Missions Complete

It seems to be the case with me that when I have the most to say, I'm too tired to say it all. Today was a full day and I am a VERY content but tired pup pup.

We were able to catch the early baby bullet train again this morning. We didn't have time for breakfast before we left, so we ate our pears from the market yesterday on the train... they weren't nearly as good as the samples. In fact, they were pretty bland. Blah. We ate them anyway, but we were still hungry.

We took the bus straight to Chinatown in the morning, one of the goals I'd formulated in my head. I just wanted to poke around and compare it to the ones in New York and Hawaii (and actual China and Hong Kong, haha). Jim also wanted to go. Since we were hungry, it didn't take much to convince us to walk into one of the millions of Dim Sum restaurants we found. We finally picked a hole in the wall that had locals eating at it, which is always a good sign. Neither of us had ever had dim sum, so it was a good place for a first experience... not fancy, but it was delicious. We spent the whole morning shopping and walking around China Town (I thinkI like the one in NYC a teeny bit better), then we were off to the top of Telegraph Hill to get a view from Coit Tower.

We walked up some REALLY steep hills (the ones in the movies LoL) to get up to the highest point in the bay (I think) and see the view from Coit Tower. It was $4.00 a person to get to the tippy top, which is a rip off, but I was glad we went up there even so. It was a beautiful view. When we'd had our fill, we went on a mission to find Japan Town before we got too hungry for lunch.

It's hard to find Japan Town when you haven't had a chance to look up where it is. Eventually we found it on a transit map at a bus station, in teeny tiny writing. We waited forever for the right bus (okay 20 minutes), but then it didn't take too long to get there once we got going in the right direction.

We found the perfect sushi place for a first experience. So much to write about it, but long story short the sushi chef is in the middle of an oval bar area, and put sushi plates on little boats going around on water around the bar. You just take off whatever you want as it comes along, and the plates are color coded by price so they just add up your plates at the end to charge you. Tea is included at no extra cost, and it was yummy tea. Same with the wasabi, soy, and ginger (yes I tried it all). The sushi was great, I really like it. Yummy, now I want more. Haha. They were reasonably priced, too... Jim and I gorged for $20 for the two of us. My favorite was the bbq squid wrapped around a california roll. Sounds weird but it was super yummy. (Scott's Chris (not to be confused with my brother), you totally have to go there. It's so cool. I already told Scott to take you there. He knows where to go.)

After poking around Japan Town (it's pretty small) we made our way back to Fisherman's Wharf to try to find the boat tour guy. It was 3:45 by this point, and we didn't find the guy from yesterday, but just then another boat was pulling up to let a group of people disembark, offering the same tour for the same price. We bought tickets at 4:00 when they were done unloading, and they told us we would leave at 4:30. This would be perfect, since it was an hour tour, to catch the last baby bullet train at 6:33. haha.

Needless to say they pretty much kept the boat in the bay as long as it took to get a full boat load of passengers on it. We took off at 4:55. Grr.

Once we got going, though, it was beautiful. They took us under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, and the guy was really knowledgeable and told us a lot of things we didn't already know (and was really funny about it), so it was well worth the $10. Plus since we were the first ones to buy tickets we got to sit in the front, which Mom and Dan know is my FAVORITE part of the boat, so we got the sea spray in our faces and everything else. Yay! It was chilly, but we were prepared with sweatshirts, so we were fine.

Of course by the time we finally made our way back to the Cal Train station we missed the 6:33 by 5 minutes... but turns out we were just in time to get good seats on the 6:56, which I had somehow missed (I thought the next was at 7:20). Still, by the time Jim and I ran to the store to stock up on more food for the last leg of the road trip, ran to Kinkos to fax one last form for his new job, and scrounged up dinner and now I tried to write this quickly (me? concise? haha)... it's really late. We wanted to get up at 6:30 but I don't think that's happening. Oh well... no big. We'll be alright.

Off to bed with us!
Love,
Me (and us)
(We've all pretty much figured out by now that if there's going to be a Sarah and Jim blog, Sarah has to write it. That's okay though, Jim is tracking the receipts and budget so it's a fair trade ;o) )