City by the Bay - San Francisco

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City by the Bay: San Francisco Tuesday 30th September 2008

We are in a plane flying at about 34,000 feet towards Honolulu airport, Hawaii. We didn’t leave our hearts in San Francisco (like Tony Bennett in the famous old song) but we did love it! It is a city with a lot of heart and soul and a distinct ambience all of its own. We have been to so many towns over the last month that all look the same, which we called “Anyplace USA”; same shops in the same malls, with the same freeways running through, where once Main Street used to be and thus with the hearts ripped right out of them. San Francisco has everything going for it, great location in a beautiful bay, 19th century “Victorian’ houses in beautiful pastel colours, big bay windows and lots of stained glass, great food and the cable cars which clang up and down the steep hilly streets with people hopping on and off, hanging on the sides, taking photos and enjoying themselves. It is a small city, a compact city clinging to the hillsides facing the bay (much of it on reclaimed land that was once marsh and sand dunes) and whether its changing focus is in Union Square or the financial district or China Town, its heart, for the tourist, is undoubtedly in Fisherman’s Wharf and the Bay.
Of course, as with all cities, there are many layers and the darker underside layers are probably a bit more manifest here than the norm; in other words, there are a lot of homeless junkies on the streets and it can make the traveller feel a bit vulnerable at times. It seems that where the cable cars run is the surface layer and once you get a bit away from these main tourist areas you quickly pass down into another, or rather, there are great big gaps, like slashes in silk where the rough cheap lining of the underworld shows through. Our budget hotel on Geary Street was in such an area. One end of Geary is theatre land and Union Square, Macy’s, Sax, Nordstrom and Tiffany. Once you get up about five blocks it changes and we were up block eight. It wasn’t a problem because we had been warned about it so we were particularly vigilant. At 5 a.m. this morning, however, walking those eight blocks with our backpacks on we didn’t stop until we got to Bart station, for the train to the airport. Travel Tip One, don’t stare just ignore the people raiding every trash bin along the street, just accept that there are three ways of eating in parts of this city, in the restaurants, take outs (pizza, burgers etc) or the bins! Travel Tip number Two; do not stand at bus stops smoking cigarettes. The other day, upon request, John gave a guy his lighter to light up his mixture in his plastic tube and then, when the guy tried to walk off with it, demanded (and got) it back! “What?” says I, “Let him keep it, we don’t want it back!” John assured me that he cleaned it well before putting it back in his pocket. Yeah, right, OK. What is really hilarious is that there are notices everywhere in this neighbourhood, on the lamp posts and traffic lights, which claim that you are in a “Drug Clear Zone, where dealing, pushing or using are not tolerated“. People are openly dealing, pushing and using 24/7; they re obviously too stoned to read the notices!
Having said all of this, John and I really loved San Francisco, we walked everywhere, saw the sites, hung on the cable cars, pottered about in China Town, ate Clam Chowder down on the wharf (served in a bread bowl made with sour dough) and as for the Golden Gate, we walked over it (just under two miles), came back over it on an open-top bus, then went under it on a boat and then today we flew right over the top of it. John got carried away with the camera again (like at the Grand Canyon) so we have hundreds of photos of the bridge. We do have photos of Alcatraz, of the sea lions basking in the sunshine at Pier 39 and all the other tourist bits, but mostly the bridge. I’ve just downloaded them from the camera and there are hundreds, so some deleting is necessary while he isn’t looking!
So, we say “Farewell” to San Francisco and mainland America. If the rest of our travels are as good as the last month has been we’ll be delighted. It has been so varied and we have seen and done so much. What have been the highlights? It is hard to say, there have been so many but if we had to pick out just one each, for John it was the Grand Canyon and for me it was seeing the Black Bears in the Sequoia. We have been really lucky in seeing so much wildlife. Coyotes, chipmunks, squirrels, eagles, pelicans, seals, sea lions, deer, bears, and last Friday we saw a skunk, right by our motel in Pacifica and yesterday a shark near Alcatraz (not just the fin but the whole body under the water ). No wonder few convicts tried to escape The Rock!
Hawaii is three hours behind San Francisco so we have just altered our watches. We are now eleven hours behind England (GMT) and twelve hours behind Spain (CET). This flight is about five hours twenty minutes and we are half way there. ‘Adios” San Francisco and “Aloha” Waikiki Beach!

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Photos

San Francisco
View of the bay from the Powell/Mason cable car

Cable car, San Francisco
"Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding,ding went the bell!"

Clam Chowder
Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. As our friends Tony & Jaquie promised, it tastes like ambrosia fit for the gods!

Alatraz
The Rock

China Town
Gateway to China Town

The Golden Gate
Taken before we walked over it!

The Golden Gate
Taken before we got a bus back over it

The Golden Gate
About to go under it

The Golden Gate
...and then we flew over it!

The motel skunk
Skunk at the motel in Pacifica