We came to the Bay Area a few days before the earliest chance of our surrogate delivering so that we could have a chance to do some touristing. That was represented on Sunday by us going into downtown San Francisco to sightsee. I also had a plan to abandon Catalina at one point and try to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, so I was dressed for a run.
We took the train into the edge of town and walked along the waterfront. It was nice, although a little windy. There was a man selling “fresh” oysters right on the street. I am allergic to shellfish so I have an excuse not to partake, but I did encourage Catalina to try; she did not.
Things got interesting when we got to Pier 39. It is an amusement park style area with lots to see. However, out first target there was to check out the floating docks that have been taken over by sea lions. They came in all sizes, and most seemed content to just lie around in the sun, or bark at each other when one tried to get a better position on top of another. There were a few doing play fighting in the farther areas; we heard it was in preparation for when mating season does come around.
The other thing we did at Pier 39 was check out the mirror maze. Back in 1986, there was a Scientific American article about a new mirror maze where the mirrors were all at 60° from each other, instead of right angles. It made the maze actually confusing because you could not tell how far hallways were; at a right angle you can tell where there is a wall if you can see yourself. I thought this was the maze from that article, but afterwards I saw an actual map and realized that it was very different from the one I remembered. (1986 maze was square-shaped; this one was a long rectangle.)
The maze was a lot of fun and we went through it several times, backwards and forwards. Eventually I figured out to just look for a landmark, go to it, and then look down the “hallways” until you see a different, new, landmark and make your way there, always looking for the image that looks closest. Eventually you get to the end.
At times, due to the reflections, you can see yourselves from the back, some distance away.
Afterwards, a lot of the real world became confusing. I distrusted anything I saw because I kept expecting there to be a mirror somewhere.
After that I was supposed to go for a run (I wanted to cross Golden Gate Bridge) but it was windy, and we were running out of time before a planned meeting with a coworker for dinner. So I just stayed with the wife and we continued wandering about. Fisherman’s Wharf was very touristy. Really everything was touristy, with a lot of sugar being peddled.
I did get to run up and down Lombard Street a couple of times. Unfortunately they don’t allow pedestrians on the curvy part, and you have to take the sidewalks/stairs instead. That is probably much safer because most of the drivers were taking selfies while they were on the road. And there were a lot of drivers; there was a literal traffic jam of cars trying to go down it.
If you decide to do Lombard Street, do it in the morning, the sunlight will be better than in the afternoon.
Written 2023-5-11 10:38