{"id":3178,"date":"2009-03-24T14:06:17","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T06:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/03\/24\/pier-39\/"},"modified":"2009-03-24T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T06:06:17","slug":"pier-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/03\/24\/pier-39\/","title":{"rendered":"Pier 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-2009-sanfrancisco-DSC_9164-stocktonstreet\" I had my one and only free morning on the second day of my San Francisco trip. There was one \u2018tourisy\u2019 attraction I\u2019d been wanting to visit \u2013 The Aquarium of the Bay. I\u2019d advised my students that the place was well-worth a visit, but at the designated meeting time, no one showed up, so I went out on my own.<\/p>\n

The place is well north of my hotel and about a 3 kilometre walk. Quite manageable, so I set out at 7:45 am, and took a leisurely walk along Stockton road, a long straight stretch of road that\u2019d bring me right to The Embarcadero, a stretch of road that runs alongside San Francisco Bay.<\/p>\n

Stockton Road intersects the Chinatown area, and on the early morning there was an amazing bluster of life. It really was Chinatown, with Asian Chinese everywhere: going to school, going to work, having breakfast, elderly Chinese shopping for fresh produce etc. There were dianxin shops, provision shops, vegetable and fresh meats, and plenty of little eateries \u2013 even char siew rice LOL.<\/p>\n

The Chinatown area is adjourned to Little Italy, though the space occupied by the latter seemed a lot smaller than Chinatown. I stopped for a while at Washington Square too where Saints Peter and Paul Church is located. Quite a magnificent institution. There were many elderly Asian persons doing their morning exercises in the park.<\/p>\n

I eventually got to Pier 39 at 9 am, an hour early before the Aquarium\u2019s opening hour. So, took the opportunity to further explore the shopping and eating establishments along the stretch (there were very <\/em>many), stopping by at Boudin\u2019s for a takeout bacon and egg sandwich on sourdough bread for USD 7.53. The sandwich was prepared piping hot, and very delicious in the cold weather.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2009-sanfrancisco-DSC_9216-pier39\"<\/p>\n

The Aquarium as it turned out was a major disappointment. Specifically, it was undergoing renovation, which meant that huge sections of the site was closed. In view of this, there was no admission charge for entrance, but that\u2019s small comfort as I\u2019d already purchased the City Pass (the Aquarium is one of five key attractions in the city).<\/p>\n

That said, the half dozen aquarium tanks in the areas that could be visited were colorful, vibrant and well landscaped. It was hard to take great pictures though as lighting conditions go, but it could had been a lot worse if it wasn\u2019t for the vibration-stabilization mechanism in the Nikon lens.<\/p>\n

\"blog-2009-sanfrancisco-DSC_9287-aquariumofthebay\"<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t stay for long in the area as I had a visit to the EA campus starting at noon. So at 10:45 am, made my way back by cable car. Well, if I ever come back to San Francisco with Ling (and little Hannah?!), I\u2019d want to revisit the Aquarium again and check out what I\u2019ve missed.:)<\/p>\n

\"blog-2009-sanfrancisco-DSC_9280-aquariumofthebay\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve wrote a short account for the school blog here of our industry visit here<\/a>. Tomorrow\u2019s program is gonna be packed from morning till night: a visit to the Exploratorium in the morning, then the California Academy of Sciences in the afternoon, then another industry networking event in the evening. Lots of walking to and fro. My feet\u2019s gonna kill me LOL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had my one and only free morning on the second day of my San Francisco trip. There was one \u2018tourisy\u2019 attraction I\u2019d been wanting to visit \u2013 The Aquarium of the Bay. I\u2019d advised my students that the place<\/p>\n

Read More Pier 39<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[352],"class_list":["post-3178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traveling","tag-san-francisco-2009","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}