San Francisco, California
China Town
San Francisco, California has long been a place I wanted to visit. The city intrigued me with it’s steep streets, cable cars, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and year-round temperate weather. All this, just south of another place on my short-list, Napa Valley wine country. I knew one day I was going to get there and that day finally came.
There are 2 sides to San Francisco, the beautiful, clean, vibrant tourist side and the dirty, seedy genuine side where the homeless reside. The lines between the two areas are often blurred and you cannot ignore the reality of a city in trouble. We stayed at the Hilton Parc 55 on 5th and Market , a beautiful hotel itself with large rooms and amazing views of the city and is a great location to explore the city. Bring a good pair of walking shoes because although there are cabs, uber and public transit, the traffic is horrendous and it is almost just as fast to walk a couple of miles than to travel by vehicle.
One of the first places on our list was Alcatraz for which I had bought my tickets weeks in advance and a good idea since tickets are hard to obtain. It is a short ferry ride across to the island and after disembarking, we spent a couple of hours wandering the buildings and grounds. The federal prison was open from 1934 to 1963 and housed some of history’s most notorious prisoners such as Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud Franklin also known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz”. There are the remains of apartment buildings used to house the staff and their families.
Alcatraz was known for being the worst prison in the United States and prisoners have told stories of brutality and cruelty beyond humane. There have been no known escapees of Alcatraz although a few tried. They did not live to tell their stories. It was creepy being inside the cells, especially “the hole” and I was happy to get out of there. On the day we visited, an ex-prisoner, Bill Baker, aka, inmate 1259, was on the premises promoting his book “Alcatraz-1259”. We purchased a personally signed copy which was an interesting, simple read.
Definitely worth a visit and the ferry ride provides a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day.
Being at Alcatraz really disturbed me but I am glad I got to see it and absolutely recommend a visit, however, it was time to be in a happy, busy place so off to Pier 39 we went. This is a lively place, especially at lunch but we found a spot on a patio and enjoyed our lunch before exploring more of the Fisherman’s Wharf area. There are many stores and restaurants and we even had the opportunity to catch the sea lions taking a nap.
To cover all of San Francisco and explore the different neighbourhoods, you need several days. We had a a couple and had no car so I planned a tour with a local tour company, Left Coast Tours, that offer a variety of different tours in small vans. We were taken on a whirlwind tour through many of the neighbourhoods that included Union Square, Haight-Ashbury with the beautiful painted ladies/houses, Marina/Pacific Heights, Nob Hill that is home to the famous curved Lombard Street, Embarcardo/Financial district, Golden Gate Bridge and we also drove up twin peaks for an amazing view of the city! It was an amazing 3 hours and I totally recommend Left Coast Tours. Click on the link above to open their website in a new tab and know that I do not receive renumeration for this link, I just really enjoyed their tour and our tour guide, Jeffrey.
Each neighbourhood has something to surprise us. My favourites were seeing the amazing architecture, especially the painted ladies houses in Haight-Ashbury. These houses are actually featured in the opening credits of the 80’s tv show, Full House. The Palace of Fine Arts was a peaceful place to take a break and of course, it was fun watching the cars drive down Lombard street. The traffic in all large cities in California is horrendous and San Francisco is no different. This does impede the ability to get around and hampers the ability of tour guides to fulfil everyone’s wishes but Left Coast Tours did a great job of pleasing the 8 of us on the tour.
I am thankful that we finally got to see San Francisco. We definitely got a good workout walking up and down the hills and walked about 10 miles each day so I felt no guilt enjoying the cheese and wine during our next stop, Napa and Sonoma wine country. San Francisco, California is a busy, hustling city with much to see and perhaps I will go back once they address their housing situation and assist their residents in getting off the streets.
