It's fun to look back on the things we did this spring while we were trying to finish off our Northern California Bucket List. I think Eli especially enjoyed the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park (Hyde Street Pier) and the Cable Car Museum, both in San Francisco.
Entering the Park, which is home to a handful of historic vessels...
My favorite was the 1886 square-rigger, Balclutha.
There are tours through the ships and they've done a great job with informational displays as well as placing enough antiques and reproductions inside that you can picture how it felt to work and live on these vessels. The Balclutha cargo hold...
The 1890 steam ferryboat, Eureka, was the largest. Walking through it was like being on the set of a movie. I felt like I was waiting for folks in old fashioned dress to come bustling through.
The view from the back of the Eureka...
Eli's favorite was the Hercules, a 1907 steam tug. He loves the old storybooks Scuffy the Tug Boat (by Gertrude Crampton) and Little Toot (by Hardy Gramatky), so this was like meeting a favorite character face to face.
A month after our visit to the historic pier, we went on a cable car adventure with Brian's parents and his brother's family. We rode the cable car from one end of the city to the other.
Before living in California, I had no idea how a cable car worked. To be honest, I thought it was a trolley. Like a trolley, the cable car doesn't have a motor in it. And there are rails involved. But the cable car moves by basically hitching a ride on a cable that constantly moves under the street. The gripman who rides in the center of the car controls how tightly the cable car holds on to the cable.
Looking down at the gripman's feet...
It may sound easy to be a gripman, just pulling a lever to grab a cable. But San Francisco is, of course, quite hilly. There are curves on the tracks too. The gripman has to have a real feel for the mechanisms of the cable car and excellent reflexes. The first time I rode a cable car, the gripman told me that he and his gripman buddies are whizzes at computer games because their reflexes and hand motions are so honed.
Sitting at the front of the cable car -- but especially if you're one of the folks who gets a spot standing on the outside running board of the car -- you really appreciate the steepness of the hills and how a runaway cable car could ruin your day.
We got off at Ghirardelli Square for lunch and fun, then we caught the cable car again. Here's Eli at the roundabout where the cable cars are turned. Staff manually turn the cars, pushing them with their shoulders on the well-greased wooden turntable.
Midway through the city, we got off to see the Cable Car Museum...
There are informational displays about how the cable cars work and how they fit into the history of the city. And the museum is located at the powerhouse and carbarn on Nob Hill.
You can look down at the huge wheels that keep the cables running under the streets. The whole building hums with motion.
Eli adores the cable car bells (as do Granddad and Cousin Tom). At the gift shop, we got a replica bell to take home to Georgia. Each cable car gripman is practiced at handling the grip, but also in bouncing the rope to ring the bell in familiar patterns. Ding-ding-ding-a-DING-DING-ding... For days after a visit to San Francisco, I can hear the sound in my sleep.
Eli loved Hyde Street Pier, the cable cars, and the Cable Car Museum, but we did too. Our family highly recommends both. (And since we mentioned children's books earlier in this post... Don't miss Maybelle the Cable Car by Virginia Lee Burton, author of Mike Mulligan.)
There are some of the reasons why I love USA . But what I especially love is exploring the city by foot.
Posted by: Pitt | 16 December 2019 at 09:26 AM