I just spent several days there and there were a few things beyond the obvious that seem worth mentioning. I walked around a lot- according to my phone a total of 32.5 miles in the 3 full days I had there. (For those who like looking at the iPhone Health app, that's 72981 steps, and because it's San Francisco, I also climbed the equivalent of 233 flights of steps). I walked through much of the northeastern part of the city, from Mission Bay to Ocean Beach (clever name!), from Lower Pacific Heights to Pacific Heights, and most everything in between. Some of it was pretty nondescript, but much of it was interesting in some way.
One thing with the hills is that you get these weird juxtapositions between the streets and the buildings. In most places, houses are built on the ground and generally have a similar orientation. Not here.
What do you think that bottom floor looks like? Does the floor slant up so it tapers down to a little point? That would be fun, if a bit impractical unless you need to store a lot of wedges. I suppose they could dig a regular-shaped room out of it, but it sounds pretty depressing- half room and half basement.
On my second day there I rented a bike and rode to and then across the Golden Gate Bridge. This was an interesting thing. If you take the pretty route along the coast, it is very hilly, which makes it difficult on a poorly functioning rental bike. But I did it and some of it was quite dramatic and beautiful.
The bridge itself is a madhouse. The idea of riding across is one of those things that sounds kind of cool and almost romantic, but in reality it's hectic and crowded and relentlessly noisy. There's a visitor's center on the SF side, with ridiculously poor signage on how to actually get up onto the bridge (I just looked for people getting off). It's mobbed with people taking selfies. Once on the bridge, the pathway, which is maybe 8 feet wide, is divided between pedestrians and cyclists. From the entrance to the first tower, it's nearly impossible to just ride along, because pedestrians are all over the place, still taking selfies, and people are biking and videoing. But once you got around the structure it wasn't so bad.
On the Marin county side, there's another, equally busy visitors center. And I get it- the view is great with the bridge in the foreground and the cliffs and city in the background. I took a few picture (yes, including a selfie) and then headed back. By the end, the traffic noise was getting to me. It would be great there without the cars whizzing by, but I don't think that ever happens. On the way back I had the advantage of following a little maintenance truck that cleared the path a bit, so I was able to move more easily, and I took a more direct route back to the shop, once I figured out how to navigate from the bridge back to the streets, which took a bit of doing because of the useless signage. I'm glad I did it; I will not ever do it again.
The other thing I did the second day was commute. My daughter works in Redwood City, on the peninsula as they say- San Francisco itself is on the peninsula but I guess that doesn't count. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to ride the train with her in the morning, and it was. I love trains. This was a quick trip, and we enjoyed looking out the window at the office parks and auto repair places and warehouses. I walked around a bit- there is really nothing to see there and then took the train back. And at that point it was 9:30 and time to start the day.
The last day I walked to the so-called Painted Ladies, which I gather are known for being the house shown in the opening of Full House. They were fine- there are a lot of far prettier and more interesting houses around.
But the park across the street was full of people taking pictures. I then walked through Japantown, which is an odd little place. I was wondering if it was built as a kind of apology to the Japanese citizens for imprisoning them during World War 2. I then headed through the Fillmore district, which has a grungy sort of trendiness about it. Then continued on to the Marina district, which I guess is a weekend party spot, and finally to Fisherman's Wharf. By this time I'd had enough walking up and down hills...
It was starting to become a blur, which was accentuated by a visit to Tonga, the Tiki Bar in my hotel, where I had a well-named drink called a Zombie (note the nutrition information at the end of the recipe). My daughter had a Mai Tai. The bar has a reflecting pool in the middle and every 30 minutes there is a simulated thunderstorm, with sound effects and rain. We had dinner at a nice family seafood place (Dungeness Crab stir fry) and then that was it. Left the next morning and home again.
