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| San Francisco |
The day after I came home from Florida, I met a friend of mine in Philadelphia, and she and I flew to San Francisco to sightsee. During our 3 hour layover in Chicago, we met an 87 year old man named Joseph B Scott. If anyone knows baseball from the 30's, you may know Mr. Scott. He played for the New York Black Yankees from 1936-1956. He talked to us for about 30-45 minutes until we had to go catch our plane. He told us stories of his childhood, teenage years, and playing against famous baseball players. I asked for his autograph and a picture with him. He readily agreed. He is a wonderful and friendly man, and in his words, "Noone is a stranger to him." This was an awesome experience, unfortunately cut too short.
We arrived in San Francisco at about 9 PM California time, which was about midnight for us. We were exhausted. After receiving our luggage, we went to the rental car booths to pick up the car we were supposed to have reserved, but they didnt have it. So we ended up with a 2008 Jeep Liberty. I loved it!!! Luckily Sarah had brought a GPS with us so our entire visit in San Francisco was stress free from trying to find our way around. I highly recommend having a GPS on vacation. Our hotel was 15-20 minutes from the airport.
The next day, after getting up late, we hit the beach. It was cold!!! I wore my jeans and sweatshirt the whole time. We didnt stay very long, because we had tickets for a Giants game. (That's baseball; for those of you who dont know) After the game (Giants lost), we drove around the city and looked at the crazy streets. Lots of them were so very steep it was just amazing! I'd never seen anything like it. We saw Chinatown and the Bay Bridge. We went across the Golden Gate bridge and couldnt see much because it was really foggy. The fog in San Francisco(SF) is strange. It will be really foggy in one area of the city and completely clear in another. We were in a cute little town called Sausalito, which is next to SF. There we watched the fog literally rolling down the mountain side and out across the bay. That was cool!
The next few days included driving part of the Pacific Coast Highway, seeing many lookouts and beaches. I remember this one beach that had a trail going down to it and the trail was so steep that there was a rope to hold on to and shimmy down the dirt path. The beaches on that part on California are small because the land juts out into the ocean and cuts off the beach. Then the land just drops off. There are many of these cliffs along the Pacific Coast Highway. Lombard St is known as the "crookedest street in the world". It is one way, steep and made of brick, and has 8 hairpin turns in the space of one block. It was really fun to drive on it--going 10 mph.
Muir Woods was on our list to see. The giant redwoods were....big! :) I think they speak for themselves. The trees you hear about where you can drive a car through it; those were not the ones we saw at Muir Woods. They're somewhere else. While driving around we happened upon Fort Barry; Battery Mendell, a war fort from around 1900. It was foggy and getting dark, so it was a little scary. But we went back during the day and explored it. In fact we found many other war forts that we explored. They were really cool to walk through and try to imagine it back in its prime. We wanted to see the lighthouse but it was closed. We at least got pictures of it. We drove the San Mateo Bridge which we first saw from the air as we were landing. It is 7 miles long and has a $4 toll.
Golden Gate Bridge was one of the biggest highlights for me on this trip. It was impressive and really pretty to see. Everyday we went across it, it was less foggy than the day before so we could see more of it. Then the last day we were there the sun was shining, blue skies, no clouds or fog. It was gorgeous! Needless to say we took many more pictures than necessary. Digital cameras are wonderful, arent they? Combined we came home with 1200 pictures; after going through them I now have about 850 (from our entire trip).
A few things I will always remember about San Francisco in general that I will pass on to anyone who goes... Its always very windy, so its kinda chilly, especially on the beach. The fog rolls in across the bay at times you would not expect (like morning) and it stays the rest of the day. It makes it hard to get good pictures. The landscapes are unusual, and impressive at the same time. There is so much to see; we didnt see nearly everything in the 5 days we were out there. We really wanted to see Alcatraz Island and tour the prison but it didnt work out this time. But needless to say, I really enjoyed this trip and seeing San Francisco. I recommend it to everyone!
