Travelling Hopefully - Not Getting Lost in San Francisco

My host directed me to a spot he said was superb for breakfast.  I went to the wrong place and demanded food.  Fortunately I had walked into a sports bar rather than a dry cleaners and the staff were quite happy to accommodate me, particularly as the rest of their clientele wouldn't be turning up for another eight hours.  After a breakfast of spicy chicken burger and garlic fries I wandered off down Market Street.  Feeling vaguely compelled to not let my host down I managed to find my original breakfast destination.  All I could manage by this stage was a cup of coffee but I like to think they appreciated the effort.

Replete with coffee, albeit some twenty minutes after breakfast, I went for a walk and didn't stop for quite a while.  Working on the theory that it's impossible to get lost if you don't know where you're going I struck out with confidence.  An imposing building caught my eye and I altered course to intercept it, fortunately it wasn't moving very quickly.  The building got even more imposing as I approached and it was eventually revealed to be the San Francisco city hall.  It graciously paused for a photograph before we went our separate ways.

After that I headed down Larkin Street (see, still not lost) in the, as it turned out, justifiable belief that I would eventually reach the bay.  Several eventuallys later I was indeed overlooking San Francisco Bay.  I invite you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine the scene; the tang of salt in the air, fishing boats unloading the days catch, sailors of a dozen nations races and creeds rubbing shoulders as they go about their business.  Have you got all that?  Good, because it was nothing like that.  Instead there were souvenir shops, more seafood restaurants than a location at the water's edge could possibly justify and honking big sea lions.  Or if you prefer it big honking sea lions.  Also there were some of the most impressive looking seagulls I've ever seen.  At least I think they were seagulls, they definitely weren't ducks.  Some ducks had been provided for easy comparison.

Having reached Fisherman's Wharf I wandered along it checking out the sea lions, ducks and probably seagulls until I reached the Musee Mechanique.  It was free to enter so I did and checked out at first hand how people entertained themselves before the invention of play stations.  Not far away a World War II submarine isn't on display.  To explain that last sentence I should point out that a World War II submarine normally is on display but some time prior to my arrival it was taken away to dry dock, something they have to do from time to time to maintain it at peak readiness or at least stop it from sinking permanently below the waves.  There was an audio-visual tour of the submarine shaped hole in the bay but I decided to give it a miss.

Since I was in the vicinity I decided to justify my presence by checking out the starting points for my next day's tours.  That done I bought an ice cream and left the sea lions, buskers and souvenir sellers alone in their domain.