We walked to China town to check out what we could have for dinner. We were overwhelmed and did not end up having dinner. China town in San Francisco is the largest area of Chinese immigrants. We were to learn later that the “Yellow People” were detained on Angel Island for months and sometimes up to a year, while other nationalities were checked out then allowed to immigrate.
The Chinese invasion of San Francisco and California began in 1847. During the first two years of the gold rush most of the Chinese who reached the Pacific Coast made their way as quickly as possible to the mines. About the beginning of 1851, however, increasingly large groups began to settle in San Francisco and engage in various occupations, while others drifted back to the city from the gold-fields, where they had met with scant success. In the early spring of 1851 the first Chinese laundry in the United States was opened at Washington Street and Grant Avenue About 30,000 Chinese lived in twelve blocks." Prostitution was the principal, and by far the most remunerative, activity of Chinatown's criminal element, although gambling was the first of the popular vices to be introduced into the quarter and was, so far as the Chinese themselves were concerned, always the most liberally patronized. By the latter part of 1854, the upper end of Sacramento Street and the eastern side of Grant Avenue were lined with gambling houses. They were crowded both day and night, for the Chinaman is probably the most prominent gabbler still to this day. As we walked by the public park groups of men were huddled around a circle, gambling. Many of the places also were opium rooms. Vancouver’s Chinese community was also the same.
We continued to walk through the portion of town which is Italy. The area is known as North Beach. We stopped at a sidewalk café. The waiter gave us information about the area. It's best known as San Francisco's Little Italy, with its high density of check-clothed restaurants, cafes and Old World delicatessens. He said that Mafia was a factor in San Francisco.
Sts. Peter and Paul Church: This towered neo-Gothic cathedral, consecrated in 1924, is across from Washington Square Park and forms the center of the neighborhood. The church originally served a parish of Italian fisherman, and a procession still departs for Fisherman's Wharf each October for the annual blessing of the fishing fleet. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were famously photographed here after their City Hall wedding. 666 Filbert Street. They never actually got married here but wanted to give the world the pretense that they had been married here. (They had both been divorced therefore the priest would not marry them).
After our 3 days in San Francisco we boated over to Angel Island where we spent 2 days on a mooring buoy. We took a tram tour of Angel Island.
For over six thousand years, it was used by Miwok Indians as a fishing and hunting site. For almost 100 years - stretching from the Civil War to the Cold War - the island housed a variety of military installations, including supporting troops on their way to and from the First and Second World Wars. It also played a major role in the settlement of the West, serving both as a Public Health Service as a quarantine station for immigrants.
The Island is now a State Park with hiking trails, camping sites and tours of the islands history.
We then came to Aeolian Yacht Club. The club was founded in 1906 and offers reciprocal moorage. This allows us free moorage while we get groceries and a new GPS mouse. The name Aeolian came from the Greek God of Wind.
Today the Aeolian yacht club has approximately 250 members and has an active gathering at its back porch nearly every day, meals in the clubhouse, cruise outs, cruise ins, work parties, and other activities. The people we met here were very accommodating. Driving us to get our GPS information and so much more. On Friday night there was the weekly meeting and dinner were we exchanged Yacht club burgees and will bring theirs back to our yacht club on our return. Our pictures were taken with their member who is 95 years old and still sails. Amazing. We head south again Sun.