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Published: July 26th 2010
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Greetings From The Streets of San Francisco
The last two days has found us in the beautiful Bay Area of California. We were both surprised and impressed with the amount of "open" land once we actually approached the metro area. We drove down from the north passing through Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Novato, and San Rafael. We fully expected this area to be similar to the I-5 area between Olympia and Seattle. Bumper-to-bumper traffic, city after city. Actually, after you pass through each city, there is a nice open area where the houses are spread out giving you a feeling of being "in the country". Very nice for a major metropolitan area.
As we rolled into town Thursday, we had our sights set on a RV park that is less than a mile walk from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. As it turns out, the Golden Gate Trailer Park was horrible disappointment but we discovered the Marin RV Park two blocks down the street with a spot just for us! We spent the remainder of Thursday doing laundry, shopping, and planning our excursion to San Francisco.
Friday was our "tourist" day to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of San
Francisco. Our day started with a 30 minute ferry ride from Larkspur to the downtown SF Ferry Terminal. As you leave the Larkspur Terminal, the first sight you see off to your left is the oldest prison still functioning in the California Prison System, San Quentin. Patti did not seem overly impressed but I was. Guess I'm just weird that way. The remainder of the ride over was beautiful with views of the Richmond Bridge taking you to Richmond, El Cerrito, and Berkeley, the Bay Bridge taking you to Oakland, and of course The Golden Gate Bridge connecting Marin Country with San Francisco. As we approached the Port of San Francisco Ferry Terminal, off to our right was an excellent vista of one of the nation's most famous prisons and tourist attractions, Alcatraz.
We had been advised on arriving in San Francisco, we should purchase a MUNI pass which would allow us to ride any of the city buses and trolley cars all day. This sounded like an excellent idea. In theory that is. Someone within the City of San Francisco Tourist Department should consider actually selling the MUNI pass at the ferry terminal. Well, I take that back.
One newsstand does sell them. He just happened to be out on a Friday morning in the summer during tourist season! Oh, and on your trip to San Fran, if that newsstand is out of the MUNI pass, do not ask him where you can buy one. He doesn't know. Nor do the folks at the Port of San Francisco Visitor Center. Just start walking, as we did. You'll need to go past Fisherman's Wharf to the cable car turnaround. It's not far. Really. It's not THAT far.
With half of our tourist morning over and MUNI pass now in hand, we catch the bus up to the top of Telegraph Hill and The Coit Tower. Spectacular 360 degree view of the city and the tower is impressive too. Stairs were down and line too long to ride the elevator to the top so we skipped it.
Back on the bus and down the hill headed to Chinatown. We did notice on the way up the Rogue Nation Embassy, aka The North Beach Brew Pub, and being dutiful members of The Rogue Nation we stopped off. An unplanned stop but a pleasant one non-the-less as not only did
we experience, again, the nectars of the Hop God John Meier (no, not the wimpy singer) but we also met a couple from San Francisco who brew their own beer just as we do. On leaving, Evelyn and John extended an invitation for us to call them if we go through San Diego and they'll show us all the best beer pubs.
Back on the bus. Destination Chinatown (again). I know I checked the city bus map and I know which intersection we were suppose to get off on. For some reason, we got off on the wrong stop but it was definitely the right thing to do. Rather than being in the middle of the touristy Chinatown, we found ourselves in the middle of the real deal. The REAL Chinatown. No Jackie Chan, Karate Kid BS, but the real community in all of it's splendor. Wall-to-wall people all shopping the sidewalk vendors. Meat, seafood, and fish markets abound with an especially interesting variety of cooked duck. Deep fried golden brown with the head, beak and all, still attached. I think Patti and I were too intimidated to actually try anything as all of the signs were in Chinese
and well, we don't speak Chinese.
What trip to San Francisco would be complete without a ride on a real cable car? Since this was our day to be "tourists" we hoped a ride just outside of Chinatown. The ride took us downhill past Union Square to Market Street where it's "everyone off" as they turn the cable car around for the ride back up and over the hill to Fisherman's Wharf. We continued our cable car experience with a ride on the F line back down Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf for a fun dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Can't really do the "tourist" thing without eating crab in San Francisco.
We wrapped up our San Francisco visit on Saturday with a visit to the California Academy of Sciences. A massive natural history museum, the Academy includes a planetarium, aquarium, and an indoor rain forest. The highlight of the Academy is their live African Penguin exhibit. We planned our trip to be able to see one of the two daily feedings. Fun to watch and educational as the feeding is done by one of the staff biologist. Yes, penguins in Africa. Who would have known?
Our
final stop in San Francisco was Haight-Ashbury. Interesting to walk down Haight Street and think of how much cultural change this one area had on our society. I was, however, a bit disappointed as we turned onto Haight and the first thing I saw was a McDonalds! The neighborhood itself is an eclectic mix of tattoo parlors, head shops, and cafes mixed with glitzy high-end clothing stores and jewelry stores. Still, a visit worth making just to watch the people go by.
San Francisco and the entire bay area was a pleasant surprise. Sure, the downtown Fisherman's Wharf area is the epitome of tourist. But do yourself a favor when you visit, get away from the downtown area and experience the variety of neighborhoods the city has to offer. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised too.
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