An extended stay in San Francisco was for the purpose of getting over jet-lag, and while we were there, we did all the touristy things (again!), but probably more comprehensively than ever before. Mostly, we just had a relaxing time and absorbed the ambience. There was plenty to keep us interested. A major Womens Rally and March took place while we were in town, and we also got to see the city through the Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. public holiday.
We cheated with this image of the Painted Ladies by superimposing our pic from Sausalito's Barrel House restaurant.
San Francisco is renowned for its fog and weather, and we saw it all, with rain and fog, plus skies from deep grey to brilliant blue. Temperatures were about 10-15C, wonderfully crisp after the heatwave of Sydney.
Tourists love hanging on the outside steps of cable cars even when there's plenty of room inside.
Our hotel was near Union Square at the Market Street end of the Powell-Mason cable car line, a very touristy location, though with no view of note. Mostly, we walked around (good training for Yellowstone), but we also made good use of a MUNI 7 Day pass which allowed unlimited travel on city buses, trolleys, trams, metro, cable cars, but notably not bay ferries nor BART mass transit. This pass is a good investment - it saves you worrying about ticketing, and individual rides are expensive enough to mean the pass saves you money.
The Parc 55 Hotel sits on Cyril Magnin Street and is very conveniently located near Market Street and the bottom of the Powell Street cable-car.
The problem with homeless people in San Francisco is often mentioned, and it really was quite depressing to see so many begging during the day, and sleeping very rough in doorways at night. Many are vets, or claim to be, and it's so sad that the US can't seem to find a way to handle poverty and homelessness better. The homeless epicentre of SF is the very gritty Tenderloin district (our hotel was at the edge of it), and generally, the further away from Tenderloin, the less the problem seemed to be.
Glimpse into The Tenderloin from the safety of our 14th floor hotel window.
The fabulous cable cars are a reason to visit San Francisco even if there was no other. All day and night you can hear the underground cables rattling along as the car operators work their levers and pedals (with more than a little operatic flair) to grip the cables and climb up (and down) the impossiblly steep streets of this very hilly city. All day the cars are crowded with mostly tourists, and a few locals. The car schedule (if there is one) seems to be widely spaced, and long queues form at the touristy terminuses, but we found you could by-pass the queue and still get on by waving down the operator one or two stops along the track.
Meanwhile, the more conventional means of public transport (buses, trams, trolley-cars) operate all frequently over the city and never seem too crowded. A very easy way to get around, and to hop off in the various village neighbourhoods. Other cities (hello Sydney!) could learn from features in this system. Stops have dot-matrix type signs which indicate when the next bus will arrive, and the blind are assisted by audible messages with the same information.
Retro trams scoot up Market St and around the Embarcadero and look so good in San Francisco!
Brewed coffee seems to still be the norm here, but we found espresso easy enough to track down, and most baristas could make a macchiato maybe with a bit of coaching. We found an Italian coffee shop in a nearby hotel Villa de Firenze which became our most regular morning pit stop, and that successful Melbourne franchise Bluestone Lane has three or four outlets with such Aussie delicacies as smashed avocado and Vegemite toast!
Early dinner at McCormick and Scmick's very well placed restaurant at North Point.
Nothing much is very old in San Francisco, because the city was mostly destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Thus architecture reflects much of the post-quake reconstruction of the city. Upmarket residences in particular feature Victorian styles and bay windows which must be a distinctive icon of this city.
The Embarcadero area at the northern end of Market Street has been vastly improved after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake which damaged the already controversial bay-front freeway and caused it to be abandoned and demolished. As a result, neglected iconic buildings like the Ferry Terminal were completely restored and are now a source of great pride for the city.
It was Saturday, and we were perfectly placed to view the 3rd annual Womens March which started as a rally at the Civic Centre (we'd call it the Town Hall) and then a noisy parade about 2-3km up Market Street to the Embarcadero. Amazingly, the street, surely San Francisco's main downtown artery, was closed all day for an event which didn't actually hit the road until about 2pm. When it did come, it was much bigger than we expected, taking about an hour for the whole march to pass our excellent viewing position atop a tram access ramp, spread across the full width of a six lane road. This event apparently kicked off with (or because of) the inauguration of President Donald Trump, and, while other women's causes got a good airing, the major emphasis was derision of the President's values and behaviour. He's not a popular man in this town.
San Francisco's Civic Centre building is truly magnificent, and hosted the Women's Rally before the March.
The huge SF Women's March was led up Market Street by one of the city's fake tourist trolleys.
Strong indigenous support at the head of the Women's March.
The #28 commuter bus from North Point does a big loop through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park on its journey to Daly City, but it also goes via the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge which is where we got off. This spot is very popular with visitors who mostly seem to drive there or use a taxi. The car park was quite full, and lots of people set off to walk the bridge from here. It was a grey day, with some drizzle, so we just enjoyed the view of the bridge, the many merchant ships going in and out, and the wind-surfers taking advantage of the freakish conditions which are probably quite common here. The Visitors Centre here, and the display of bridge memorabilia, is quite interesting.
Similarly, the #5 bus heads due west from downtown through Richmond to the rather unimaginatively named Ocean Beach. On our visit, a gale was blowing and the Pacific Ocean was far from peaceful. It's hard to envisage that this very exposed black-sanded beach would ever be appealing to swimmers and surfers, even in Summer. But, for our visit, the beach was nevertheless very popular with families, walkers, joggers and dog-exercisers. The people enjoying a public holiday, the surf, the coastal rock formations, and the cargo ships going by, made for a very entertaining visit.
Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park is named after a former SF Parks Commissioner.
We walked some of the way through the huge Golden Gate Park which is about 5km long, east to west, and is bigger than Central Park in New York City. There's lots to see in GGP, but we found the bison enclosure and the Dutch windmills most interesting. The few bisons there are distant remnants of reconservation efforts when these animals were endangered (~1900), and the (two) windmills were constructed (~1902) to capture fresh water draining to the ocean and replenish the park's lakes.
Crystal clear morning view of the Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Telegraph Hill in downtown.
We had a walk, with many others, along the dark sands of Ocean Beach in front of Golden Gate Park.
The Haight-Ashbury area is a SF village we have not visited before. It's supposedly the birthplace of hippy culture, but we found it to be busy but seedy. The main intersection was knee-deep with homeless (or maybe they were just grifters) and the whole impression was made worse because of intrusive roadworks in Haight St. We decided to lunch here, but there were not many choices. The Port Store Cafe, a one-time sausage factory, was very crowded and we had to wait quite a while. But (and this is the news report!) the manager was so apologetic that when we asked for the check, he told us it was on the house and he even refused a tip!
We got a great deal for a late lunch at the Port Store Cafe in Haight Street.
Freakish but characteristic of upscale residential architecture.
And we took a day-trip on the Golden Gate Ferry to the Marin County town of Sausalito which is really just on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Our main objective was to enjoy a nice lunch with a view, and we did that at the Barrel House where the manager (owner?) was very friendly, told us one day he might have time to enjoy the view, and was particularly interested in our perspective of how the rest of the world views their esteemed President!
Inside the magnificently restored Ferry Terminal building.
Dim view of the city behind us, from the Barrel House restaurant at Sausalito.
Location, location, location! The place to stay in Sausalito.
Mostly, for us, breakfast was at American diners, lunch could be anything or nothing at all, and dinner was at whatever restaurant seemed right on the night. We never book anywhere, so we weren't able to get into a very popular Thai Kin Khao, but the highlight of our eating out was at McCormick and Schmicks which we stumbled onto in the old Ghiradelli chocolate factory, at North Point near Fisherman's Wharf. Here we had a delicious seafood meal with a fabulous sunset view over the bay. The high-ceilinged restaurant is laid out and terraced to take perfect advantage of the view.
Scene of some breakfasts, Lori's Diner on Powell Street.
One night, after some research, we decided to have cocktails at the uber-trendy Charmaine's rooftop bar in the Proper Hotel. It was just too trendy! We couldn't get a seat on a delightful evening, and not wanting to stand up for very expensive drinks, we decameped to a nearby sports bar in Mason Street. We stayed there longer than intended as we cheered Ash Barty to her dramatic win over Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open.
Though nowhere near the real Barbary Coast, this 6km SF tourist walk passes gold rush, earthquake and city sites and sights.
We had a "dental emergency" while staying in San Francisco. We won't go into any detail except to say how helpful the concierge was at our hotel, and how excellent was the service we received from a dentist on 20 minutes notice. The cost of the service was enough to provoke another medical emergency, of course, and it will be interesting to see how cooperative our Travel Insurance company will be, when we submit a claim!
The only dentist we care to know in San Francisco is a devotee of Mickey Mouse, judging by her waiting room.
More of our San Francisco images can be seen here!
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