COIT TOWER AND FOOD TRUCKS

Another sunny day and a day to explore with regular transit.  After a relaxing start to the day, we walked over to a nearby coffee shop and had lunch with a delicious coffee.  We were quite close to the street car that we needed to make our way to fisherman's wharf where we could transfer to a bus to go up to the Coit Tower.  

We were fortunate not to have to wait for very long to ascend to the top of the tower for our views of the city.  Although sunny here - there was a mist that is hovering in the bay.  This mist has been present for the last 3 days or so.  Not to be mistaken by the fog that can envelop the city and bridges.  The days we had planned for our Golden Gate exploration...those were the best of our days here for the beautiful views!  

Once atop of this pinnacle of the city, we were treated to a 360 degree look at San Francisco and the bay area.  We did not see the Golden Gate, but the Bay bridge was right there.  We could see Lombard Street and all of the downtown area.  It was so high and quite small and I had a bit of trouble looking out the windows as it was a straight drop down.  I did manage to take the pictures that I wanted to take.

In the area at the bottom of the elevator - there are beautiful murals that adorn the walls.  I loved the way that the murals surrounded the narrow windows and enjoyed just walking around reading the panels and taking pictures.  

After taking the bus up, we were going to walk down the Filbert Stairs - Pam said there was a surprise there.  It wasn't very long before the surprise made its presence known.  

Parrots - hundreds of parrots eating, flying, screeching, perching and just living there on the hill.  They were so very pretty - a vibrant green with a red head.  These cherry headed conyers/red masked parakeets have been residents of telegraph hill for many years.  Originally they were captive pets that hated being caged, were very noisy and frequently bit.  They were released by the owners or escaped and have been successfully breeding and thriving to a flock of more than 200 but have been described as 2000.  We did not see 2,000 but I know we heard and saw lots of these noisy residents.  It was quite a treat!  Thanks again, Pam for such a wonderful experience!

Once down the 300 steps (often steep but good railings) we walked to a local starbucks to have a drink, a sit down and a chance to get online and recharge our devices.  We called for Lyft ride (Vancouver better get their act together and accept this service!) to take us to our next attraction - Off The Grid!

 

Off The Grid is a Friday night gathering of Food trucks, good music and lots and lots of people down by the water at Fort Mason.  Amazing smells greeted us as we made our way through to the parking lot.  Also the cold and bitter wind was a constant there too.  We knew we weren't going to last long. We started off with a drink - I had a Pimms Cup and Pam had a Whisky Peach Tea.  I had chicken wings, Pam had a taco with Nopales (yummy cactus) and we shared truffle parmesan fries. We shared our table with a local man and his wife and in turn he shared some delicious buttery Peruvian cookies with us.

Then it was time to get back to the loft.  We chose a shared Lyft ride (cheaper cause you pick up 1 or 2 more passengers) and were greeted by a Lexus vehicle.  So nice to be warm an in a cushy vehicle. Home once again to watch a movie and gather our thoughts for the day ahead!