SF Redux: Hyde St. Pier

Just across the street from the Argonaut Hotel where we stayed in and which shares the building with the SF Maritime Museum is the Hyde St. Pier. The vessels docked at the pier are actually museum pieces. The pier is located (surprise! surprise!) at the end of Hyde Street, where the Powell & Hyde cable cars terminate. Hyde Street Park is a nice area by the bay where people can relax, perhaps read a book or just spend time picnicking with family and/or friends. The latter activities deserves a post of its own so I will refrain from writing more about them.

Following are a few more photos the Clairvoyant and I took during one lazy afternoon while burning time before our pick-up to the airport.

Take 1 at the Hyde St. Pier - I'm squinting because of the sun. It was a sunny day but it was also a cool one (around 16 degrees C that time)

Take 2 at the pier, this time with my sun glasses

The pier is just beside a beach where people could walk on barefooted. The sand and the water were clean. I didn't spot any flotsam or jetsam like what we are used to seeing in Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines near commercial harbors.

A popular vessel is an old ferry boat that used to take people to and from destinations around the Bay. There are many ferries doing this at present, reducing travel times significantly for those who choose to leave their cars at the nearest ports to their homes. I can imagine it is the equivalent of leaving one's car in Binangonan to ride a ferry to Guadalupe and the take public transportation to the office in Makati.

The Clairvoyant poses before the ferry - the old ferry boat is popular with visitors including school children often taken here for educational trips.

That's me reading about the ferry boat and with an old anchor on display beside the panel

The pier is an active one with lots of other boats docked. Many are fishing, crab and shrimp boats similar to the one you probably saw in Forrest Gump

Posing beside a solar boat on display at the pier

Guess what this is? Yup, it's the wheel that propelled many riverboats and similar vessels around the bay

View of the Hyde St. Pier with a schooner (sailing ship) and steamboat from where we sat at Hyde St. Park

There are other vessels docked at San Francisco's picturesque harbor that are preserved and open to visitors wanting to have the experience of boarding these One curiosity is the USS Pampano, an old submarine now docked near Fisherman's Wharf. Again, I can only imagine that we could also have similar exhibits and attractions in the Philippines. I'm sure we won't run out of material that can also serve to educate people about maritime transport and history. Now if only there would be people willing to support such an endeavor...

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