Cable cars and bayside park

Since the game was a day game, and it finished before 4pm, I had the rest of the afternoon to spend before going to dinner, which I had booked for 6.45pm.

Earlier in the day, I had purchased my 3-day MUNI pass that allows me to travel on the MUNI Metro light rail trains down to the ballpark, as well as all the buses and cable cars. 

It's gone up to $31 now (the 7 day pass is only $40, but I only need three days of passes)


I decided to have a ride on the California Street cable car, as I've not been on that one before.

It takes you along California Street, as the name would imply, from just by Embarcadero BART station at the east end to Van Ness Avenue at the west end, which is only centrally located - it's nowhere near the Pacific coast.

However, it turns out that there isn't very much to see at Van Ness and California, although there is a Holiday Inn there, which is useful to know.

Also, the queues for this cable car are much shorter - I didn't have to queue at all, in fact.  So I took the next cable car back east again, but got off at Powell Street where the other two cable lines cross California Street, and got on a northbound cable car heading to Hyde Street.

This cable car terminates at the bay, and leaves you next to Aquatic Park.  I had around an hour and a  half until dinner time, so I sat and enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine.  There are a large number of benches in the park area for people to just sit and watch.  It's a beautiful part of the city, and not as crowded and hectic as the part further along at Pier 39 and its environs.

In these pictures, you can see the shadows gradually getting longer and longer as the sun sets behind the trees at the western end of the park.

In the distance, you can see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge poking up out of the mist and above the top of the hills.

Occasionally, you will see a large container ship pass by on its way to the port either at Oakland or San Francisco that are opposite each other on the inland part of the bay.

Amazingly, there were a couple of people swimming in the harbour area - it must be very cold at this time of day.

Earlier on at the ball game, some of the locals sitting near me were saying that they were surprised at the weather, as there had been a forecast of rain showers for today.  As you can see from these photos, there was barely a cloud in the sky all day.  The weather forecast on my phone doesn't think there's any rain due either.

It does cool off quite a bit once you get out of the sun, but before the sun finally went down, it was time for my dinner at McCormick & Kuleto's restaurant, which is in Ghirardelli Square, just
behind the park where I took these photos.

It is always necessary to book this restaurant at normal dinner times, as it gets full quickly.  There is a medium level of conversation buzz in the restaurant which is nice too.  My table was right next to the window overlooking the bay and the little harbour area.

The tables for 2 in the next row in are arranged with both seats on the same side, so you can look out of the window too, which is nice, but being right next to the window as I was is still the best.  They have bay windows along the front, so there's large tables as well as small tables.

I went in at 6.45pm and ordered about 10 minutes later.  I think the kitchen must have lost my starter order, because it still hadn't come by 7.25pm, but when my server, Chloe, chased it up, it appeared 5 minutes later!

Then my steak appeared just 5 minutes after finishing the starter.  I had a pudding too, but couldn't manage it as it was just too large and full of cream, which I don't really like a lot of.

All in all, I was there nearly 2 and a half hours!


However, I wasn't desperately hungry and I didn't have anywhere I needed to go after dinner, so it didn't matter, and I was able to just watch the sun going down over the park.  This is the last sunset I'll see here this year, as I'll be at games for my final two nights here.

When I was at the McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in San Jose earlier this week, my waitress managed to register me as a Landry's Select Club member, which allows me to collect points in return for money off vouchers.  I had to pay $25 to join, which was added on to the bill, but in return, immediately your account is credited with a 'welcome' voucher worth $25 that you can spent on your next visit to any Landry's group restaurant - of which there are quite a few different brands and there are restaurants all over the country.  So provided that you remember to spend the welcome voucher, it's effectively free.

I've tried to sign up for the card myself in the past, but it always got stuck when it insisted on a US postal address and telephone number.  This way, I've actually got the card and registered it online afterwards (with a UK address!), and put a fake telephone number in there.


One day, I should see if my mobile phone number, without the leading zero, is in fact an in-use USA telephone number.

Another benefit of the membership card, is that I receive a $25 voucher to wish me a happy birthday, valid until the 15th of the next month.  So I've told their website a slightly wrong birthday, so that the voucher will always be available whilst I'm on holiday in the USA in Septembers!

I was very impressed, only a couple of hours after registering my card online, the birthday voucher arrived, so I was able to spend it this evening.  Overall, a meal that was going to cost $90 only ended up costing $40.  I estimate that if I eat at one of the outlets 4 times a year, that'll give me enough for another $25 voucher, and then I'll get the birthday voucher annually.

This final picture you can see the reflection of the lamp on my table and the restaurant's lights too as the sunset finally ends,  I took the cable car back downtown to the BART station to return to the hotel, getting back around 10.30pm.