Entries Tagged as 'train'

Ferries, Trains and Cable Cars

November 30th, 2011 · No Comments


Ferry


Damien, Rachelle


Looking back at Sausalito


Another view from the ferry


…. and we’re off!

After hanging out in Sausalito, Dallas and Billy drove home while Ging, Damien and I took the ferry to San Francisco. Damien loves all forms of transportation – train, boat, airplane, cable car – probably because his mom specializes in transportation and traffic management! Oh, except the car. He hates his car seat (“Ouchie, too tight!” haha).


Golden Gate Bridge


Golden Gate Bridge


Golden Gate Bridge


San Francisco


Alcatraz Island


Pulling into the Port of San Francisco


Bay Bridge

The ferry is a passenger ferry (no cars like the ferries I took around Seattle and Maine) and goes from Sausalito across the bay to San Francisco. Damien was super excited to ride on “the big boat”! Ging said they’d never taken the ferry before, so I was glad to do something they hadn’t done 100 times.


Ferry Building


Boccalone – I liked their tagline, “Tasty Salted Pig Parts”


Blue Bottle Coffee


Latte from Blue Bottle Coffee

The ferry we took is also a commuter ferry on weekdays for people who live in Sausalito and work in San Francisco, or vice versa. On the San Francisco side you get out by the Ferry Building, which has an awesome high-end marketplace. It would be so nice to get out here and grab dinner or flowers or coffee or whatever every day. So nice, and so broke. I happened to see Blue Bottle Coffee, which I knew from Steve is all the rage in San Francisco these days. The line was obnoxious, but Ging wanted to get Damien some Caio Bella sorbet anyway, so I gave it a whirl. I got a latte and a decaf latte for Ging (and the baby!). They were so delicious! I also grabbed 2 bags of whole-bean coffee for home.


The Embarcadero


Ferry Building


Occupy San Francisco

Ging and I had a loose plan to walk up to Telegraph Hill to check out the wild parrots, but it was getting late.. and dark. We ended up just walking along The Embarcadero for a bit then taking the cable car (Damien’s favorite after airplanes) back to the Ferry Building where we got on the BART train (Damien’s favorite after cable cars) back out to the East Bay. Oh, and before the BART ride we passed through Occupy San Francisco, which Ging said has been very peaceful, organized, self-sustaining and clean. No run-ins with police like in other cities.

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Grand Blue Line

September 4th, 2009 · No Comments

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Chicago History Museum

August 12th, 2008 · 4 Comments


Chicago History Museum, Old Town, Chicago

I’ve never been to the Chicago History Museum but I’ve passed by it on Clark and always thought, “I should check that out.” Online I found out that on Mondays admission is free, so I made my first visit yesterday.

I thought the Chicago History Museum was well put together. It’s not gigantic, which is kind of nice. You can see everything there in just and hour or two. If you plan ahead you can download a free audio tour mp3s of the permanent exhibit. I downloaded them, but forgot to put them on my iPod.

The special exhibit right now is Catholic Chicago, which I wasn’t really interested in. The permanent exhibits are all about the history of Chicago and I enjoyed those a lot. I liked the artifacts from the Columbian Exposition and Riverview Park. There was a cool area that was called “City in Crisis” that told about different things like the Great Chicago Fire, the Chicago race riot, Haymarket affair, the Chicago Outlet, that kind of thing.

This old CTA train reminded me of when Tien and I visited the New York Transit Museum.

One exhibit of the Chicago History Museum displayed artifacts from major businesses that are based in Chicago. I kind of chuckled because I own the pitcher that is on the left in the display. You can order your own here.

Kind of morbid, but I thought I’d seen Lincoln’s deathbed on a visit to Washington DC. I saw the Peterson house where Lincoln died and there was a room with a bed. When I got home I looked it up online and the Chicago History Museum has the actual bed. The one in the Peterson house is a replica.

There was a Gas for Less gas station on Lincoln. Before it was torn down I photographed it. At first I thought this was the same sign, but it’s not. Still cool because this sort of gas station sign just does not exist any more.

In the museum gift shop I bought a book on Riverview park. I walked around outside a bit. The Chicago History Museum is right on the edge of Lincoln Park, so the grounds are gorgeous. I wanted to walk around more but it was about 1:30 and I was hungry for lunch. I took the bus down Clark to Frontera Grill but they’re closed on Mondays. boo. I went to Mambo Grill instead. Pretty good, but not Bayless.

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