San Francisco

I had a list of sites to see around the city, and we started with Lombard Street. We drove up Hyde Street (really huge hill-I think it's been in a few movies), and then stopped at Lombard. I love the trolleys!
There was a good view of the Coit Tower. We headed there next.

Then we went to Safeway and had lunch on the Marina Green. It's just a public park (with FREE parking) on the water with views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.



We signed up in advance for an Alcatraz tour. It's about a 15-20 minute ferry ride to the island. We had some great views of the city, the Bay Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was pretty foggy when we got to the city in the morning, and around noon, it started to clear up. You can see the fog lifting here:

Bay Bridge that goes from San Francisco to Oakland.
Getting close to Alcatraz.

Isn't this exactly what you picture in your head when you think of a park ranger? He gave us an intro about Alcatraz and what to expect when we first got off the boat.

The tickets we bought included an audio tour. It was narrated by real inmates and officers who worked at Alcatraz. It was cool.


This is the Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz. Sadly, this was as much as we saw of it. Once we finished the Alcatraz tour and got back to the mainland, the fog had come back and settled over the bridge, so it was barely visible. I was pretty disappointed, but life goes on.

This is a view of the city from Alcatraz.
I had been reading this article on our way into the city, and read about Castro neighborhood. "San Francisco's Castro neighborhood was initially settled by gay servicemen discharged here from the Armed Forces (for being gay) during WWII. Historically, the neighborhood has always been in flux: At the turn of the century, it was known as Little Scandinavia; then it became an Irish neighborhood, until the Gay Pride Movement of the 1960s made it safe for all the ex-servicemen to come out. Nowadays the neighborhood is overrun with fashionable, rich straight people." I was intrigued, so we drove through the neighborhood.


We walked to Ghirardelli Square. Our plan was to, of course, tour the chocolate factory. It turns out, there is NO chocolate factory there! Only a little chocolate/ice cream shop. I couldn't believe it! There was a big fire that destroyed the business in the 1850s, and then in 1965, San Francisco declared Ghirardelli Square (where many of the Ghirardelli buildings were constructed) an official city landmark. Two years later, production facilities moved to San Leandro, California. (Wikipedia)

Down at the Fisherman's Wharf, we walked around all the seafood selling stands. We couldn't resit the fried shrimp. The sourdough bread smell near Boudin Bakery was amazing.

Sourdough was the main bread made in Northern California during the Gold Rush, and it remains a part of the culture of San Francisco today. The bread became so common that "sourdough" became a general nickname for the gold prospectors. The nickname remains in "Sourdough Sam", the mascot of the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco sourdough is the most famous sourdough bread in teh U.S. today. In contrast to sourdough production in other areas of the country, the San Francisco variety has remained in continuous production for nearly 150 years, with some bakeries( e.g., Boudin Bakery) able to trace their starters back to California's territorial period. (Wikipedia)

We also went to Pier 39. There's always a lot going on there. Street performers, magicians, restaurants, souvenir shops, and tourists everywhere.


One of my all time favorite cities. I was so excited for Bryce and I to go together. We got to see a lot of the city. We ate fried shrimp and fresh clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. We rode a trolley. We took a ferry to Alcatraz. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, well, part of it through the fog. We ate a free Ghirardelli chocolate.