. 900 which hang out here at various times and today we found a large group spread out all over several floats. They are loud, they smell, they take money-making pier space which could be better used by shoppes or tour boats or whatever, but they bring in the tourists. So they stay. We watched them for a while, then began to wander back down the waterfront area.
Then - our first glimpse of the Golden Gate off in the distance. Ooh.
Our next stop was Boudin Bakery which has been a SF institution since 1849. You see, not everyone who came to SF came for the gold, some came for a different kind of bread and they wanted to bake it. That would be Isidore Boudin from France who made his own sourdough using French techniques. Boudin Bakery still uses the mother dough which he developed in the sourdough bread they make now. They also make many other breads but also have a bistro with excellent sandwiches, soups and salads. They also have a museum and a great viewing place where you can actually see them making the sourdough bread for which they are famous and also the other breads which they sell. You can see some of the 3000 loaves they bake daily. When needed the bakers put cooked loaves into baskets which run on a pulley system over our head to the sales floor.
Since you nave to have a ‘mother’ chunk of sour dough to make new sour doughs, who made the first one? Or, was it Adam, Eve and a hunk of sour dough in the Garden of Eden? Well, I guess you can start new sour dough yeasts just as Isidore Boudin did in 1849 when he started his bakery. Another question we have is: if the mother dough is so important, do you keep some in the safe deposit box? Dumb question but then this mother dough means your business, your reputation.
I was surprised to find out that sourdough bread is baked best in SF because of its special climate. Nowhere else on earth can this kind of sour dough be made. I also learned that there were other things invented in SF that have made it around the world. Here are some of them. Who knew?
Don’t these pictures make you want a slice of sourdough right now?
When the earthquake hit San Francisco in 1906 and buildings like the Boudin Bakery began to burn with no way to put them out since all the water mains had broken, Isabelle Boudin grabbed some of the starter, slapped it into a bucket and fled, saving both herself and the dough. The Boudin family then rebuilt their factory and store and continued the family tradition.
We had a bit to eat and headed on down the pier area to Pier 45 where the submarine USS Pampanito is berthed. Here you can tour the sub which we did.
We all know how crowded subs were but here is a picture of the bunks (in green) suspended right above the torpedoes.
On the sub, we learned that those in the submarine service in the US Navy suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any branch of the military in WWII. 52 out of 288 submarines went down, more than 20%. 3505 of the 16,000 men who made war patrols died, almost 22%. 6 submariners lost their lives for every 1 in other branches of the service, excluding aviation. And, they were all volunteers. They accounted for 2% of US Naval personnel but accounted for 55% of the Japanese ships sunk.
Most ships that we tour are securely moored to the pier, but not this sub, it was swinging and swaying in the winds and waves. There was something about the combination of the swinging and swaying and the not eating much today that was causing me to swing and sway too. When Gary suggested getting something to eat right then, rather than waiting the hour or two before we got home, I was ready.
As we walked back, we decided to walk inland and take a straight route to the train rather than walking the entire waterfront. Of course, this meant - HILLS, the San Francisco icon. Then we turned a corner and noticed: a stairway. And, of course, we’re ‘collecting’ stairways and we headed up, and turned a corner and headed up more, and turned a final corner and OMG, more stairs up. San Franciscans are something else and I’m in awe. To take the dog out for his walk, you’ve got to climb either coming or going. We saw several people carrying groceries back home climbing the stairways. And going to and from work entails - you guessed it, more hills and more stairways.
These stairways often go two or three levels and are different at each level. Very quaint though the people who use them every day call them useful.
7.5 1348’
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