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 The heart of San Francisco is definitely in Chinatown! Wow, what an experience! This is not the place for those faint of heart, or eyes. Chinatown is extremely stimulating! There is so much to see, hear and smell that by the end of the day, I was not exhausted from walking up and down the steep hills, but from trying to soak in as much as I could. And walk we did, from CSD to the BART and from BART through Chinatown. In, out and around the area we shopped and shopped and shopped some more! I think everyone we know will be getting something from Chinatown.
Briefly, we stopped and visited the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory. A delightful smell wafted from the building informing us that we had found the right place. At the time we visited, they just finished a batch of chocolate fortune cookies. An older Chinese man gave out free, fresh samples. He said they make about 10,000 cookies a day! Yum, Yum, Yum!
 One very eye opening adventure was we went into a Chinese grocery store. The store had large containers of packaged freeze dried items. These containers were all labeled in Chinese of course. Kangni led the way and interpreted what everything was. There was everything from shark fins, to sea cucumbers, to various roots, berries, fruits, seaweed, and even things such as worms and deer antlers! It became very clear that I was not raised in the Chinese culture as these items did not appeal to my appetite. Kangni bought some seaweed and plums for all to try. I was not brave enough to try the seaweed but everyone else did! Yuk! Facial expressions were priceless!
 We visited the Cable Car Museum. Very interesting!! Extremely intelligent men invented this way of traveling the hilly terrain of San Francisco! As I walked into the museum, instantaneously, I could smell the odor of machine lubricating oil. My mind brought me back to the days of working part time at my dad’s machine shop. It was unbelievable that this one room controlled the cable cars for the city! Enormous white wheels spun the cables to keep the cars moving around the city. Displayed were a few of the original cable cars that had ended up in various parts of the country. Found and their worth realized they were brought back ‘home’ for all to enjoy. Though not able to ride the cable cars today, we look forward to that on another day.
 Brave Anne, inquired of the natives as to the location of an authentic Chinese restaurant. We all wanted a true experience. We had dinner at Lichi Garden Restaurant. When we walked in, we were the only ‘Caucasian’ people in the restaurant. Other customers in the restaurant were Chinese. In another side, there was a family party being held. We were asked by Kangni to try our food first with the chop sticks. I am delighted to report that I was able to eat my entire meal, even the rice, with the chop sticks, thanks to Kangni’s tutelage. After a relaxing meal, we walked the Nob Hill section of the city and down to the park were they were having outdoor movie night. We boarded the BART for Fremont then walked back to CSD.
Our group walked and looked with jaws dropped all day. Today’s journey made me appreciate other ways of life and to remember that it is a very diverse world we live in.
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