San Francisco

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Saturday 18th August

So as per usual we were awake by about 6am. I’d been woken a few times in the night by much yelling and car screeching in the streets. We’d pre-booked Alcatraz and were damn grateful as it turned out that the next available tickets were on 27th August.

As we’d driven for so long the day before, we decided to walk to Pier 33 as Google maps claimed it was a 40 minute walk. But Google map makers must be über fit! It certainly woke me up scaling Lombard St at 8.30 am! But at least it was fairly clear for taking photos.

We were on the first trip of the day and the journey across the water was windy and cold. Alcatraz was interesting (I’ve been once before in 2009 and it’s not changed much since). The audio tour is probably the only audio tour I’ve listened to all the way through.

We wanted to take photos of the Golden Gate Bridge but naturally it was covered in thick white fog - this is because the non-coastal areas of California are so hot during August that it draws the fog in over the coast. We made it back to Pier 33 and looked for the steps up to the Coit Tower. Glyn spotted a deli and we found fresh fruit and vegetables for the first time since leaving Tim and Stacey’s. Oh the joy!

I promised Glyn that he’d love the jaunt up the many steps to the tower and it is pretty cool as they are actually streets. Someone was in the process of moving house there and the removal men had to carry everything from the street above, in the heat, box by box, over quite a few flights of winding steps. They were sweaty.

At the top we hit Coit Tower, which was rammed with tourists. I’d been up it before and Glyn wasn’t so bothered so we took our scenic photos from the bottom and wandered down to Little Italy where we found a Chinese vegan restaurant. It was after 3pm at this point so we decided to stop for lunch. It was a great two course meal with smoothies for about $37 for the both of us. It took me ages to get to use the one loo as the elderly Chinese ladies in this diner are pretty nifty at getting ahead of the loo queue.

We then walked down the length of China Town, past the unimpressive gate and eventually got to the cable car stop where there was a massive queue. We got on the available car only to be told that it wasn’t the scenic route. Not long after, the scenic car ahead broke down long enough for us to get on it, standing and hanging on, complete with sarcy barking from the conductor as I still had my small back pack on my back. I wasn’t going hiking you know! The ride seemed slower than when I visited in 2009 but it was still good. We passed by the top of the crooked part of Lombard st where a stereotypical morbidly obese traffic officer was yelling and despairing at kamikaze tourists.

We got off at Fisherman’s Wharf which was very touristy and were talked into doing the last boat trip of the day around the bay, complete with blankets, only $10. Who could resist? It was past 6pm now and getting a bit cold but the blanket kept off the worst of the wet and cold.

We had a walk around Pier 39 and the wind and fog had totally set in for the night. We went to my favourite fridge magnet shop and bought three. Then the walk home lasted an eternity as it got quite dark. We didn’t get back til gone 9. I was ready for a beer and bed!

One thing odd we noticed in general were the signs threatening fines if people litter or other such violations, the fine was $381 or seat belt fine $97: why don’t they round the numbers up?!!


Sunday 19 August

We managed to sleep right through until 8am! We drove to a cycle tour company in Hayes Valley and were met along with 6 others by our very over talkative tour guide, Beebe. She told us that San Francisco is very bike friendly and she was proved right! Apparently 7 out of 10 San Franciscans use bikes regularly. It also has more dogs than children. We cycled quite leisurely through the Mission District, Hayes Valley, hippy areas, Golden Gate Park, plus lots more. It should have taken three hours but as Beebe had to talk to every passing child and dog, it took over 3.5 hours.

One thing I’ve noticed about San Francisco is that it has a lot of hobos and mad people. There were quite a few sleeping in the parks and pushing trolleys containing their possessions. There was one lady who looked like she was spattered with mud (or was it vomit?) wailing very loudly down a busy quite wealthy street and many others talking loudly to themselves. We also smelt quite a lot of the wacky baccy. Our cycle tour took us past Hippy Hill where there were only a few hippies as, according to her, it was cold (for us British it was quite warm). They were hitting bongos and smoking pot, it was quite close to a playground but no one minds. We were told that arresting people for pot is at the bottom of priorities for the local police, you’re more likely to get arrested for cycling offences.

The Victorian houses were cool and painted such great colours as in San Francisco you can paint your house what ever colour you like. I’d move there but the houses I’d like are $900K apiece plus $70K for the paint job. Mind you, I’d go to B&Q and send Glyn up a ladder with a paintbrush if I lived there!

After the tour we walked a few blocks to meet Ashandra for a most welcome dinner at the Crepe Vine. It was great to catch up with her. And the food was good. I had some sort of avocado pancake and Glyn had a salmon one. It was a massive plateful though! Ashandra took us to Safeway as it has free wifi - handy to know!

We left Ashandra and after finding the car which was easier than we’d thought, we drove to Lombard St. It was rammed with tourists but after Glyn had a go at driving down, I plucked up the courage to do so and then drove a little way around the city. We went to the Marina in the hope of some good shots of the Golden Gate bridge and then decided it was time to drive to Sacramento.

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