It All Started with a Mouse

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Geo: 37.7792, -122.42

After breakfast at the St. Regis, we boarded a real TAUCK bus (as opposed to a leased bus) for a San Francisco city tour. Interesting to learn that there are seven major hills (like Rome) but 43 hills of 100 feet or more. Lucky this city rarely gets snow.

Another fact: There are no interstates in San Francisco. Only surface streets. To get into the downtown area, you have to exit the interstate and travel through many stoplights and much traffic to get to your destination. Van Ness is actually California 101.

Tour sights included Union Square, City Hall, Chinatown, Haight Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, Lands End (Golden Gate stop overlooking the Pacific Ocean), SF Marina, Fisherman's Wharf and Embarcadero Center. We completed our tour by getting off the bus and boarding a cable car (California line) for a ride down to the Ferry Building.

Lunch was on our own, so Travel Director Nicole Kreigenhofer suggested grazing, stopping at several Ferry Building retailers to take in their specialties. I myself got taken in by a candy vendor who gave me a sample of dark chocolate almond brittle with sea salt – all my favorite flavors. I bought two pounds. Unfortunately, Patrick has commented that "rats" have been eating the brittle (toffee) when he isn't looking. Wonder how that happened?

One of our gifts from Tauck on this trip is the US Passport for the National Park System. Patrick and I have been to 60+ National Parks and Monuments (we seek them out) but have never had the actual book which you stamp when visiting a park for the first time. So our first stamp was “Lands End”, part of Golden Gate Park that overlooks the Pacific. We will have it stamped again tomorrow in Yosemite. And those who toured Muir Woods today had theirs stamped there as well.

Our original itinerary for today showed that we had the afternoon at leisure. So we made plans to meet up with Merilyn Preston, a darling (and bouncy) octogenarian we met on our Tauck Classic Safari in Tanzania and Kenya. It was the first time we had seen her since Africa (although we are regularly in touch), so we were looking forward to it.

Unfortunately for us, Tauck filled the day with other activities, including a tour to Muir Woods. But since Patrick and I had been to Muir Woods previously, we bagged the Tauck tour and met up with Merilyn instead. So I uploaded a stock photo of Muir Woods for those trying to learn more about this “event” tour.

Merilyn picked us up and we wandered to the Presidio, passing the Golden Gate Bridge and other San Francisco landmarks. She selected the new Walt Disney Family Museum, which has opened in the Presidio, overlooking the bay, as our sightseeing event. I think Barcy Fox, another friend from our Africa trip, told her I was a Disney Girl.

We lunched at the Disney Café and checked out the Museum Store. Then headed in for a delightful 2-3 hour tour of the museum. It opens with a room of his awards including Emmys and Oscars. The museum follows the life of Walt Disney from his birth in Chicago, growing up in Marcelline, MO, his time in Kansas City, etc. It uses animation and audio, as you would expect. It was interesting to learn how many times he failed and how much he struggled to get funding and supporters for his various big ideas. No one was behind him, for instance, when he wanted to build a theme park that would be enjoyed by adults as well as children. He mortgaged everything, including his life insurance, to get that dream off the ground.

The museum features early drawings of Mickey Mouse, footage of early cartoons and musicians writing soundtracks, and original camera equipment. All the while, there are segments about Walt's personal life … getting into business with his brother Roy, meeting his wife, raising his children, collecting trains.

There was also a special exhibit on "Walt's Trains". He built a small train large enough for adults to ride; he collected Lionel trains; and there were a lot of posters and footage of trains in the various Disney productions. Very interesting and worth the extra $5.

On the way back to the hotel, Merilyn took us for the drive down the crooked portion of Lombard Street. Fun. While we were driving through downtown SF, three different TAUCK buses crossed our paths. Marilyn said she would have taken it as a sign to take another tour had she not known we were in town.

A short time later, we donned our dressy clothes, boarded buses, fought our way through rush hour traffic and arrived at the Legion of Honor for our dinner event. We started in the LOH theatre with a presentation by Dayton Duncan, who partnered with Ken Burns on the National Park series for PBS. He has done others as well, including the 14-hour “The Roosevelts” series.

Duncan talked about some of the history of Yosemite, and the role Yosemite played in the establishment of the National Park system.

His talk was followed by cocktails in the museum lobby, with an opportunity to tour the current exhibit called Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House. Beautiful oil paintings (including Gainsborough and Singer), and distinguished collections of silver, marble sculpture, porcelain and more.

Dinner was in the sculpture gallery – a buffet that was tasty but set up in a strange fashion with plates in the middle, service on only one side. Kind of a mess in terms of getting folks fed. Then the dessert buffet was in another room, and a coffee buffet in yet another. It was kind of a treasure hunt to find each course, although I doubt that was Tauck's intention.

We returned to the hotel about 10 pm, which was quite late for folks with Eastern Standard Time body clocks. The day was packed and exhausting to many (not me, of course). I edited the day's 400+ photos but did not get the blog written since we had to get up early for bag pull.

We head to Yosemite tomorrow. I have never been there. Snow is predicted. My camera and I are very excited.

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Photos

Haight Ashbury
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

Cable car ride
Tauck Tour Director Nicole Kreigenhofer

Walt Disney Family Museum, Presidio
Original Steamboat Willie pencil

Comments

[Stephanie]

Great to see Marilyn. Can't believe she's driving you around SF. I'm tired just hearing about your day. Looking forward to your Yosemite update.