tuesday the 16th i got my first chance to see downtown san francisco. i was able to take the "bart" train in and i was thankful to not have to drive. the bart is basically a subway but its only underground part of the time. aunt frances dropped me off at the station and i hopped on the train. after about an hour on board i was dropped off in central san francisco. it was a bit intimidating at first because all i had was a map and i didnt know quite what i wanted to do first. so i walked down embarcadero drive (the main road that follows the coastline of the bay) and stopped to take photos every once in a while. near the beginning i stopped and talked to this homeless guy mike and he had stories about the gulf war and what its like to live on the streets. he also told me the sights i should see and what i should do. he was very nice. i then headed to pier 39 which is basically a harbor with a bunch of smaller fishing and sail boats. i grabbed a bite to eat at a local burger joint and stopped by a rippleys believe-it-or not but decided not to go in because the place looked like some sort of derranged circus with weird paintings and all of these strange puppet people and they had this messed up looking (fake) jail escapee climbing this rope... heh so i left. not what ihad expected. i then found this really cool spot that had a us naval sub and a cargo ship that actually landed on normandy on d-day! i went into the boat (uss jeremiah o'brien) and took a self guided tour. i had a fun time being childlike and pretending to fire the 5 inch cannon on the bow at nazi u-boats and sliding down the rails that lead to the boiler room where i learned that part of the engine room scene for titanic was taken right there in the jeremiah o'brien! i then left and made my way around town some more- looking at more sights. i stopped at a camera shop and bought a polarizer filter for my camera and then i decided to climb one of those infamous san fran roads that were more like dropoffs. the ADD kicked in about half way up when i saw a part of china town to my right and i abandoned my quest for the summit and went to get my own little taste of the nation of a billion people. it was truely like stepping into another country. one block i was in skyscraperville usa then i crossed the street and i was in china. i walked around and stopped at a park then went back down to the bart station and headed home for the evening.