|
We left South Lake Tahoe and continued driving around the western side of the lake, the part we missed yesterday. The western side doesn't have as many views of the lake as the eastern side but the views from the west were often extreme. I would be leery about driving some of the western roads in the winter. No matter - we're just passing through. (Although we did quickly think about what career changes we'd have to make in order to make a permanent move to the lake area.)
We drove into San Francisco on Interstate 80 through the Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I hate to think of passing through the region without an interstate highway. Once through the pass the elevation quickly drops back down to sea level (no more altitude headaches!). We drove through Sacramento uneventfully (ok, I was asleep and don't remember a thing) and then hit San Francisco during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. Luckily for us, we are accustomed to D.C. traffic during rush hour and this didn't seem so bad.
Most of the traffic was driving away from downtown San Francisco and we didn't have more than a couple slowdowns. The drive across the bay bridge is pretty. The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz are visible to the northwest. The bay is full of tanker ships.
We arrived at our chosen hotel in central downtown San Francisco without a problem. The area we're staying in borders between the low rent and the high-rent districts. We only had to walk a few blocks until we saw limousines and fancy stores like Macys, Nieman-Marcus, etc.
We strolled toward Chinatown about twenty blocks from our hotel. We took a recommendation from a man in the street about a restaurant and we're glad that we did. Unlike some of the high-profile restaurants, this one was a hole in the wall. We had to walk through the kitchen and up two flights of stairs to the dining room. The room had a balcony to the street but access to the balcony was closed, presumably for safety reasons. The proprietor took our orders and delivered them to the kitchen through a dumb waiter. Our orders arrived the same way. The food was excellent and the atmosphere unique.
Ann did some shopping in Chinatown for her nieces and we returned to the hotel.
|
|
