Chinatown, Ghirardelli, Lombard & Monk

We have been itching to go somewhere fun so yesterday we spent the day in San Francisco. We decided that since we recently went to Japantown here in San Jose, we should go check out Chinatown in San Francisco. It is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and was very interesting. We really felt like we had gone to another country.

McKay thought this lion at the entrance was pretty cool and wasn't quite ready to move on when we were.

All the stores have chinese lanterns or something like them hanging from the ceiling and we enjoyed hearing McKay's sqeals at being able to touch them. He had a blast being on Jordan's shoulders and got a lot of smiles from people around us.

This is the most photographed street in Chinatown because of the bright colors; the stairs connecting each level are very typical of San Francisco.

We had a list of some restaurants in Chinatown we got off the internet that were supposed to be good. We ended up trying 'Gold Mountain'. Unfortunately for us, no one spoke much English and communication was a huge issue. Some of the servers just gave us blank looks and moved on. They were serving Dim Sum when we got there. Basically, it is like Chinese tea-time where they drink tea and eat different foods. The servers come around to the tables (much like they do at Tucanos in Provo, Utah) and ask if you want a small plate of what they have. Each plate has a price associated with it and they mark your 'bill', which stays on your table, after they give it to you. We weren't too excited about dim sum and asked for a menu. Well, the menu was impossible to read; everything was in Chinese with probably half of it in English as well. No one could answer our questions, though they were pretty good at answering questions we didn't ask. Since we couldn't get anyone to explain the menu to us and the servers kept asking us if we wanted what they had we finally gave in and decided to try dim sum. It seemed like a faster way to get our food and we were starving. Well we didn't understand how dim sum works until after we were into it. Some of the food was okay, one of the dishes we each had one bite of and couldn't stand anymore and the rest we choked down because we had paid $3-$4 for it. I (of course) was keeping a talley of how much we were spending and knew about how much our bill would be. One of the servers told us the cashier was closing and she needed our ticket (whatever! There were still people getting food! We aren't that clueless!) Well, it came back $3 higher than I had calculated so I asked her about it. She explained that I needed to put an amount on the tip line and sign the reciept. So I tried again. This time it connected and she went to find our bill. Five minutes later (literally), she came back. Everything on the bill was in Chinese & in English except for one line on the bottom. That line had $3 on it. Apparently, we had to pay $1 per pereson for the tea we didn't drink. We were quite frustrated because we had asked for water the whole time and had asked the servers how their restaurant worked and had gotten blank stares. So we paid and left. Next time, we will NOT get dim sum.

We HAD to go see Ghiraradelli Square. We hadn't had dinner yet so we ate at a diner with a view overlooking Fishermans Wharf and the Bay. The sun setting over the bay was absolutely beautiful and McKay loved looking out the window. Unfortunately we were too full to have a famous Hot Fudge Sundae from the Ghiraradelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop so we settled for going though the chocolate store and getting a sample of Ghiraradelli Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter... twice - once before dinner and once after (Luckily for us, there were different people handing them out each time - McKay is one people always seem to remember!) I think the chocolate & the famous water fountain in the middle of the square were probably McKay's favorite parts. Mine were the chocolate & the sunset. Jordan's favorites were the chocolate and the onion rings at the diner. Yeah, the chocolate was good.

Lombard Street is famous for being the 'crookedest' street in San Francisco. It is a one way street (down :)) past beautiful Victorian Mansions on Russion Hill (we're talking EXPENSIVE real estate here). The street is paved with stone and there are beautiful flowers along the switchbacks. There are sidewalks on both sides so you can hike up or down it, as well as TONS of people at both the top and the bottom of the block. Click here for an aerial view of Lombard Street.

Coit Tower is the tall building in the middle. There is a city ordinance prohibiting any building from blocking the view from the tower so you can see the whole city from the top. This picture was taken as we drove down Lombard Street.

This is the corner of Montgomery & Green Street. Before reading on, does anyone recognize what street this is? Hint: I am touching the pole. :) Click here to see why we took pictures here.

This is the first time we have purposely gone to a place where the TV show 'Monk' was filmed. That shot was taken in 2002. Notice how much the tree has grown in 6 years! Other places we have been that are on that website are to the Bay Bridge view from the Embarcardero and on this trip we drove past North Beach (Little Italy - we'll actually visit it next time) which is next to Chinatown.

This is looking up Green Street. Definitely not the steepest street in San Francisco but a good example of what we walked up and down. Walking it is one thing but pushing the stroller too... yeah, it feels much steeper! After we took our 'Monk Site' pictures, we drove up this street.

This is our view from the top of Green Street. When we got to the top, neither Jordan nor I could see anything in front of us. Jordan cautiously pushed on the gas and we were able to see that there was indeed road in front of us. It was a little scary!