On the Dock of the Bay...

We flew from Winnipeg to San Francisco for a day or two's relaxation and fun before the big hop across the Pacific and home. The second leg from Calgary was an international flight, of course, but we were delighted to be able to save time by completing USA immigration formalities in Calgary (i.e. at a time when we had time!) so we could be a domestic arrival in San Francisco. This civilised system is available at a number of Canadian airports, we think. We were surprised that the Air Canada international flight was in a flying cigar, a Bombardier CRJ900, but we later realised that this 90 seat Canadian manufactured regional jet could be a perfect choice for a low volume route, as this one apparently is.

Art installation at Calgary Airport is so evocative of the Canadian countryside. 'Where The Mountains Meet The Prairies', by Jason CARTER, 2016.

For days, we had been reading about wildfires in California, especially in Sonoma County at the north of the San Francisco Bay area, and that the local electricity utility, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), was being blamed for causing some significant fires due to obsolete equipment. PG&E's incredible response was to shut-down power widely across its network, including in Marin County where our San Francisco hotel was located, in Sausalito. On picking us up, our driver told us the worst - Sausalito was still totally blacked out. We girded our loins for no lights, no television, no internet and no restaurants for two days, but (and we took the credit for this!) at the very moment the Lincoln Navigator limo backed into the hotel driveway, the power came on and stayed on! We put the candles away and enjoyed a normal stay.

As we arrived in Sausalito, a deliberate blackout had been imposed by PG&E to prevent its equipment starting wildfires.

Sausalito sits on Richardson Bay in San Francisco Bay with direct views to the Bay Bridge and downtown.

In retrospect, natural disasters seem to follow us in the USA. Several years ago, we endured the polar vortex, extreme cold weather, during our entire zig-zag drive down the Mississippi River, culminating in a State Of Emergency in New Orleans preventing us leaving for Miami. Then this year, the US101 Pacific Coast Highway was closed by landslides on the day we needed it to get into Los Angeles. This put us back maybe 6 hours, hardly a big deal, but memorable nonetheless.

Brilliant blue sky despite the nearby fires, and with the power back on, the Taste of Rome was a very popular spot for breakfast and good espresso.

Halloween decoration in Sausalito.

Richardson Bay is home to many small boats and houseboats. This pic taken from a bar where we enjoyed a sunny afternoon.

Sausalito is a "city" just north of the Golden Gate Bridge with a population of only about 7,000 and a land area less than 5km². It is bounded by the Bay and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The name is from the Spanish for a small willow grove, the first known European arrival being in 1775 looking for safe anchorages and reporting "friendly natives and teeming populations of deer, elk, bear, sea lions, seals and otters" (Wikipedia). Most of those have gone now, starting with development of the area around 1825. In the prohibition era, the town was a centre for bootlegging and rum running. Now, it is a tiny but popular tourist destination (many of whom arrive by bicycle across the Golden Gate and catch the ferry back) and an out-of-town residence for wealthy families. There are 400 houseboats docked in Sausalito and Otis Redding's Sitting On The Dock of the Bay was composed while he was staying on one of them.

What a treat for us to stay in a glorious ground floor room at The Inn Above Tide.

We were in San Francisco only last January, but this time was to be a bucket-list ticking splurge by staying in The Inn Above Tide, a boutique waterfront hotel in Sausalito. It was fabulous - our room's balcony overlapped the water, and only about a meter above the high-tide mark. We did nothing here but relax and drink and eat, and walk around. A ferry ride into downtown San Francisco gave us some fresh air and wider choice of restaurants. The balcony of our room was a delightful place to relax and drink wine as we enjoyed (and photographed) smoky sunrises and the spectacular late afternoon skyline view of San Francisco to the south-east. A fine way to wrap up our crossing of the North American continent.

Sunset panorama of San Francisco as seen from our balcony in Sausalito.

Smoke from the Sonoma County wildfires make for an eerie sunrise over the Bay Bridge.

In San Francisco for a short break before our return to Australia.

San Francisco's iconic retro-trams pass the ferry terminal.

Dappled reflected light makes for a nice view of the beleaguered Pacific Gas & Electric Company building.

Chinese tea shop provided a lunch break in downtown.

Harlequin jigsaw sculpture near the ferry terminal.

Drag queen busker displaying not much talent at the San Francisco port terminal.

Alcatraz as seen from the Bay ferry.

Sunset view of a container ship heading for the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean.

Mudslides and Easy Waves...

Just under a week in California was for the purpose of a warm recovery from the chills of Yellowstone, but it didn't quite work out that way. When it wasn't raining, it looked like it was about to rain, and they say 'it never rains in California'. Well, they do have to fill the dams sometime, we suppose, and it was nice to relax, and do some soggy people watching.

We drove 280km north of Los Angeles to stay with Maggie, a dear friend, in Arroyo Grande, a town near San Luis Obispo for a couple of days. Our departure was late, so the drive was at night, and our trusty Garmin navigator thought it was a good idea to take a shortcut, off the obvious US101 freeway, over the CA154, a mountain pass. This narrow, windy road took an eternity for about 50km, but at least there was little traffic.

Arroyo Grande itself is a charming little town representing a proud local community, and thanks to Maggie's guidance, we found excellent coffee in a friendly Branch Street cafe. One day the weather held off log enough to sit outside and enjoy it, but the other day, persistent drizzle (after a severe overnight storm) forced us inside. In reasonable weather, Maggie showed us round, and we saw a Monarch butterfly habitat where we were instructed by enthusiastic volunteer guides, and enjoyed visiting seaside towns, having a great lunch at Moro Bay. This town was busy mid-winter, so it must really buzz in summer.

Delightful cafe with great coffee in Arroyo Grande's main street.

Elvis and fan out the front of a store on Arroyo Grande.

The drive back to LA down the US101 was even more fraught, because when we arrived in Santa Barbara, a city jammed between mountain and sea, the through road was totally closed by flooding and mudslides. The few backroads through the town were also closed, mud was everywhere, and a (not very) helpful policeman told us we would have to back up to Santa Maria then take the I5, a detour which would add 350km to the journey! No other alternate was apparent. We found a nearby Starbucks, rather crowded with other stranded travellers, where a grapevine was running with also (not very) helpful gossip and information. After an hour or so there, a man in a Sherrif's uniform told us that one of the town's local roads, CA192, was now open and we could use it to bypass the US101 closure. He was right, we navigated through wet, muddy, hilly and wealthy suburbs of Santa Barbara to get back to an almost empty US101 right on the coast, where we found that most of the traffic appeared to be locals rubber-necking at the storm damage. In the end, this particular 3 hour drive took about 7 hours.

We had been redirected off the US101 before we arrived at this mess. [Santa Barbara Independent]

We had to ignore these signs and drive through several of these zones to bypass the US101. [Santa Barbara Independent]

The other half of our California interlude was spent in Santa Monica, a chill-out zone we have enjoyed in the past. The rain persisted, but it was nice to walk the town and the fascinating pier between showers, but we still managed to get pretty wet.

A rainy day in California, but still the crowds enjoy Santa Monica Pier.

So much rain has fallen on Santa Monica that lakes in the beach have to be drained.

Somehow we knew in advance that it would be nice to stay somewhere warm and touristy to unwind before coming home. We had a week to kill, could not find anything in Mexico which appealed, couldn't find any logical connections to Tahiti, so in the end we chose Hawaii, Honolulu and Waikiki. It was a good decision, and we enjoyed warm beach weather, the odd tropical downpour, and some great sunrises and sunsets, not to mention cocktails and other good stuff!

The dawning sun peeks up between tall buildings on Waikiki.

Laziness kept us in Waikiki where we knew everything would be available without effort. Other islands like Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Hawaii did sound good, but we had to get there, so didn't bother. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, right in the centre of the beach, and that was a good choice too. Not too big, not too touristy, but within easy walking distance of everything, and our room was a very spacious suite on the top floor where we had no less than three balconies. Cross ventilation was a breeze! Someone asked us if we had the Donald Trump Suite - we exaggerated and said there was gold plumbing.

Waikiki is an ambiguously interesting place. On one hand, it is hideously overdeveloped and way too crowded. Maybe because they were established long long ago, hotels have been allowed too close to the beach along west Waikiki, and public access is ireegular and rough. Ugly narrow concrete paths cling to the edge, when something beautiful could have been there. Some stretches are devoid of sand - we suspect it has been lost to storms and bad engineering.

No room for personal space in front of Waikiki's iconic Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Tourists enjoying an off-beach cruise, one of many operating all day in Waikiki.

Benign conditions are the great appeal at Waikiki.

Waterproof cell-phone bags are a sales hit in Honolulu.

Enjoyable ball game at the beach.

Boys attempting to impress the girls on Waikiki.

On the other hand, Waikiki (and the rest of Hawaii) must feel like paradise to winter-weary Americans who are here en-masse to escape sub-zero temperatures and polar vortex driven winter storms. It is warm, sunny and delicious here (latitude much the same as Townsville, Queensland), and there can be no beach, none at all, in mainland USA, that looks as good and enticing as Waikiki and any others here. The water has that beguiling turquoise hue, and the iconic Waikiki surf, those small but long rolling waves keep coming in day after day, safe and appealing to both beginners and locals. A never ending stream of catamarans and outriggers take visitors out for langourous cruises, riding such gentle wavesback to shore.

Waikiki is people watching paradise. The city is flooded with tourists, and by our observation, Japanese outnumber even mainland Americans. Japanese must be just as keen to escape their winter, and it's less distance from them to travel than even the closest USA mainlanders, according to a taxi driver.

We Sydneysiders live in a beach culture, so it's amazing for us to observe the behaviour of tourists on Waikiki Beach. It's clear that many of them have never seen the ocean before, never felt sand on their feet or dipped into (the mildest) of surfs. We saw people wearing expensive shoes onto the beach, turn their back to the water (always for a selfie) only to have those shoes swamped. Whole families, it's clear none of them can swim, venture out into deeper water with floaties, blow-up rings or even rented surfboards being all that is keeping them afloat. The lifeguards here must be vigilent, but lucky the surf is so benign. Beach umbrellas and chairs can be rented, and there's no concept of personal space on the sand - any square metre is fit to be occupied.

Surfers stay out in the water until it is dark.

Sunset cruise off Waikiki.

As dark sets in at Waikiki, elated surfers make their way back to shore.

A popular cultural show in the atrium of the International Centre.

Magnificent tree in the garden of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

We tried and succeeded at doing not much at all in Waikiki. A slow start every day, then a beautiful swim at the beach, followed by really excellent espresso at Kona Coffee in the International Centre, breakfast wherever (but Basalt proved to be good quality at the right price), and a fresh squeezed orange and ginger at Jamba Juice by which time it was midday. Then a stroll around town or through the shops until happy-hour at Firepit at the Sheraton where, on almost every day, we managed to score the best location, within splashing distance of the incoming waves. Dinner was whatever grabbed our fancy - there's plenty of good restaurants available, although crowded.

Marching with Women...

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!