San Francisco

Today was another whirlwind tour of San Fran, but instead of taking off in the car, we were in the city the whole day. There is so much to see and do, I will surely have to come back to do the rest. I really like the city and could easily live here (if it weren't so cold, so expensive, and so far from everyone on the East Coast). There is so much diversity here due to the numerous immigrant groups and open-mindedness of many of the residents. It was interesting to take the bus (for one, it was enjoyable not to have to drive in the city and navigate the one way streets and steep hills) to be able to see the city but to see the kinds of people who live here by who gets on and off the bus. For example, most people riding the bus in the Mission were Latino, while those riding around Chinatown were, of course, Asian (and tourists from the Fisherman's Wharf). The steep streets make me think of an entire city of Mission Hills, which also makes me greatly admire the bikers and walkers here (for those of you not familiar with Mission Hill, it is a steep hill in Boston near Northeastern where a lot of students, Julianne and myself included, live - though I lived at the bottom fortunately!). There are also Minis, Prius', and VW (well, any city car, really) aplenty and we have spotted numerous cousins to my Mini today.
This morning we got up early to try to take the first ferry to Alcatraz, only to discover that tickets were sold out until Thursday! A note to future tourists: get your tickets ahead! So, we walked about Fisherman's Wharf, saw the sea lions at Pier 39 (though most had gone for the summer), and went to the Boudin bakery.
Then we went downtown to Alamo Square where the 'painted ladies' Victorian houses were - and what a view! The climb up the hill was worth it. By the way, the opening sequence to Full House, as well as parts of Mrs. Doubtfire were shot here. Then I went to have lunch with my friend Richard in the design district, which seemed to be full of re-purposed warehouses. After that I made my way to the Haight-Ashbury district, famous for the hippie movement. It is still a fun and funky place, still populated by characters of all sorts. We even found the former Grateful Dead residence on Ashbury.
After poking around there, we went back to the fisherman's wharf to the Boudin Bakery for a self-guided tour (ending with free samples!) and a purchase of bread (I ended up getting the chocolate-raisin sourdough after sampling - it was delicious! I was a bit disappointed, though, that they didn't have small loaves of the walnut bread - until next time).
Once we were done with bread fun, we headed to Walnut Creek on the BART to see my Uncle and Aunt who live there, and who I have not seen in a number of years.

For laughs, here is a priceless conversation we had today:
Me: "Let's go to the Pacific after the Haight"
Julianne: "What's that?"
Me: "Ummm the ocean"
Yes, Julianne knows about the Pacific ocean, but there is a neighborhood called Pacific Heights that created some confusion. I couldn't stop laughing after a minute or two.

We didn't get to do too much here, but it is only a reason to come back to San Francisco to really appreciate the city - but this time I am bringing a warmer jacket!

I thought it might be amusing to mention that we have started to refer to the Mini and the Magellan GPS system as people rather than inanimate objects, as in: "You can do it Mini, climb those hills", or "What is my next direction, Magellan, I would really like to know". I suppose that happens when you spend a lot of time in the car and rely on objects such as a car and GPS.

By the way, the picture link should work now, thanks to the suggestion by my friend Eric - thanks!!! I am working on "mapping" my pictures, so you can visually see them on our route.