Blogs from San Francisco, California, United States, North America

From 2010: Has it really been 13 years since I last visited Alcatraz? This must be my 5th or 6th visit to Alcatraz Island, former home to the Federal Prison. It housed some of the worst of the worst, like Al Capone, Robert (Birdman) Stroud, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, Mickey Cohen, Arthur "Doc" Barker, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery and Nicky Cage. I went this time as a tourist! And it was a glorious day to be in the City. Rather depressing, but free room and board This is what I wrote a few years back: Most of my local friends know about Alcatraz Island or as locals call it, "The Rock", and have probably been there at least once. For those of you out of the area, and the country, the small island ... read more

February 14th must be more than cards, flowers, and candy. And who is St. Valentine, and what is the Valentine's Day massacre? Though it sounds a little like my pal Andy Rooney, it might be interesting to find out why this day is what it is. It is celebrated in a big way in Southeast Asia, as we found out firsthand. Most restaurants are decorated, stores are full of special gifts, and people seem to step a little lighter on this day. Valentine's Day was named after two early Christian martyrs, both named Valentine. It was Geoffrey Chaucer who began to associate it with love, romance, and courting. Since the 19th cent... read more

As usual, I'm running a little late on my blogging. I know it is even over a month late! The funny part is I've got some time on my hands this afternoon, and I'm writing this from Kinshasa. It seems we are truly back to pre-covid time, and I can once again declare the world a small place! Going from Mexico to Bali is not a short trip. So a short stop on the way back home is always welcome. I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of 24 hours stops in LA. Been on the West Coast up and down tons of time...so it's all about back to simply efficient stay. I arrived late afternoon in SFO...checked-in in one of the non-descript airport hotel....clean room, nothing to say much about it. Stay on ... read more

From JohnnyJet: I also can’t comprehend how some people think it’s okay to take care of their personal hygiene on an airplane like clipping their nails, tweezing their eyebrows or giving themselves a manicure. In the past, I would tell the passenger it’s not allowed to apply nail polish on a plane because both nail polish and nail polish remover are highly flammable. But after getting chewed out, now I would just ring the call button so the flight attendant can do the dirty work. They always shut it down immediately. Unfortunately, it’s happened at least twice in the past week as two incidents made the news. First, last week, the url=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11311397/Miami-Barbados-flight-evacuated-fumes-cabin.htmlDaily Mail reported: “An American Airlines flight from Miami to Barbados had to return to the airport after flyers became sick due to an 'aceton ... read more

From Fodor's: For the past two years, disruptive passengers have been a nightmare to deal with. In May, when we conducted Fodor’s Summer Travel Survey, 60% people said they were worried about an encounter with an unruly passenger. The number of incidents have come down since, but drunk and disruptive passengers continue to annoy American fliers. And that does not count delayed and cancelled flights, lost luggage, and indifferent service. The Vacationer conducted an online survey of 1,098 American adults 18 years and older. They were asked, “When flying on a plane, which behaviors from fellow passengers annoy you?” There were frankly no surprises in the responses. The top two most annoying behaviors were tied: disr... read more

Contrairement à ce qu'avait annoncé la météo, le ciel est très nuageux ce matin. Nous avions prévu de prendre la voiture et d'aller voir le Golden Gate Bridge, puis ensuite de monter à Twin Peaks et d'aller se promener le long du pacifique. On inverse donc le programme, en général le temps s'éclaircit en fin de matinée. Twin Peaks est la colline la plus élevée de San Francisco, à prêt de trois cent mètres. De là, on a une vue a trois cent soixante degrés sur San Francisco et la baie. Dommage que le temps ne soit pas de la partie, le panorama, est magnifique. On reste un petit quart d'heure, puis on prend la direction du pacifique. On descend l'avenue jusqu'au sud de San Francisco. La partie de la rue qui longe la plage est ... read more