San Francisco

---

The final leg of our trip saw us in San Francisco.Our San Francisco itinerary included: 21 Aug - evening arrived in SF. It was amazing coming down the 101 under a perfect blue sky and 90F degree weather to crest a rolling hill and see off in the distance the famous August fog bank of SF. The drive over the Golden Gate Bridge behind us we valeted the car and checked into our hotel. After a long day of driving and car charging we had a lovely Indian dinner and then called it a night.22 Aug - We started off with a walk down to the old ferry building for breakfast and the market stalls. After a worrying hunt around for an unmarked tour bus stop we jumped on the hop on/off bus tour. The tour took us over the Golden Gate Bridge where we transferred to a trolley bus to tour the upscale seaside community of Sausalito for some window shopping and lunch. We completed the full bus tour back down to the ferry building and legged it to Fisherman's wharf for it's tacky tourist shops and memorabilia. We wrapped up the evening with Thai dinner.23 Aug - We used the hop on/off bus to get back up to Golden Gate Park. Here we checked out the stunning de Young Museum (art) and the incredible California Academy of Sciences (with its unique biosphere environments of the world - tide pools, swamps, open ocean, lagoons, rain forest, roof garden meadow etc etc... We navigated our way back downtown via public bus. A wander through uninspiring Chinatown was perhaps a low point. We closed out the evening with a two hour night bus tour of the city with brilliant sunset views of the sites - the tour turned into a 3 hour adventure as the bus lost all but first gear and we traveled the streets of SF (including the uphill sections) at what felt like 20 or 30 MPH top speed. To celebrate our last evening we had Chinese dinner - again just across the street from the hotel.




24 Aug - our last day 😞 .... We did the Alcatraz Tour - where we sold two of our extra tickets to some nuns that were praying for a miracle to get on the fully booked out tour. The highlight was during the tour a kid locked himself into one of the off limit jail cells and the park service were unable to break him free in the 15 minutes that we hung around to watch the growing mayhem. Alcatraz behind us we hopped a cab to a distant community where a mutual friend - James - owns a landscape architecture and urban planning firm. James took us to lunch and then introduced us to some of the cool perks of using Uber in SF. While waiting for the cab we witnessed the police restrain an unfortunate individual suffering some mental health issues with a large bite/spit bag and then strap him to an ambulance stretcher. A light rail commute to the airport saw us close out an exciting and whirlwind tour of the west coast.



Highlights included: 1. More homeless people than anywhere else on our trip - the whole Tenderloin area was packed with these unfortunate individuals. I was told that other surrounding states and cities were giving their homeless one way tickets to SF!2. California Science Centre - I would have loved a museum like this growing up... as an adult i could spend two full days and not see it all... if i was a kid i could come for a full year and not be tired of looking at the exhibits.3. Golden Gate Bridge - tick (if i had more time I would have liked to have biked or walked it)4. Seeing James at his office - inspiring work place!5. Seeing the SF fog bank from afar and then driving into the pea soup.

6. The city has a million and one things going for it and i look forward to returning to peal back more layers of the onion.

7. Night time bus tour of a romantic city.



For me this road trip can be summarized as:

1. An adventure using a multitude of modes of transport: plane, train, greyhound bus, city bus, regular taxi (pothead that lives with his mom), uber taxi, monorail, light rail, normal petrol car, Tesla electric car, foot, bike, tour bus, boat, ferry, escalator, elevator.......

2. As we moved south it was unfortunate to note the number of homeless and mental health individuals explode in numbers - nothing like what we see in NZ.

3. Seattle is top on our list of possible places to live in the future... though there are probably 10 other places on the wishlist too.

4. the Oregon coast is much like the west coast of NZ's south island.

5. Construction is booming in all the major centres.

6. as much as NZ'ers moan about house pricing and rents they pale in comparison with the likes of many areas in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and especially San Francisco.

7. It was such a great treat to know people in almost every city along our way and getting a chance to catch-up with them and introduce them to Ju.

8. i realized nearly 10 years of living outside the USA has made me as much a stranger in the country as any first time tourist and immigrant - so much has changed in me and in the States.



If you've made it this far thanks for reading... until my next update stay well.

---

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

A great bridge
Nothing better than driving or walking over the Golden Gate. An amazing bridge and great city. We lived in Seattle for 7 years and it has been one of our most favorite places to live. Love following your blogs.