Since my last blog about Isle Royale was a short novel, I’ll try and be a little more brief with this blog. Gary, Austin, Taylor and I left the 90 degree heat of Michigan to enjoy the cool, foggy weather of San Francisco! We left early on Sunday, July 17th and arrived at the SF airport around 10am Pacific Time. Once we got our bags and our SF Muni passes, we had to wait for a couple of hours because our apartment wouldn’t be ready for us to check in until 1pm. We had opted to rent an apartment for the week rather then a hotel room, since we figured that we would have more room and we would be able to cook some of our meals there rather then go out to eat every day.
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| Our apartment - lower deck |
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| Kitchen |
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| Living Room complete with tourists |
Around noon, we hopped on the BART metro and made our way to downtown SF. Once in the city, we hopped on a bus and headed to our apartment. Once we got there, we found out that the cleaning lady was just finishing up from the last people that were there, so we dropped our bags and decided to walk to Alamo Park where we would be able to see the “painted ladies” Victorian row of houses that is in all the movies and TV shows (Full House in particular!). The apartment was just a few short blocks from these homes and it was a great way to start our trip!
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| Alamo Park - The Painted Ladies |
After staring in awe at the SF skyline from the park, we made our way back to our apartment to get settled and check things out. Once settled, we made our way by bus to the nearest Safeway to get some food and snacks for the week. After a day of using the public transportation system, we became real pros and it was great not having to worry about a car for the week!
The next day, we got on the bus and headed to the touristy, downtown area of SF. Our first stop was to get tickets to go to Alcatraz. Once we got there, we were devastated to find out that all Alcatraz island tours were booked solid for two weeks out! We were crushed, but luckily there was a boat tour that we could take which went around the island and under the Golden Gate Bridge. Since that was really our only choice, we decided to do that. Overall, I think this option worked out better for us because we got to go under the bridge and get some great shots of the city from the water as well.
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| Golden Gate Bridge |
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| The streets of San Fran |
Over the next few days, we spent our time doing all the touristy things in and around San Francisco. I won’t bore you with talk, so I’ll just post some pictures instead!
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| Lombard Street |
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| The hippiest neighborhood I have ever been to |
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| Fisherman's Warf |
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| Old Fashion cable car |
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| The Real World SF house (only some will appreciate this) |
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| Japanese Tea Garden |
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| Tea Garden - Feel the Zen! |
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| Coit Tower |
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| From American Graffiti |
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| Pier 39 - A place to spend all your money very quickly |
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| Taylor at Ghirardelii Square |
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| Lombard Street - this is not an optical illusion |
Another Streetscape
Wednesday, our plan was to head North and go to Muir woods were we could see
some red wood trees and drive along the coast. This was the only day that we rented a car because the buses do not go that far out of the city. So, we got our car and Gary drove us out of the city, over the Golden Gate bridge and up to Muir woods. Once we got there, we were able to hike a little bit in the woods and check out the giant red wood trees. Afterwards, we headed up Highway 1 to check out the scenery and beaches along the way. At the end of the day, we had planned on just parking the car and turning it in the next day before noon. However, once we got back to our apartment we came to the realization that there are no parking spots in the city. We ended up parking several blocks away and because of the street cleaning schedule, we needed to get up and move the car by 9am the next morning. The next day, Gary and I rolled out of bed, lumbered to the car and just dumped it off at the rental place because we were sick of spending time looking for a parking spot. I’m so glad we only had the car for one day because I was more then happy to get rid of it!
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| The Red Wood Trees are "this" big! |
San Francisco was a great city and I would love to go back there again and do some more exploring. Overall, here are a few general observations I made while visiting. If you have ever been there, I'm sure you would agree!
Everyone has a dog
It’s foggy and around 60 degrees. Always. It never changes!
Having a car is a giant, pain-in-the-butt and there is no where to park anywhere in the city. Ever.
It’s foggy and windy.
I’m positive that if you do drive in the city, you need to get your brakes changed as often as your oil.
Your calves will be buff after walking the streets in SF for a week.
It’s foggy and windy.
It’s insanely expensive. A loaf of break at Safeway was 5 bucks. And that was the Safeway brand name.
Parallel parking in the city should be a sporting event.
There are tourists, tourists and more tourists.
Did I mention it’s foggy and windy? The good thing is, the fog comes and goes quite quickly.
