Wednesday, June 6, 2012

California Vacation Part 5: Cable Cars and Irish Coffee

The second coolest thing we did in San Fran (after Alcatraz) was ride the cable cars. It is mind boggling to me how this a) still exists and b) is even legal. You really do literally hang off the sides of the cars and they come SO CLOSE to other cable cars. I thought I was going to be clipped at least 2 times! I'm not quite sure of the statistics on cable car accidents, but these lawyers specialize in representing trolley and cable car victims in San Francisco, so it must be a thing.

We waited in a very long line for the chance to get a prime spot on a cable car (which we did!). When the cable car comes down to the end of the line, they turn it completely around on a large turnstile.
 And then pull back onto the track to start the loop all over again!

We were standing on the edge of the car (again, how is this legal?) and we were in front of these two little boys who were riding it with their grandparents. These kids had us laughing the whole time, they were so cute!
My handsome husband riding the cable car
Trying to take pictures and holding on for dear life proved troublesome...

This was taken the day after our ride, it was empty and stopped on the street
Near the end of the cable car ride is the famous Buena Visa Cafe, known for their amazing Irish Coffee. I'm not usually an Irish coffee fan, but I had to try this since I had heard so much about it. We walked into the bar (which was PACKED) and literally every single person in the bar was drinking Irish coffee. I had never seen anything like it. We found 1 seat in the back which I quickly snagged, and ordered myself an Irish coffee for the mere price of $7.75!!
I ended up getting a fantastic seat because I had a clear view of the guy who makes these. This man could make Irish Coffees in his sleep. He definitely has this down to a science and can whip up tons of Irish coffee at any given time.
Here's a video of him making them...set to an Irish folk song just for fun!
The man we were sitting next to told us that on Saint Patrick's day, this cafe sold 3,000 irish coffees in one day! Think about it...that's $23,250 cash in one day!!!

All in all, this was a delicious treat. I thoroughly enjoyed our Cable Car ride and Irish Coffee!

2 comments:

Heather said...

Cable cars are definitely fun and scary at the same time! Last year, one of our friends who got married in San Fran arranged a cable car tour for all of her guests and got some awesome pictures of she and her bridesmaids riding in one. I haven't been on one in years! Your recaps are definitely making me want to visit San Fran sometime soon.

Lexi said...

That video was AMAZING!!!