SF Blog - The Blog about San Francisco

As a resident of San Francisco, I have to admit that I do see cable cars everywhere near downtown but I never got a chance to get into the details.  Although there’s great public transportation, (and I should take advantage over it) I am biased and have to resort to taking my car everywhere.

Well, I did site hop onto this blog post explaining in details about cable cars and how they are the only remaining manually operating cable car system.

Check it out as you will learn a little about “gripman” and how it’s not easy to become one.

Did you know that the San Francisco cable car system is the world’s last permanently operational manually-operated cable car system? It’s pretty amazing. Driving and maintaining the cable car takes a lot of man power and manual labor. Man powered turntables turn the cable cars around at the two ends since these cable cars can only run straight.

via mylifeisyummy cable car system, Getting Around, labor man, man power, public transportation, san francisco cable car, san francisco cable cars, sf-tourists

Well, starting this september, SF Parking Meter prices are going up in certain places during peak hours.  Which does not make sense to me at all as parking tickets in San Francisco are ridiculous already.  Downtown parking tickets are $50 minimum and now they want to add peak hour price hike?!?

All of this of course will use “more” technology embedded in the parking meters which surely means parking tickets will go up too.

Is Gavin Mayor simply wasting his time?  Maybe he should focus on something else, this isn’t going to solve any problems except make the city officials/government rich.

And why do I have to find out about this from a blog in New York!?!

Starting in September, the $23 million SFpark program will use an array of new policies and technologies to raise meter prices during peak periods, so as to make parking more easily available, thereby reducing rush hour driving, cruising for spaces and double parking. SFpark will include 6,435 curbside spots. This is a quarter of San Francisco’s curbside parking, and is roughly comparable to the 6,500 metered curbside spots in Manhattan south of 60th Street. The project also includes variable pricing for the 11,677 off-street spots managed by the city.

via streetsblog 60th street, array, city officials, Getting Around, manhattan south, News, parking meter, parking meters, parking tickets, peak hour, peak hours, peak periods, price hike, rush hour, san-francisco, street spots

Of course, there’s always In-N-Out and Hooters around the corner at Fisherman’s Wharf.

You can find Hooters on 353 Jefferson St here.

Now, you have a good number of places to visit at Fisherman’s Wharf you can write down before your next trip to San Francisco. Eating Out, fisherman, Fisherman's Wharf, Getting Around, hooters, jefferson st, san-francisco, sf-tourists

I did spot these refurbished World War II amphibious boat/car thingee. Yes, I highly recommend going this route if you need a quick 80 minute review of San Francisco in general.

Of course, there are lots of other options like the Segways, electric bikes, and go-carts if you have more time.

San Francisco Duck Tours - Experience San Francisco’s newest attraction and
a better way to see San Francisco, on board one of DUKW’s, (we call ‘em Ducks!) an original, refurbished World War II Amphibious landing craft.

Bay Quackers is a fun-filled, memorable 80-min Surf & Turf Duck Tour of San Francisco and the Bay.

See North Beach, Chinatown, Union Square, Soma, McCovey Cove, San Francisco Bay, Coit Tower and more while quacking your way through the city.

You can check out BayQuackers.com here. amp, amphibious craft, bay quackers, chinatown, coit tower, duck tour, duck tours, dukw, electric bikes, experience san francisco, Fisherman's Wharf, Getting Around, landing craft, north beach, Pictures, san francisco bay, soma, tour san francisco, turf, union square, world war ii

(Click to enlarge)

There are a lot of piers at the Fisherman’s Wharf.  But Pier 39 is undeniably the most fun place to hang out.

Pier 39 pretty much consists of bunch of little mom and pop shops, aquarium, and some other tourist attractions.  You can enlarge on the above picture to see the whole directory.

Here’s a look into what it looks like when you enter:

A word of warning about Pier 39, DO NOT GOTO Bubba Gump restaurant!  It is the worst-tasting seafood at FIsherman’s Wharf!  Although I do love the movie, Forrest Gump, Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant is like the horror-movie of San Francisco seafood.  (I believe they are still in business due to all the new tourists who don’t know how the food tastes…)

Like I said before on the previous post, you need to go to Nick’s Lighthouse, not a fancy schmazy Hollywood bs marketing. aquarium, bs marketing, bubba gump shrimp, bubba gump shrimp restaurant, Eating Out, fisherman, Fisherman's Wharf, forrest gump, fun place, Getting Around, hollywood, horror movie, lighthouse, mom, News, pier 39, piers, pop shops, tourist attractions, tourists, wharf san francisco

You will definitely have to check out Alcatraz, the home to murders and felons about 50-60 years ago.  It’s also the place they shot the movie Rock.  You can take this cruise to go there.

I did go to Alcatraz almost 20 years ago when I was in elementary school.  It’s a fun place to visit and a must-see tourist attraction if you are coming to San Francisco. alcatraz, cruise, felons, fisherman, Fisherman's Wharf, fun place, Getting Around, murders, san-francisco, tourist attraction

One of the fun ways to get around in style at Fisherman’s Wharf is getting a Horsey Ride.  You will most likely find these Horsery Rides waiting for you to get on as they are kinda pricey and not a whole lot of people take on the ride.  I did take a ride about 10 years ago, so if you can afford it, definitely get a horsey ride.

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The best seafood at Fisherman’s Wharf has to be Nick’s Lighthouse. It’s a pretty small restaurant but a lot of the locals like the seafood there as they serve you some real fresh crabs and some great beer.
(I did also go to Alioto’s as you can see in the picture, their food is okay but not good enough for the price you pay.)

If you love seafood and you are in Fisherman’s Wharf, you need go straight to this place and ignore all others. Especially if you are visiting San Francisco, you need to check this place out.

It’s not cheap though, it’s still around $50 per person for a good meal and some beer.

There are couple other super-pricey fancy restaurants around with a good ocean view, but they can hardly beat the food you will find at Nick’s Lighthouse.

This is the place my parents and I celebrate any of our important days. (Now, I did tell you a “real” secret about San Francisco.)

I’d say this place is so good, it’s actually the best seafood restaurant in San Francisco Bay Area for crabs. I wouldn’t go anywhere else. best seafood restaurant, crabs, Eating Out, fancy restaurants, fisherman, Fisherman's Wharf, Getting Around, important days, lighthouse, locals, ocean view, parents, san francisco bay, san-francisco-bay-area, visiting san francisco