Doing San Francisco

They were excited about Saturday's San Francisco trip though Nikhil/Sidharth have done it several times. The little one wanted his father to take him straight from his swim-class, from where the boys were to come home and shower before driving from San Ramon to San Francisco, along with thatha/patti. Mom wasn't coming this time, as she needed a much deserved sleep after an overnight shift at the hospital (she's a doctor).
Puja, Annakutty mama's grand-daughter, joined us for lunch, ride on a double-decker bus and a taxi ride in downtown San Francisco. Puja is here to pursue a master's programme in sports-related physio-therapy at the SF State University. We haven't been in touch with Puja, and her parents (in Baruch, Gujarat) for a long while; we got re-connected through Sreedhar (Puja's uncle) in Edison, New Jersey, who told us about Puja's atudies in San Francisco.
It was well past his lunchtime and the waitress at the restaurant was taking time in bringing Nikhil's mac & butter with French fries. Once their dish was on table Nikhil and brother Sidharth were quick to say, 'I'm done', after only a few bites, and go out to play near the fountain.
They were the first to finish lunch. And conveniently for Nikhil/Sidharth, Il Fornaio, the Italian place at Levi's Plaza (headquarters of the jeans makers) had plenty of space around for the children to explore.
The restaurant is on the quiet side of the city on weekends, when offices are closed and not many tourists visit this part of the city.
As we move towards Union Square we find movement of cable trolley, a major tourist attraction for visitors to San Francisco. Cable cars, which are museum pieces on wheels,date back to 1873.
Tourists packing these noisy and slow-moving public transport vehicles should be thankful to a citizens
petition that defeated a move by the city mayor to close down cable car service in 1947.
Sidharth's must-do list included a ride on a double-decker bus. The buses operated by private tourist agencies do sight-seeing trips that start from Union Square. We got on a bus that left Union Square at 4 p m, and travelled for about 30 minutes to give Sidharth a feel of a double-decker ride. The bus tour was for two hours. Our plan was to get off on way and take a cab back to Union Square.
The bus took us through China town, and the Italian district.
San Francisco's is said to be the oldest of China town in North America.They have China towns in several other cities such as New York and Los Angeles. The tour guide on our double decker bus observed that early Chinese immigrants, who came here as labourers in mid-19th century, were confined to a designated area. The going daily wage then for Chinese workers was 10 cents and a handful of rice. And out of the wages many Chinese saved to send money home.
The tour guide pointed to a building where Francis Coppola, who made Godfather, had his movie production office, as we passed through the Italian district. We got off the bus at Fishermen's Wharf.
Sidharth who has been here before pointed to where merry-go-round was. And Nikhil and he lost no time making it there.
Sidharth's trip to San Francisco is never done without a ride in a yellow cab. And no taxi-driver would take us all in one cab - four adults and two children. We ended up taking two cabs for the $10 dollar ride (plus tip to the driver) from the Wharf to Union Square, from where we picked up our car to drive home to San Ramon.
It took us a while - nearly a half hour wait - in the queue at the Wharf to get a cab. We could have done the Wharf in our own car, but Sidharth's fancy for a taxi ride prompted us to park our car at Union Sq. and take a double-decker to Fishermen's Wharf, only to take a cab back to Union Sq. I asked Sidharth why he fancied a taxi. "Because you don't have to sit in a car seat in a cab," says Sidharth who would be four in December. Use of car-seat is mandatory for those below five. San Francisco cabs are exempt from the car-seat rule.