We hadn't been to San Francisco for many years, and that was just a day stop on a north-bound cruise. So our plan this time was to walk around town through some of the areas that we've yet seen in San Francisco. We were very lucky with the weather this day - we had clear blue skies, and relatively warm temperatures. We were told it was an exceptional day, usually the weather is colder and raining. It was a perfect day for our walkabout.
Our first look at San Francisco as we stepped off the ship at Pier 27, near the northern end of the Embarcadero seawall, running along the waterfront.
Outside the Exploratorium, we tested out the acoustic mirrors. "Made of cast bronze and installed on the Exploratorium’s Plaza, Archimedes is comprised of two 8-foot diameter dish-like chairs placed 80 feet apart. Each dish’s parabolic curve collects and focuses sound waves and reflects them to participants seated within them. When both dishes are occupied, even whispers uttered from one dish can be clearly heard by the surprised listener seated in the opposite dish." And it is true! It was very cool.
Generating fog on demand, the Fog Bridge suddenly starting making fog. "In a city notorious for fog, this immense artwork by Fujiko Nakaya intermittently shrouds a pedestrian bridge spanning Piers 15 and 17 with clouds of mist, enveloping all in its gauzy embrace."
This exhibit in the Exploratorium plaza consisted of a long metal post, mostly submerged underwater. At the press of a button, it slowly pivots out of the water, raising the bottom to railing level so you can see what has attached itself to the post underwater.
"Pier 7 is a long, skinny pier, lined with benches, looking straight down at the Transamerica building. This pier is a very popular spot for fishing. Locals do some serious crab fishing here, mainly at night, and also catch sharks and perch." And this day, there were a lot of people fishing at the end of the pier.
Located in the Ferry Building "the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is widely acclaimed for both the quality and diversity of its fresh farm products, and artisan and prepared foods." It was very busy this Sunday morning, and looked like a great place to "brunch" on a Sunday.
This seller offered mushrooms of all kinds, and kits so you could grow your own. Don't know what these mushrooms might taste like - but they sure were beautiful and colourful.
Further along the walkway, we came across these vintage looking streetcars. They were still running.
Public art in a park next to the walkway. On the right is the clock tower of the Ferry Building. The market was beneath it.
This unique building caught my eye. Thought it might be a museum of some kind. Looking it up now - turns out it's a parking lot. At least they gave it an attractive covering.
Looking down 2nd Street. At the end of the street is the older Hobart Building , with the newer un-originally named "44 Montgomery" building (at 44 Montgomery Street) in the background. The Hobart Building "was completed in 1914 after only eleven months, which led to accusations that it had been constructed with a degree of recklessness. It was at the time the second tallest building in the city, at 21 floors and 285 ft." Well... I guess 104 years later, they proved the "reckless" theory wrong.
One of San Francisco's famous cable cars. We've ridden on them before, and we didn't need any quick transportation on our walking tour this day, so we avoided having to stand in a long line for a ride.
Union Square in the heart of downtown San Francisco (with Colin Kaepernick watching over us all).
Just what you'd expect to find in San Fran - Hawaiian singers and dancers. Maybe that's just the point of San Francisco, expect anything and everything.
Here's San Fran's flower shot - an Angel's Trumpets bush in Union Square. (Which I only know because of the catalogue of flowers from Butchart Gardens.)
Public art in Union Square.
The Grant Street entrance to Chinatown.
We lucked out in that the Autumn Moon Festival was happening this day, so the main street through Chinatown was closed to traffic, and there were a lot of kiosks set up. The street was crowded with locals and tourists, all making for an festive atmosphere.
Looking west down Filbert Street on our way up to Coit Tower. The spires are Saints Peter and Paul Church in the North Beach area. The area was named North Beach "in the 1850's when a finger of the bay extended far inland between Telegraph and Russian Hills and the neighborhood was a sunny stretch of shore." 
Coit Tower "a 210-foot tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood...was built between 1932 and 1933." At 210 feet it is 85 feet taller than the Astoria Column we had visited days before. The only access to this tower was a paid elevator, and the wait was over 30 minutes. We didn't go up. But we did enjoy the views from up on the hill.
Looking west over to Russian Hill.
The Golden Gate bridge in the distance joining San Francisco and Marin County.
Looking north toward Alcatraz
On our way down from Coit Tower, we got a pretty good view of our ship waiting for us, with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the background.
Back down near the water, we visited Pier 39 with it's many attractions and shops and took this photo of one of the ferries leaving from Fisherman's Warf passing in front of Alcatraz Island.NEXT: (Day 7) Santa Barbara, California
PREV: (Day 3) Astoria, Oregon
Pacific Coastal - Sep 2018