Good Bye San Francisco

Flying books in North Beach

It's been a long day...

I'm typing this blog post late at night in San Francisco International waiting for our flight to D.C.  I'm kind of sad to be leaving San Francisco.

We've had a very busy day at museums - first the SF Museum of Modern Art, then the Cartoon Art Museum (this is a bit of a hidden treasure, and well worth the $7 to get in!  I'd recommend this gem!)

SFMOMA was great.  It's one of those weird experiences to see work by artists you've heard about but, being on an island in the bottom of the Pacific you never get to see - Picasso, Matisse, Pollock, Warhol, Kahlo... Well worth it if you're in town.

Then when you get to the top of the gallery, there's a rooftop garden cafe where you can order a decent coffee and where the staff have hidden photos of Waldo on sky scrapers around the building - hilarious!

Today was a bit of a tidy up day, finishing off things we hadn't got around to - walked through Chinatown and found the Gate, up to Coit Tower, the Painted Ladies (WooHoo!  Full House Moment had.), finished off one final walk along the Waterfront to the Ferry Terminal Market (very cool, don't miss this for shopping!).

So my final thoughts on San Francisco...

One of the first things you notice about the city is the architecture.  The city suffered a major earthquake and fire at the turn of the 20th century and many of the houses were rebuilt in the Victorian/Edwardian style, which makes this a truly beautiful city with a lot of character.  The houses (and the gardens) have been very well maintained, with each having its own personality without them feeling out of character.  It's truly a wonderful city to explore on foot.

The people I had the pleasure of interacting with were exceptionally friendly - everyone I met was happy to help with directions, offering to take photos of the two of us, generally smily, happy folks.  This extended to the roads as well - drivers were courteous and we had no problems being pedestrians. 

The public transport is cost-effective and easy to use.  Purchasing a three-day pass was our best option and we took the subway, street cars, cable cars and buses throughout.  They were frequent, clean and easy to use.

Generally speaking the food is great - plenty of options and the areas that specialise are wonderful - seafood at Fisherman's Wharf for instance.  Coffee was... mixed.  I don't like strong coffee but even I found this weak.  Hrmm... not a good sign.

All in all, a great place to visit.  I haven't ever flown into LAX, but I don't understand why you would when this experience has been so easy and enjoyable.

Next up... DC.

Here we go!!!

San Francisco, Day 3

Guess where I is....

(Sorry in advance folks, this is gonna be a long post...)

Three words.

Golden.

Gate.

Bridge.

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE!!!

The first thing you notice as you get off the bus at the bridge, at least the day we were there, is the change in weather.  While the weather in San Francisco is warm and dry, the area around the bay is covered in a layer of sea fog.  While this kept the area nice and cool, it did unfortunately limit the views and photo opportunities available.

But you know what?  Don't care.  We're at the Mother Friggin' Golden Gate Bridge, beeyatches!

It's one of those moments where you think "We're there.  We're actually there".  You see so many photos of it, you can picture it in your mind's eye, but for some reason until you're actually there it doesn't quite seem real.

And then I was standing on it.

I was standing on on the Golden Gate Bridge.

The fog horns going off underneath.  The cars rumbling by.  The oh-so-slight swaying and vibrating.  It was surreal.  It was amazing.  It was beautiful and breath-taking and oh-so-slightly scary... and then oh-so-real.

And then, all too soon... It was over and done with.  We'd walked across and back, and we'd done it.

Another experience I'd highly recommend is Fort Point underneath the Bridge. A five minute walk from the Visitor Centre, it's a beautiful brick Fort with magnificent views of all the steelwork under the bridge.  Most enjoyable.

This was followed by a visit to the Palace of Fine Arts (Most spectacular faux-Greco Roman structures set amongst amazing gardens and beautiful suburbs, followed by the Exploratorium.

Unless you are a child aged 12 or under, DO NOT GO to the Exploratorium.  A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME!!!  Nick and I left with a headache.  Do Not Recommend.

Dinner in the Castro and then to bed.

P.S. - I got my coffee.

San Francisco, Day 2

Corry @ Pier 39 - San Francisco Awesomeness!

It has been another rather beautiful summer’s day here in San Francisco and we’ve managed to get out and enjoy it thoroughly!

After some uhm-ing and ah-ing about where to go for breakfast, we instead took the time to go to Gay Mecca, also known as the Castro.  Brightly coloured rainbow flags flapped in the wind as wandered aimlessly along the streets, just enjoying being out in the street and seeing what was to see.  

Riding the bus back into town, we then went out to Golden Gate Park.  Set amongst beautiful gardens are a number of attractions, including the California Academy of Sciences, the de Young Gallery and the Japanese Tea Garden.
 

The Academy is pretty amazing.  Starting from the T-Rex in the front entrance, the space features a vast range of exhibitions including a giant globe with a rainforest built in and the Planetarium.  Having never been to a planetarium before, this was particularly spectacular – an audio-visual immersion.

Then off to the de Young Art Gallery – if you are in San Francisco any time shortly, there is an exhibition on Jean-Paul Gaultier which is fantastic – the items walk the line between clothing and art like nothing I’ve ever seen.  Highly recommended.

Then another bus trip back into town and onto the Cable Cars.  While there’s quite a large queue (especially in the middle of summer apparently), it’s worth grin-and-bearing purely for the unadulterated touristy goodness of the experience.  Big smile on my face!

Dinner at Fisherman’s wharf, then back to the Hotel.

SF Tip of the day:  Ensure that you book Alcatraz well in advance – when we got there it was fully booked out for three weeks (D’oh!)

SF Tip of the day 2:  Coffee.  Corry need coffee.

Tomorrow:  Golden Gate Bridge Walk, Cartoon Art Museum, SFMOMA.  Should be a good day!

Day Two (or is it day one...?)

Well, the 'day' started roughly 38 hours ago, dependant upon how you look at things (fun with time zones).  We are now safely in San Francisco, currently in a lovely large hotel room, pretty much smack dab in the middle of the City.  Both windows are open, the room has hardwood panelled floors and old-school ceiling fans.  Every now and then a bell rings from the San Francisco Cable Cars as Nick and I recover from jet lag.

So after the initial scare with Tongariro, everything else has gone very smoothly.  Caught up with the siblings for brunch and parents for donuts and coffee before flights commenced.  Everybody was perfectly right, you can worry about all sorts of things but once you're on that plane and the door is closed, all you can do is order a glass of wine and hope for the best.

Flight to Auckland:  Smooth
Flight to San Francisco:  Smooth - as can be expected.

I suppose one of the downsides of international travel is the super long flights.  Even if everything goes smoothly, aeroplane food is always sub-par.  There is ALWAYS a crying baby in the ailse over.  There is always the cramp in the leg right as you're trying to go to sleep.  Unless you drug up, sleeping is never long enough. And customs always takes too long

Strangely enough, one of the upsides of the travel is that personal TV screen you get.  Nothing to do with the movies or TV shows or music, but the flight data is fascinating!  Watching the plane move from its origin to its destiny, how high, how fast, very cool!

Anyway, we arrived safely in San Francisco and took the train into town.  Quick, easy option then a quick walk to the Hotel.  For those of you coming to San Francisco in the future, so far I'd higly recommend the Herbert Hotel.  The rooms are clean, tidy, and cost-effective.  They're well kept and, while they're not exceptionally well stocked with amenities, they have pretty much everything you need to keep going.

We've had a very busy afternoon so far!  We spent most of the afternoon walking - we saw the sea lions and Fisherman's Wharf on Pier 35, looked out and saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, wandered through Union Square, the shopping precinct and Chinatown, went through the Business District and saw the Transamerica Pyramid, then took lots of photos of Lombard Street.

Time to get some sleep and recover from jetlag - will post some photos up tomorrow.  Tomorrow holds a tour of Alcatraz and more than likely more walking.