Caffeine, cable cars and bridges

---

I must start this trip's travel blog by apologising for taking so long to get these stories posted. Traveling with a partner is quite different to solo travel - I was surprised at how little time I had to sit and write journal entries on this trip. I had more free time when I joined tours of 20 people than when I travel with my partner!

So, appologies about the delay. And now the journal begins:

After packing up our house, putting all our belongings in storage, forwarding our mail to a friend, and saying our goodbyes, we left the country town of Orange and drove towards the coast. After another few days of last minute errands (e.g. doing tax returns) while staying with the in-laws in Jamberoo, it was finally time for our adventure.

We boarded the plane in Sydney, excited for the adventure ahead. But first there were the flights. 9 hours to Hong Kong, then another 12 to San Francisco. A reminder of how far away Australia is from the rest of the world! Despite our convictions last year that a stop-over is a must for every trip, we only spent a couple hours in transit. But as we flew into Hong Kong at night, over the harbour, we regretted our decision not to do a stop-over as it looked like a fascinating city to explore! Next time...

When we finally arrived in San Francisco, we chose to get to the city by a shared van ride. Not the fastest way to get downtown, but certainly one of the cheapest besides public transport. And since we were the last stop for the driver, we got a local's tour of the city as our driver pointed out neighbourhoods as his van struggled up the hills and narrow streets. By the time we checked into our hostel, groups of young backpackers were leaving to go party.

Now, a few red flags to look for when checking into a hostel: if the staff ask you "are you SURE you are okay with the economy room?", be aware. If there are complimentary earplugs provided along with your towels, be aware. And if you have a room on the first floor of the hostel, near the entrance as well as near the kitchen/common area, be aware. For those of you who are experienced in the pros and cons of staying in hostels, you may know where I am going with this...

We proceeded to get NO sleep for the next 4 nights.

Which makes getting over jet lag next to impossible.

We are, as they say, "too old for this sh*t".

The bonus of staying in this hostel? Well, besides the obvious benefits if you are 18 and want to party until dawn every night, or if you are an insomniac not bothered by drunken backpackers yelling down the hallways at 2am, 3am, 4am and any time in between... The bonus for us: There was a very good cafe across the street. The coffee geek baristas at Farm Table were our gods the next few mornings, providing us with the caffeine required to battle the sleepless nights and jet lag, delivered in the form of delicious cappuccinos and flat whites.

So each morning, we started our day with a ritual of coffee across the street, then set out to explore.

Our first day started by wandering our way down to Union Square where we chatted with artists trying to sell their art at the market. One artist had multiple paintings of national parks in California, which made us excited for the road trip ahead. We continued on, finding another market by the waterfront and then aimlessly ambling along the piers, stopping whenever we saw something to our liking. The science nerd/child in me was fascinated by outdoor exhibits of the newly relocated Exploratorium. We joined the tourists at Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf and had fun deciding which touristy t-shirts Dave would buy. We were amused by the sea lions all wrestling for a spot on the already crowded floating docks despite the fact that there were plenty other docks to sun-bake on. We tried to stay warm by hiding from the fierce wind and stayed in the sun as much as possible. Our first day eventually found us wandering past Fort Mason and Marina Boulevard to Chrissy Field, where a very large outdoor store was located. Several hours later, we walked out of the outdoor store to a view of sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge, dragging a new tent and many other "essential" camping gear items. This was to be a dangerous trip for the wallet if we continued to find great outdoor shops! Eeek!

That first night, we had our dinner at "Off the Grid", a gathering of food trucks at the Fort Mason Center. Within minutes we had managed to find a friendly group of locals willing to share their spare chairs with us and spent the evening swapping travel stories over beers and yummy food. This was the kind of friendly vibe that we have been missing in our country town in Australia. The food trucks, gathered in a large circle with chairs in the middle, were such a great idea. We heard that these food trucks were quite "trendy" and several cities were following San Francisco's lead - something to check out. We also discussed recycling and composting - we were in complete awe that San Francisco has such a comprehensive city-wide composting and recycling program. Their goal? ZERO waste by 2020. That is AWESOME!

If I had visited San Francisco before backpacking to Australia all those years ago, I think my life would have taken a very different course. I would have joined all these innovative friendly hippies in their quest for a better world. Now I have given up my chance to live in the States...so I will just have to file that thought away for later use.

The next few days included highlights such as wandering to the Coit Tower to get a view of the city - the Coit Tower is a fantastic monument to a lady, Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who sounded like quite the character! We wandered the trendy Cow Hollow area and spent too much money on yoga clothes (we sound like such yuppies, don't we?). We also visited the famous section of Lombard Street on Russian Hill, which according to one story, is so crooked because during the Prohibition, local residents were tired of gangsters racing down the hill. So they re-designed their section of road with gardens and hairpin turns to slow the cars down. Now it's a tourist attraction which brings its own set of traffic problems. And of course, we rode on cable cars. May we highly recommend getting a multi-day pass that includes cable car travel? It's $6 per person each trip on a cable car, but a MUNI pass is $14 for a day, which includes unlimited cable car, bus and historic street cars. A 3-day pass saves you even more money! And while San Francisco seems like a walkable city, do not underestimate those hills! This is certainly not a city for unfit people!

We also caught up for beers with a coworker of mine who was in town, which was good fun. We swapped funny observations, such as the fact that toilet seats in the US are lower to the ground than in Australia. It's a small difference but quite unsettling the first few times when you nearly fall because the seat wasn't where your legs were expecting it to be! And the new generation of American toilets that seem even more powerful than the vacuum toilets in airplanes! (Can you guess that a few beers preceded these conversations?)

One things we avoided: anywhere near Haight-Ashbury on the Saturday that we were in town, because it was April 20th. All throughout downtown we saw dreadlocks, tie-dyed shirts, Bob Marley hats and similar paraphernalia. Towards the end of the day we saw the same types of people, looking rather sleepy or already passed-out. It is a culture I have never understood, and we weren't keen to start understanding it that day either! Are we really getting that old??

We spent our last day in San Francisco enjoying the sun. We watched karate demonstrations and the parade for the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown. We then experienced a bit of a culture shock as we walked from Japantown through the Fillmore district (famous for its jazz) - we noticed a sudden the change in culture from one street to the next. Our walk then led us to a nap in Alamo Square, where we had a view of the houses of one of my generation's favourite shows, Full House. Cue the theme music - it's in my head as I type.

Afterwards, we decided to go check out the Haight-Ashbury district. It was our least favourite area of San Francisco: full of old hippies and young punks who were stuck in past decades and never got past the lifestyle of sex, drugs and, well, more drugs. We did find some very fun shops, but the homage to the joint was not for us and we felt out of place. It probably didn't help that there were a few people still stumbling around from their 4-20 weekend. So we made our way back down to the green area of Fort Mason Park and the waterfront. We spent the last night catching cable cars and taking night photos.

Finally, it was our last morning. We were leaving on our National Park tour. But first, we had to pick up the rental car, which has its own story. As we walked down the hill towards the car rental place, we were stopped for directions by a very lost guy from Hong Kong. We tried our best to help him. He needed to head in the same direction as us to catch a metro to a train station, so we walked with him for a few blocks. We gave him our map and even gave him my MUNI pass, which still had one day of unlimited public transportation on it. We made sure he understood our directions. But as we crossed the street after parting ways, we saw him walk right past the entrance to the metro station. Hopeless! I wonder if he ever caught his train...

Once we had our car keys, we commenced a very nervous drive back to the hostel, through traffic, in a large SUV and on the opposite (right) side of the road. After packing up the car, and one more round of delicious cappuccinos for the ride, it was time for our road trip! Well, we had to navigate the traffic and construction road blocks first, but we did finally find our way to the highway.

National Parks, here we come!

---

Photos

Cable Cars!
No visit to San Francisco feels complete without a ride on one of the famous cable cars.

The Golden Gate at Sunset
A view from Chrissy Fields

Downtown San Francisco
A view of downtown at night

Science Fun
The newly relocated Exploratorium on the piers

Street Jazz
This kid was awesome!

Coit Tower
This tower overlooks the city of San Francisco.

Parade in Japantown
We watched the Cherry Blossom Festival parade in Japantown

Sea Lions on the Docks
The sea lions enjoying the warm sun