At the end of the shops there was a small beach, and we walked along it in the sand and I took some pictures of the sailing ships that were moored there.
We stopped for a milk shake, almost a meal in itself, and then walked down to the cable car terminus, where we waited for a cable car to take us back to Market Street.
The driver and brakeman were much more talkative than the first crew, and were chatting to the passengers and cracking jokes all the way back to the centre of town.
The car was turned around manually again by the crew and then we all boarded, accompanied by a local busker who sang pretty awful songs and cracked even worse jokes!
The cable cars were relatively slow and noisy, and we wondered at the safety aspects of people hanging off the sides as they went along, but it obviously worked well for
the locals, and we didn't see any problems while we were there. Watching the driver work the levers made me realise that there is a lot of skill involved, especially as the
brakes etc were quite hot and smelling a bit as we descended the hills. The driving cable is obviously not engaged while braking and going downhill, and engaged again
when going uphill and pulling away.
The No5 Trolleybus provided transport back to the park, and once back at the car we headed homewards, our minds full of the images and sounds of the day's activities.
A photo-trip to the Golden Gate bridge had to be postponed as the fog had clothed it all day, and the sea mist was rolling back inland as we travelled back. I had bought
a USB multi-card reader on one of the trips to Fry's, and it proved to be a good little gadget, downloading a full memory stick in under a minute against 10-15 minutes for the
floppy drive in the laptop. One of those gadgets that is really useful.
Day 7 - Last Day! Golden Gate Bridge.
After packing everything up last evening, we were up early (again!) to do a quick trip up to the Golden Gate Bridge to get the shots we missed yesterday. Our flight wasn't until
16.45, so we had almost a full day to use up. Breakfast was at a local eating place in Willow Glen, where we had a full breakfast with Tim & Sally and their friend Abby who lived
locally. We set off up to the bridge, and took photographs from the southern viewing point, and after finding the northern viewing point closed we went up and around the northern
end and took more pictures from there. A gun emplacement which was built but never used was found up at the viewing point, and a walk through it's cavernous access tunnel
brought us out above a really nice area of the Pacific coastline.
Day 7 - Last Day! Hiller Aviation Museum
We then drove up and around the north of the Bay, passing San Quentin prison on the right hand side, down past the industrial areas and back across the bay
to San Carlos, where we looked for and found the Hiller Aviation Museum at the local airport. This was a super find, as it is just small enough to be able to visit
on a short time availability, but comprehensive enough to have some interesting exhibits. We took more pictures in there than anywhere else, and note that
some of the following pictures are larger than others and will take more time to download.
The Museum was the icing on the cake for us. Tim & Sally hadn't been there yet, and we all had a good hour or so walking round the exhibits.
I was entranced by the R-4360 28 cylinder Pratt & Whitney exhibit, having never seen the engine in real life. This was a sectioned engine, so gave
a view of all the complex internals that you would not normally see. The other engines and the ex-airline JT9D outside were all interesting, but
the R-4360 would have me coming back for more.
The visitor's shop was quite well stocked with books etc, and I bought a couple of nicely embroidered t-shirts. I won't buy printed T-shirts as the
image wears off, but embroidered shirts last for years if looked after. We had to leave then, as time for the flight was approaching and we had
to go through passport and customs etc etc before we could relax for a while. We had a coffee with Tim & Sally and then said our goodbyes to them.
We had been with them for only a week but it had been enormously interesting and satisfying for us, and we thanked them both for all the time and effort
they had put into our week.
The hand baggage control was very thorough, all my laptop computer bits were checked for explosives, as was our DVD player, camera etc etc. I have
no problem at all with these procedures, and thanked the staff for their attention to detail. We boarded within 30 minutes and had a good flight back,
landing 5 minutes ahead of schedule. We went through the Red customs channel, but had less than the allowance (£145 each) Barbara was
there to collect us and we were home indoors just after 1.30pm.
We both found the USA and the people there to be most hospitable, kind and polite. We have nothing but praise for the standard of service we received from
the airline and both airport's staff, and all of the staff at shops we used on the trip. We have booked to go again next year ....
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