San Francisco - Part 2

One of our favorite things we did in San Francisco, was touring Chinatown.  We had our own private tour, and our tour guide, Linda, was THE BEST!  She actually grew up right there in Chinatown so she knew all of the ins and outs!  It was so very fascinating hearing about the Chinese immigration to San Francisco and how the entire process worked back then and even today.  They live in the heart of San Francisco, but they operate under their own rules and laws.  It's just understood.  It's very fascinating.

We started our morning walking around the more touristy areas of Chinatown while we waited for our tour to begin.

It was at this very park that we got to see San Francisco for what we had heard about it.....A Chinese man stripped down and took a shower right there in the fountain!  😳  This was our first stop on our tour after meeting up with our tour guide, Linda.  She saw our looks of disbelief and said, "Welcome to San Francisco!". 🙈 We tried really hard not to look, but OH MY WORD!  (You don't see that in Texas every day!)  And right when we thought it was safe to look back at the park (the man had put his clothes back on), he decided to drop his drawers (booty shining bright) and go to the bathroom right there in a bush!  😳  To say we were stunned, would be an understatement!  Thankfully, that's the only time we saw this sort of thing during our stay in San Fran.  Let's move along children.  Nothing to see here...

You think we are tourists?  Why would you think that?!  LOL!

We had lunch at the recommended "Z&Y".  It was pretty good and very authentic. (No, Jack, they do not have sweet iced tea.  They only have unsweetened hot tea, now be nice and drink it!)  😉 Lots of celebrities and presidents have eaten here, so we knew it had to be good.  I'm a burgers, pizza and tacos kind of girl, but it was good...for Chinese food!  

One of our stops was at a "pharmacy" in Chinatown.  This is an example of a medicinal herb concoction  the pharmacist fixed up per the doctor's orders for a patient.  It is all different kinds of herbs that they will add to hot water and drink like a hot tea.

I didn't get a picture inside (out of respect for the ladies working), but the fortune cookie factory was very neat.  And by the way...warm fortune cookies are very tasty!

We squeezed our way through one of the many Chinese markets to see what they had that day.  There were tons of fresh fruits and veggies and meats.  No canned goods or boxed ingredients.  All fresh!  The Chinese come to the market at least twice a day to get food for their families.

A bucket of fresh, LIVE toads is not something I see at Kroger everyday (thank goodness)!  😯

Look real close and you will see that these "whole" chickens are indeed WHOLE!  Can you see the head?!  Linda said the Chinese don't waste ANY party of an animal. They eat the entire thing!  😨  How does your Chinese takeout taste now?!  😜

Linda took us into a traditional Chinese temple. 

 She had the boys do a couple of things the Chinese do to determine their future and explained how the Chinese believe in good luck.  Thankfully, our boys know otherwise, but it was still very educational to learn what others believe.

We ended our tour at the cutest little tea shop.  The lady explained all of the different herbs used for tea and what they are used for.  We learned that what we consider herbal tea in the US, is really not herbal tea.  We also learned that the Chinese don't drink tea to get well when they are sick, they drink it to keep from getting sick.  That's a big misconception and false advertisement here in the US.

Not all of the teas we tried tasted very good, and of course were not sweet.  But our boys were good sports about it and tried them anyway.

A few other takeaways from our tour that we found very interesting:

The colorful buildings in Chinatown all have meaning.  Each color (red, yellow, green...) represent a different Chinese region.  So, when an immigrant comes to the US, that is how they know where to go to find "their people".

The Chinese occupy large buildings in Chinatown, but they are not spacious by any means.  Each floor of a building houses about 6 people per "apartment".  Each "apartment" is just a little bit larger than an elevator.  So, each floor could have up to 40 or so "apartments".  It is a very tight squeeze!  Yikes!  Each floor shares only one very small kitchen and one bathroom. (Take a number!)  Think about that!  Double yikes!!  That's the reason for so many trips to the market.  They have nowhere to store food.  And the thought of sharing a bathroom with that many people makes me want to gap!

The Chinese kids that live there go to American school during the day and then when they get home from school, they go straight to Chinese school for 3 hours.  Chinese school is very strict.  They must be very still and very quiet the entire 3 hours (after being at regular American school ALL day).  At Chinese school,  they write and memorize the Chinese dialect.  There are several different dialects, so this is not an easy task.  Chinese school happens every single day of the year (including weekends).  The only holiday they celebrate is Chinese New Year.  Holy Moly!  Our boys decided they didn't have it too bad after hearing that!  Ha!

Perhaps one of our most interesting discoveries was hearing about the Chinese language.  Linda explained that the reason we (Americans) assume the Chinese are always mad and angry is because their language comes across as yelling at each other.  Well, they aren't actually yelling.  There are several different languages/dialects in the Chinese culture (the most popular being Mandarin).  Well, one word (or sound) may have 10 different ways of saying it.  So, while we think they are yelling at each other, they are actually just forming the words in whichever tone is necessary to say the word.  As an example, she said the word "Ma" can be pronounced 10 different ways.  That blew our minds!

Thanks for the fabulous tour, Linda!  We will remember it forever!  

On day 3 we waited in a very long line to eat at Mama's on Washington Square for breakfast.  We waited for an hour and half, but it was very much worth the wait!  This meal, was by far, the best meal we had in San Francisco!We also met some fun people while waiting in line!  

This was amazing!!! 

We didn't have any scheduled plans for this day, so we decided to walk back down the pier to the market and go in some of the local shops.

We also had our first street car ride!

 

We rented bikes and took on the city!  First, we parked our bikes on the dock and grabbed lunch on the pier, then we rode to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Can you see those surfers in the water?

The hills were tough at times, but the view made it completely worth it!

One other thing I wanted to share...

One morning after breakfast, we heard someone say, "Jack Roberts!".  We thought we imagined it until we heard it again.  Low and behold, we looked over to find one of Jack's favorite teachers, Mrs. Leland, from last year!!  What a small world!!  So fun!  

This concludes part 2 of our San Fran trip.  I know I keep saying "this was our favorite part", but our last day in California was by far our MOST favorite day!  Stay tuned!