Advertisement
Published: October 3rd 2013
Edit Blog Post
September 30, 2013
A lot of driving today so we ate an excellent breakfast; hot and cold buffet with bonus strawberries and cream option on the waffles! (I appreciate we’re easily pleased folk) and were ready to go once Steve had finished his work.
We drove pretty much none stop, through the beautiful countryside of Northern California, lots more redwoods and some great little towns including one called Willits where we picked up coffees and lunch to go at the local Safeway.
We covered the 270 miles to San Francisco in excellent time (my huge gratitude again to Steve for his driving) and arrived in this great city by 3.15pm, in time to beat any traffic. Indeed it is the easiest entry to a city of this size we’ve had in North America. And what an entry! Coming down from the US101 instead of the I-5 means we get to come in over Golden Gate Bridge. The sky was a combination of blue and cloud so we were hopeful but also skeptical. Everyone knows about the mist that comes in off the Pacific and sure enough it hit as we were within a kilometre of the
Lombard Street
San Francisco, CA bridge.
We took pictures as we came in and as we drove across we could see more and more. The city and bay (with Alcatraz) to the left of the bridge was completely visible but what lay beyond the bridge to the right was anyone’s guess (alright so it’s the Pacific Ocean but you get the idea). I wouldn’t fancy the prospect of sailing into San Francisco, even with GPS, radar or the guidance of the US Navy!
As we made our first turn towards our apartment we immediately found ourselves negotiating the ridiculously steep streets that this city is known for. It’s actually incredibly scary driving up although the boys loved it and combined with coming in on Golden Gate Bridge I felt like we’d managed a lot of what San Fran is all about in just a few minutes!
Our apartment is very unique and characterful, although parking isn’t so hot. We’re parked in the next street and would have had no intention of moving it while we’re here although sadly road cleaning takes place between 9 and 11am on Thursday so we’ll have to!
The apartment is an old “French Renaissance” style building
designed by the architect James Francis Dunn who designed a great many similar style buildings in San Francisco. This one has sinuous, wrought iron balconies said to be copied after the Juliet boxes (as in Shakespeare’s Juliet) inside the Paris Opera Hall.
The building survived the great 1906 quake as it’s built on bed rock.
We’d decided on an apartment when we couldn’t find a hotel that offered us the kind of room we wanted at a price we wanted. This is more of an experience, more personal and we have the space to feel at home while we’re here. It seems to be a nice neighbourhood, just a block from Alamo Square park (great for views as it’s high up) and the famous “Painted Ladies” residential row.
Once in the apartment we relax for a while, enjoying the fact that we’ve arrived in San Francisco much earlier than we’d expected, then walk out to buy food from the local Safeway, before enjoying a quiet evening in our own place.
October 1, 2013 – Tuesday
Today we calculate we’ve probably walked about 10 miles including lots of seriously up hill bits.
You don’t fully appreciate just how steep these roads are until you walk a few. Some portions of the pavements (or should I say “sidewalk”) have built in staircases they’re so steep!
We head downtown towards fabulous Chinatown. It’s the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia.
It’s also home to a great cheap gift store, selling very tacky San Fran gifts but at such great prices we find ourselves – against our better judgement – buying several items. The boys have to be dragged out.
From there we head up hill (big time) to Coit Tower for the touristy but still amazing panoramic view of San Francisco.
It’s down steep steps through a lovely leafy residential area to the dock areas and of course Pier 39. We pass a boat where a stingray is being transferred off into the capable hands of the San Francisco Aquarium Staff. We’re not sure if the stingray has been found injured or whether they just wanted another one for their collection.
We’re pretty sure we’re going to see the resident sea lions but not 100% sure so we are therefore hugely relieved when
we hear their bark from quite a way away.
The boys have been looking forward to this bit and it would have been a huge disappointment had they not been here. But sure enough, we turn the corner around the end of Pier 39 and see lots of people all looking over the wooden rails into the water.
The sea lions are making way more noise than the tourists who have come to see them. There must be at least ten floating rafts, some with as many as six on and some with just the one (not sure why – possibly the ones with extra bad fish breath are segregated to their own platform. On others several sea lions fight each other for who gets the platform, shoving each other roughly into the sea and trying to stop them getting on again. It’s quite the entertainment show they put on. Why bother with the aquarium next door when you’ve got this?!
No one knows exactly why the sea lions came to Pier 39 except that they rocked up not long after the 1989 earthquake and have stayed ever since. These are male sea lions who disappear off
House paintings!
San Francisco, CA to Mexico for one month a year but the rest of the year are to be found here on the floats at Pier 39. And very cute they are too.
We buy some late lunch, including 2 small round loaves of sourdough, scooped out and filled with clam chowder in one and chilli in the other. Both delicious.
We wander around the harbour area and find an old arcade museum “The Musee Mecanique” where you can actually play the antique games for around 25c. Some date back a long way from turn of the century hand cranked music boxes to the type of video arcade games that we used to play as kids. Matthew for 25c got his “stars read” by an old fashioned typewriter that clunked out the few lines onto a piece of paper which then appeared at the side of the machine!
On the way back we check out the long slow moving line for the cable car, decide to give it a miss for now and instead continue walking, consoling ourselves with Ben and Jerry ice creams instead.
We make sure to pass the top of famous Lombard Street with its zigzag
street and walk back up Fillmore Street stopping briefly to buy the biggest ever cup of diet cola you’ve ever seen (for just $1.69) and two huge slushes for 99c each. This aerobic workout thanks to the steep streets in this beautiful hot sun (I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve mentioned the fabulous weather we’ve been having today!) is enough to create quite the thirst.
Chuffed that we’ve made it through the day on foot we enjoy a relaxing evening in our apartment, looking forward to another great day in this amazing city tomorrow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0512s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb