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Published: April 23rd 2016
San Francisco
Celebrating becoming 60 isn't all bad when you get a trip like we are about to embark on. 7 weeks of taking in all that the west coast of America and Canada can offer.
This will probably be a long and rambling reminder for us.......you always have the delete key when you see us pop into your inbox!
Unusually it started with us in fits of giggles in the queue for bag drop at Terminal 5 Heathrow, a grumpy old luggage porter brought 2 ladies up to the desk and wanted to check if their baggage was suitably sized for the cabin. He brings a black hold-all to the hand held luggage size checker and proceeds to push and shove this bag into the hold-all shape holder, mumbling to himself. Eventually he succeeds but then he can't get it out, this thing isn't bolted to the floor, or at least it isn't now after he has pulled and tugged at the bag to get it out, his mumblings are louder and clearer now and none are complimentary about his customers, British Airways or luggage in general. Col and I are
now standing on the base of the thing as he carries on trying to get this quart out of a pint pot, then one of his ladies sees what he is doing, comes over and says, please be careful, the bag is full of China !! Oh dear we started laughing, everybody else in the queue thought it was hilarious, porter was not amused.
Our aircraft was one of these new Airbus Dreamliners that can easily seat the entire population of Bognor Regis, and 11 hours to San Francisco passed by with the aid of Maggie Smith and Daniel Craig. Unfortunately border control at SF airport was prepared for the arrival of the total passengers that a Sopwith Camel can hold and it took forever to get through and we managed to select every wrong queue on the way.
We were anxious as we were being met by friends and they must have been here hours by now. I say friends, which they most certainly are but we have only met them once, sitting on the station at Pompeii waiting for a train to Naples 11 years ago. Susan and her son Ryan were
on the same bench, we got chatting, something made us swap email addresses and we have been in touch ever since! These lovely people were meeting us and going to spend time with us over the next 4 days and we couldn't wait!
We all recognised each other immediately and it was great to see them. Ryan's very smart new car brought us to our hotel, The Fairmont, which is very 'of its time' and really nice, rebuilt after the big earthquake in 1906 and one of its claims to fame is that Tony Bennet gave his first rendition of I Left My Heart in San Francisco here in 1962!
Susan and Ryan waited for us whilst we had a quick change. Out hotel is on Nob
Hill and I think we had forgotten just how many hills there are and how steep some of them are too here in the city. Ryan took us for a ski run down a few to the Italian area for a lovely Pizza and enormous salads which were so tasty, we had tables out on the street, watching the world walk by and by the smell
Lombard
The winding roadof it, most of them smoking pot which maybe wafted over us and stopped the jet lag kicking in!
18th April
We had the morning free so went in search of breakfast to the Ferry Building. Our hotel being at one of the highest points in the city, meant a long steep haul down and our knees knew we had made it to the bottom, thank god it doesn't snow here as the place would just grind to a halt. We had a nice wander around the waterfront with an extremely good breakfast and then took the traditional cable car back to Nob Hill.
Susan picked us up early afternoon and took us on a great tour of the city, starting with Lombard which is the windy road that snakes down the what would be impossibly steep hill. She showed us multi million $ houses crammed into Pacific Heights all with fabulous views of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and the grim island of Alcrataz which we had visited previously. We saw where Robin Williams lived in the Seacliffe area and George Lucas' house as well. We went to The Palace of Fine
Arts which isn't really a palace and doesn't have any fine arts either but is a leftover from a world expo 100 or so years ago with interesting buildings set in a park around a lake and popular with brides for their photo shoots, lovely in the warm sunshine to stroll through, and chatting about anything and everything to fill in many gaps of this 11 year friendship! The bridge itself looked magnificent in the sunshine and Susan drove us to views at Baker Beach, not full of all these pesky camera wielding tourists - oh is that us? We picked up Ryan from his job at Apple and crossed the bridge and drove up into the hills for views to the city and bridge.
The bridge spans a strategic point into the bay which at one time was guarded by 3 military bases. Susan's dad had been in the army and had been stationed in a lovely area at the foot of the northern end of the bridge called Fort Baker. It still looks the same but is now a swanky resort and we had a lovely meal, sitting on the veranda with a view to
Golden Gate Bridge
Col, Susan, Sal and Ryan the bay and the bridge. Col was on local SF beer and Sal on SF gin, tough life eh!
19th April
Susan was meeting us again after lunch when she had finished work, so we bought a ticket for unlimited journeys on the public transport but just wanted to crisis cross the city on the wonderful old cable cars, cranking and grinding their way up and down the steep hills. The first one we caught was full but he had room on the running boards saying we could take better photos from there, no chance we were hanging on for dear life, tucking our bums in when a wide truck passed a bit too close. We went down to Fishermans Wharf which is very commercial and like a visit to Southend on Sea in its heyday but still pleasant to walk around and then sit and watch the seal ions who live on platforms just off pier 39. They are so funny all basking in the sun, then one grumpy old one starts getting tetchy then they have a bit if a fight, some fall off the platform and scramble back up again and they all
Ryan and Col
Getting chilly on the verandah of Fort Baker settle down. I think they live here naturally, they are not fed to make them stay. Later in the day, Susan had taken us out into the bay and there was an area of fishermen and one enormous sea lion, he must have swam by and one of the fishermen threw him some fish, so was hanging around, his big whiskered head popping out of the water waiting for more and making it difficult for them to cast their lines!
We found an old style deli for lunch and had enormous sandwiches which would have fed 4 people easily before meeting Susan, we drove for a while and then visited a busy shopping street with interesting small shops and cafes before meeting up with Ryan and heading off to our first baseball match.
Everywhere was packed around the stadium but we eventually got in and walked around the huge array of hideously expensive food stalls to select our dinner. The stadium has a splendid location right on the edge of the bay and Ryan chose seats quite high up so that we got a good overall view of the game and ground and also
the view of the Bay. We had wanted to go to a baseball match for ages so this was excellent and Ryan patiently explained all the rules. We were supporting the SF Giants who were playing the Arizona Diamond Backs and we lost. One weird thing, the game was just about at an end and 100's of seagulls started to fly overhead, ready to do cleaning duties I suppose, however the Giants rallied a bit, the game continued and the seagulls stood down, but immediately the game did finish they were back, hovering, waiting for us to clear off so that they could clear up!
20th April
Grace Cathedral is near our hotel so after a visit, we caught the cable car down to the Bay and had an early lunch sitting out in the glorious sunshine. We took the ferry over to Sausalito, we had a wander around the pretty harbour and army of gift and clothes shops before meeting Susan and having a great coffee at her favourite coffee shop. It is a lovely place and sought after place to live with a lovely view over to,p the city and bay bridge. Houses here
are mega $$$ and by the look of the quantity of yachts, that isn't a problem! We headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge to The Marina area to collect Ryan who wants to spend another evening with us, bless him 😊
Dinner was at a great Italian restaurant, the waiter was the best and looked after us so well and the food was superb, we then did a bit of Alternative sightseeing visiting Height Ashbury which was the start of the hippie movement in the 60s and plenty of evidence of that still today with a variety of unusual shops and unusual people hanging around but buzzing and busy. Today was also the day for the annual 'smoke in' on Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park, pot is sort of legal to smoke here. We then went on to The Castro which is the gay part of town and makes London look very tame indeed! It was busy, shops and bars/restaurants all busy but apparently nothing compared to the weekend. We drove up to Twin Peeks for a splendid view of the city, it was dark by the time we were up there and there were
loads of people up there, don't think they were all there to admire the view as we were. We then climbed up to another point, the Coit Tower, named after Lillian Coit, a wealthy lady who had this built to add to the beauty of the city and commemorate firefighters. We took a ride down Filbert which is one of the steepest roads, trucks and limos regularly get stuck there, as you launch off the top, you can't see the road
Susan and Ryan had been the best company over the last few days and we were going to miss them. They had been so generous in every way and made our stay in SF so special, we can't thank them enough.
21st April
We left The Fairmont slightly quicker than we intended as there was a fire alert, we were just sitting down with a complimentary coffee but the alert was sounded and lights flashing everywhere signalling evacuation, fortunately we managed to grab our cases from the bellhop's desk and got out and got a cab to the car hire company. They don't make it easy as their office was in the
middle of the city, so, strange car, strange city and, of course on the wrong side of the road, we pulled out into the busy morning traffic. Col took it all in his stride and we were soon up and down the hills, thanking Susan and Ryan for driving us around so much of the city and making us feel more confident. Over the Golden Gate Bridge and a stop in Sausalito for a great breakfast. We weren't far from Susan's house so popped in for a cuppa and another round of goodbyes! Napa was our destination for the next couple of nights.
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Hilary
non-member comment
Wow!
You certainly don't let the grass grow under your feet you 2! What an amazing start to an amazing holiday-cannot wait for Part 2! XX