Last Sunday, a part of the Bay Bridge collapsed when a truck below it exploded. This served as a giant leap backward for my fear of bridges.
Bridges scare me beyond description. Just like cruise ships. I have a sickening fear of them just collapsing or crashing or sinking. But, A few weeks ago I actually took steps toward getting over my fears and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge with P.J. Of course I had my handy life jacket with me the whole time, but I still did it. After this whole bridge collapsing mess, I do not think I will ever do it again.
The good thing about the bridge blowing up was the following day, Monday, all public transportation around San Francisco was free. This was a good day for my friend Liz to be in from Chicago. Where we probably would have dropped $20 each for the fun we had on public transit, we dropped $0. The trains, the buses, even the cable cars were free.
So Liz and I spent the day trouncing around San Francisco's downtown going everywhere we could using all the public transportation our little bodies could handle.
I had not ridden a cable car before this, and I have to say, it is a fun and frightening experience. If the cable car is too full, which it was the first time we got on, you stand on the sides and hang on to whatever pole you can reach. This becomes somewhat scary when the cable car going the opposite way passes and you have less than a body width between you and the people hanging off the passing cable car.
Fear not, there were no limbs lost and we actually chose to stand off the sides for the rest of the trips because while it was a little scary, it was also a lot of fun. And, though it may seem a little touristy and somewhat expensive ($5 a trip, no transfers), I definately recommend riding these little cars. The drivers are usually very entertaining and will point out many things of interest.
It is definitely one of the more exhilerating ways to ride down the steep hills of San Francisco.
2 comments:
Funny because I'm pretty terrified of cable cars. I just imagine the cable breaking or the break to lose its grip and it's all over as the car careens uncontrollably down California or Hyde St. toward the Bay.
I also don't understand how free cable cars alleviated the traffic jam that was supposed to have been caused by this fiery event. But I'm glad you got to take advantage of it :)
I guess you just forgot, but you had been on cable cars quite a few times. Every time we would visit SF we would take a ride. Happy that you and Liz had a great time. Her first trip? Hugs! Mom
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