seasweetie

Day 0 – Are You Going to San Francisco?

My daughter (K) and I spent a lovely weekend in San Francisco over Labor Day. K is 10, and we always have a blast when we travel together. I’ve had wanderlust since I emerged from the womb; K has a bit more of a homebody tendency, but is always game to come along when I have something fun to suggest. We had planned this trip for last year in December to celebrate her birthday, but my Mom’s cancer turned our world upside down, and though Mom died just before Christmas, it seems the world has only now come to rest in its new position.

As a guidebook, I used Access San Francisco, which had very helpful maps, even though it was a little dated, so some places were no longer in existence. I did some restaurant research on Citysearch, but used very little of it, since K doesn’t really care about food. I did make good use of tips from the Fodors site, and printed out some threads that I reviewed several times before and during the trip.

Our Frontier flight from Denver arrived just as the sun was heading down and the fog was rolling in. K delights in things that more seasoned travelers take for granted, like cab rides, so she enjoyed the views of the houses hanging precariously on the hillside, Monster Park, and the city as we drove in through the early evening traffic.

We stayed at the Marriott on 4th and Market, where I usually stay for business since it’s close to my corporate HQ. I had raved about the beds for a year (and they did not disappoint)! The construction in the hotel lobby made it so we could barely figure out where to go to check in, but we did find the front desk (up on 2) and found we had to sacrifice a bathtub to get a view room – okay by me – I really wanted her to have a view. I will say that while the room was quite adequate, Marriott had sent me an email two days prior to departure, asking what special amenities they could provide for our stay, and though I received an email confirming that our requests had been received, those requests were totally ignored. What’s the point of asking if you’re not going to deliver, or even acknowledge that the requested items (simple requests, like bathrobes and extra pillows) might not be available? Anyway, we spent very little time in the room, but in hindsight, while I’ll continue to stay here for business, I’ll try to find somewhere else for pleasure trips.

We ordered room service for dinner, as K had never had that luxury – Caesar Salad, Onion Soup for me, Mac and Cheese and fries for her, and a sundae to split – and snarfed it all in bed watching the nice flat screen HDTV and planning our tomorrow, before we crashed.

Day 1 – Dragons, Docks and Dungeons

The bells of some chapel awoke us at 7:00 am (16 chimes – go figure!) and we were up and out the door by 7:30. Getting our bearings, we headed to the gates of Chinatown. Passing through those gates is a little ritual for me – it means I’ve arrived and am starting on an adventure in this, one of my favorite cities. At this time of day, few people were out on Grant Street, so we browsed the windows and watched the vendors setting out their displays of vegetables, and little old men wheeling woven bags of grains up the center of the street to their shops. We stopped at St. Mary’s Square, where many elderly Asians were practicing their morning T’ai Chi rituals (two with swords who captivated K’s attention) and watched for a bit, enjoying the peace of our surroundings. K heard some drumming and wanted to go investigate, so we took off down another side street and peeked in the doorway of a Kung Fu studio to see about 12 men practicing with dragon heads and large drums. They stopped just after we arrived, but as we moved down to Portsmouth Square, we saw a huge mass of people gathered – none dressed for any particular event, but all standing in the street carrying signs indicating their ‘teams’. As we stood there, wondering what was going on, the dragons came out from the studio and the parade started! Several other dragons emerged from different blocks and alleys and we followed the procession down Grant Street for several blocks. We discovered that it was the Dragon Boat parade kicking off a competition of teams from across the state. It was just the sort of unexpected delight that I have experienced on my own (particularly in Chinatown) and I was glad that K was able to share in this example of the spontaneity and diversity of this wonderful city.

We broke away from Chinatown and headed down Columbus. The edge of North Beach is an education in itself, so I dutifully answered K’s questions about the erotic shops and entertainment centers. In summary, her response was ‘Eeeewwwww.’ We had to touch the TransAmerica Tower and speculate on whether the walls inside are angled as they are outside, and if you can go all the way up to the top of the point. We compared it to the old TransAmerica building across the street, with its gorgeous architectural façade, hosting an early morning Dianetics seminar inside the main room. Continuing down towards the Embarcadero, we encountered a fountain that I hadn’t noticed before (although it’s huge) that K recognized from a visit to Legoland with her cousin in July – obviously the Lego version was on a much smaller scale, but it was cool to see the real thing! We browsed the art vendors in the square, and stopped for a croissant for breakfast, eating it on the sidewalk to the sweet strains of a street-performing saxophone player.

The Farmer’s Market was in full swing, and we sampled strawberries and grapes while dodging the crowd. K marveled at the wild assortment of people – some dressed as chickens, others still in evening wear from the night before, yet others running and looking as if they were going to drop dead at any second.

We loved the giant Mother-Daughter sculpture just past the Ferry Building, constructed out of welded metal bits and pieces (including the occasional fork). Strolled down the pier with the ocean vessel timeline tiles and sat at the end eavesdropping on a heated discussion between two homeless gentlemen as to whether maritime law supersedes federal law. We ventured inside the Ferry Building, but it was packed and K was being buffeted about by elbows and packages, so we ducked back out into fresh air.

We walked on to the Wharf, taking note of where we had to catch our ferry to Alcatraz later in the day (Pier 33), and taking detours at any little pier that looked inviting, peeking in the open doorways of vast cargo units and streetcar garages. K followed the green tile line in the sidewalk all the way from the Ferry Building until its end, up and over all of the concrete ‘blocks’. I stopped periodically to take pictures of things that caught my eye, including the moon atop Coit Tower.

I had never been to any part of Pier 39 other than where the seals bask, so it was a surprise to approach it from the other side. I think I read somewhere that it’s the third most visited attraction in the US? Well, it certainly does have an amusement park feel to it – and it was packed! We’re not much into shopping, so we made a quick pass through, stopping briefly at the Magic Shop, which was okay. The seals were in good form though, and we spent time watching, laughing and taking videos of their antics. We did purchase a souvenir keychain (for her), a T-shirt (for me) and necklaces (one for each of us, a tradition we have on each of our journeys together) at one of the shops on the Wharf.

We headed to the Wax Museum. I haven’t done a lot of the touristy things in San Francisco, so this was a treat for me as well as for K. Neither of us had ever been to a Wax Museum before. Altogether, we found it a bit eerie. Some statues (sculptures?) were better than others – Clinton and Donald Trump both had a terrible moldy hue – but it was pretty cool. The best part was the Chamber of Horrors. Their simulated ‘Electric Chair’ (it took a lot of persuading to get K to try it, even after she insisted that I do it) was freaky (in a good way), and the pools of blood all over the floor were appropriately gruesome. K really likes the spooky stuff, so this was her favorite part as well.

From there, we went onto the Ripley’s Museum, which was just plain fun. The giant kaleidoscope was way cool, and the spinning tunnel left us both discombobulated, but we loved the whole thing. Our morning shared croissant had long since worn off, so we went in search of lunch, stopping to droooooool in the chocolate shop on the Wharf. Johnny Rocket’s was just the thing - tuna melt for me, burger for her – and we liked looking at the tunes on the little personal juke boxes. After lunch, we zipped through the Rain Forest Café, which was really neat from a décor perspective but really expensive from a food perspective. We were happy just to look there, not eat. Keeping an eye on the time, so we could get back to pick up our Alcatraz tickets, we went to the Musee Mechanique. I had never been in there before and we both loved it – we need to go back with a roll of quarters next time. The early time games were fun just to look at. We did try the arm wrestler, and an old-time foosball game (because we know we’re really bad at foosball), and an original pinball machine. And we ended with some modern-day Pirates of the Caribbean pinball. We could have spent lots of time (and quarters) there. It would be a great rainy-day stop.

Back to get our tickets, we reviewed some of the pics we’d taken on the digicam, then lined up to board our ferry, Islander, on the Alcatraz Cruise line. It seems most of the ferries only circle Alcatraz, so it was good to do the research to find one that actually stops and lets you explore. It was brisk on the top deck on the ride over, but the views were amazing. Once on the island, a ranger provides a very brief orientation and you’re on your own, which is just how we like exploring. We did pay the $1 for the map, which was very helpful – it was easy to lose your bearings, even on a small island with only a few buildings. The former officer’s club, mechanic shop and morgue were our first stops, all very picturesque ruins. It would be terrific if there was enough funding to restore more of the buildings and have them open to the public (some obviously are too far gone, but not all of them). Then up to the cell block, where you can rent an audio tour, which we opted not to do. I’m on the fence about the wisdom of this – we had a unique experience, because we weren’t with the silent herd, but we didn’t know exactly what we were looking at, as there’s no signage explaining the things on the audio tour. We found it fascinating regardless – the cellblocks made me a little nervous – too many brushes with the law in my shady past, perhaps? – and it offered us a lot of opportunity to discuss prison, why people go, what it’s like, why some people can’t tolerate it. K explored every area she could get to (and one I discovered she wasn’t supposed to) and enjoyed herself thoroughly, emerging with many a proud scratch. She spent quite a bit of time in the exhibits section, reading the panels, listening to the video – I poked around taking pictures. We caught the last ferry back, after buying a very comprehensive book on the prison, its’ famous inmates, and ill-fated escape attempts. It was chilly and windy on the island – I should have taken them more seriously when they said be prepared for any kind of weather! But the clever traveller always carries a multi-purpose sarong.

By the time we reached the dock, we were pooped and hungry, so we thought we’d head back to North Beach for dinner. It was a longer walk than we expected, with a gigantic hill, but we persevered until we reached Columbus Ave. again, then evaluated the places we passed. We were looking for the Gold Spike, but before we could find it, I spotted O’Reilley’s, a nice Irish pub that I’d enjoyed on my last trip, so we put our feet up there and had Shepherd’s Pie and champagne (me, of course) and salmon (K), taking leftovers home with us in a cab. We read the Alcatraz book until we both fell asleep.


Day 2 – Hills, Hitchcock, and Harry Potter

We were up a little later this morning and got out of the room by 9:00. Today began with a quest for McDonald’s Used Books. We both love used book stores and make a point of hunting them down wherever we go. I knew the address of this one, and could find it on the map, but as we were walking there, the neighborhood got worse and worse, and finally I decided it wasn’t worth it, as things were looking REALLY rough. (Later on, we called and found they weren’t open on Sunday anyway.) I don’t usually let anything deter me, but with K with me, I just didn’t want to run the gauntlet.

We turned back and headed for Union Square, looking at the art exhibit set up there, and getting tea and sparkling water at Emporio Rulli. We sat at a little table watching the antics of the pigeons (our particular favorite, Miss Skinny, was being aggressively wooed by many a feathered suitor), enjoying the morning.

I had another used bookstore on my list on Polk Street, so we set off on foot, heading first up Powell, then over to Pine and down to Polk. Alas, this one was out of business – it was soon to be an Ultimate Training Gym, so we were once again thwarted. One of our goals for the day was Grace Cathedral, so we started up the hill on California. K decided it was time for brunch and we stopped into Pizza Pino for two slices each – pretty good pizza, nice and thin and crunchy, but the attitude of the staff left something to be desired. With full stomachs, we continued to climb up and up and up until we reached California and Jones. We parked ourselves outside the Cathedral for a moment, admiring the view and catching our breath and finishing our drinks we’d brought with us from Pino. A nice little Chinese woman relieved us of our empty cans with much smiling and nodding.

The Cathedral was lovely. I’d been outside before, but never inside. It reminded me of Duke Chapel, where I’ve spent a lot of time and shed a lot of tears. The light through the stained glass glowed like jewels on the floor. We both submitted prayer requests for my best friend who is battling leukemia, and lit candles for him. K had a hard time extinguishing her lighter stick and was afraid she was going to burn down the Cathedral. Had a little quiet time, and talked about the meaning of non-denominational. Back in the bright sunlight, we stopped at the art show at the little park across the street, and passed by the Flood Mansion, the Mark Hopkins and the Fairmont Hotel.

One of K’s favorite movies is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’, so part of our plan was to visit the spots in San Francisco where the movie was filmed. Our first stop was 1000 Mason Street, but the entire building was most unfortunately swathed in a giant tarp, presumably being refurbished.

I also wanted to show her my favorite postage stamp park, above the Ina Coolbrith Park off Jones between Vallejo and Green. We were doing the major hills again, and the 164 steps to the top of Vallejo, where we discovered my little park just another short hill away. I love this spot. It has wonderful views of the City and of Alcatraz, and is surrounded by flowers - and the grass is always cool and soft and very green. We lay in the grass for a while, drinking it all in, and headed down the stairway that runs through the little neighborhood.

We had determined at lunch that the steepest hill in San Francisco is on Filbert Street, so we kept a weather eye, but when we got to Filbert Street we were undecided if the steepest part was the part going up towards Pacific Heights, or the part going up towards Coit Tower. Someone else will have to tell us. Lombard Street was on our list, both for its famous curves and because 900 Lombard was a film site for Vertigo. We climbed (up, up, up) to the bottom and found 900 – an unobtrusive residence on the corner – and took K’s picture in front of it, and admired the curvy, garden-lined streets. Should we go up to the top? No, the steps were wall-to-wall tourists, and we were ready to head down for a change, so down to the Wharf we went.

Just at Lombard Street, my digicam’s memory card filled up. I still carry the big gun (my 35mm) but the digi is so handy for things that are just fun, and not overly artistic, that
I was determined to get a new card. And boy, oh boy, was I gullible. $75 for a memory card at one of those little camera shops just off the main drag! No price listed, I didn’t figure it would be unreasonable so I didn’t ask, no return if the package is open and the guy at the counter so kindly offers to open the package and put the card in for you. And then I found out what it cost. At least it’ll last for a while. Next time, I’ll know to go to the Walgreens down the block. Lesson learned for both of us – but I should have known better.

Hot and feeling deserving, we stopped at Norman’s in the Cannery for ice cream. Great ice cream too, and Norman himself saw us indulging in the shade and inquired as to the quality. The little courtyard in the Cannery with the cat, bear and penguin statues was a nice place to get off our feet for a few minutes.

Next stop: Hyde Street Pier. I love this place, especially when it’s not busy and you can pretend you’re sailing the high seas on the Balclutha. The Balclutha and the Eureka were the only two ships open, but that was plenty (and you could walk through the little houseboat.) A man was splicing steel cables at the dock of the Balclutha, which looked like hot work and was interesting to watch. We fully explored the decks of this vessel (an 1886 three-masted square rigger), enjoying the bow and stern particularly, and giving thought to the conditions that the sailors lived in for months at a time. It was quite windy, and a fellow tourist lost his sunglasses overboard, despite his full-length flying dive for them, and K’s scramble to stop them with her feet before they skittered off the side of the deck. At least the gentleman himself didn’t go overboard, but it was close! K rang the bell on the bow – it didn’t say not to – but that inspired all the other kids aboard to do the same, so we skedaddled.

The Eureka, a steam-powered ferryboat, also gives you a good sense of going back in time, and the classic cars on display inside just add to the feeling. We were interested in the model of how the steam engine worked, and the view from the cockpit is terrific.

We were still feeling a bit pooped, so we walked on to the beach and sat on the steps and put our feet in the cold water, getting soaked by the occasional small wave and laughing a lot. It was all good.

I like to pick up local art prints (originals if they’re affordable) as souvenirs, so we examined the wares of the vendors in front of Ghirardelli Square and purchased a lovely little canvas from Jeanette McKeen, a homeless vet who paints the pictures on site. It was worth more than her price (and I gave her what I thought it was worth), and we felt we’d done something positive for someone in need. The cable car line was waaaaay long (as it had been at Powell Street that morning), so we decided to get a cab. Easier said than done that afternoon, and we continued walking. We stopped into the Spy Store, which I was expecting to be much cooler than it was. K wanted to hail the cab herself but we quickly discovered that cab drivers don’t pay attention to kids when they try to hail a cab. We crossed the street, as the empties seemed to be going that direction, and Mom took over and caught one immediately.

Where to next? The historic Castro Theater, which was having a Harry Potter marathon on this Labor Day weekend. The first four movies in order, on each day. We’d always talked about having our own HP Marathon at home, and we didn’t want to spend one of our rare days in San Francisco in a dark room, but with tired feet and the sun going down, we figured it would be cool to see this 85-year old theater. The inside was beautiful, though unfortunately the balcony wasn’t open. We got to see #3, which was the one we had probably seen the least number of times. It was classic, and the audience cheered, groaned, hissed and clapped at the appropriate moments – we liked that. The Castro neighborhood in itself was another worldly education for K, and I answered her questions about some of the rather graphic signs honestly and forthrightly.

We took the streetcar back down Market, which reminded me of the buses I used to take downtown in Durham when I was growing up. It was a fun and inexpensive way to get from Point A to Point B. It did get pretty packed, and someone started playing his cigar-box banjo, so it had a good vibe to it.

We weren’t particularly hungry, but knew we would be, so we stopped at Mel’s Drive-In and got take-out burgers and ate them in bed. Another full and wonderful day.

Day 3 – We Left Our Hearts in San Francisco

Our last day. K again admired the view from the window of the church under construction just below us and suggested that if we had binoculars were could do a (Hitchcock) ‘Rear Window’ kind of thing – I felt the view room had been worthwhile. I packed us up and we stored our luggage for the day, as we didn’t have to leave for the airport until 4:00, and we definitely weren’t done yet! Walking down to the Embarcadero, K was still struggling with the concept of homeless people (as we all do) – how they got into that situation and why they remain so, how she could help, and I did my best to explain the wide variety of circumstances and contributing factors, as well as the ‘but for the grace of God’ philosophy. Hopefully, Mom didn’t moralize too much.

I had read on this forum about taking the California St. cable car line instead of the Powell St. line for less crowds, so that’s what we did. Perhaps the view wasn’t as spectacular, but the experience, sitting on the outside, with our most excellent entertaining operator Byron, who rang the bell to a variety of tunes, was outstanding. K was a little nervous about our stuff (and her) flying off, but she loved it, and it was fun to see the places that we’d passed on foot the day before.

At the end of the line on Van Ness, we headed towards the water. The Academy of Art building had some gorgeous vintage cars in the window, so we did a little picture taking. I don’t know if that was a shop or an exhibit, but I wish it had been open! I think we left drool on the sidewalk! Hunger struck K, so we stopped at a little Greek corner café called Peter D’s for an omelet and corned beef hash and egg breakfast.

Since we found ourselves at the Lombard Street intersection, we decided we’d see what the curvy part looked like from the top. K wanted to try to get a video of the cars going down. So up up up the hill – and full of omelet, K ran it – oh, to be 10 again. The view from the top wasn’t as good as the view from the bottom, but it was still fun. We walked down, and she tried her video from the bottom.

Down we went to the waterfront. We picked up one more print from an artist that we’d originally seen in the Embarcadero art fair on our first day.

It was sunny but a rather stiff breeze was blowing, and since K had my shirt, I decided to get us a sweatshirt. We stopped in Ghirardelli Square – went into the chocolate shop just for the sample – and then indulged in a luscious chocolate cupcake from Kara’s Cupcakes. I highly recommend this little boutique cupcake store if you’re in the area. The only real T-shirt type shop was downstairs. I found a sweatshirt, while K chatted with Boomer, the owner’s old dog. The shop owner and I discussed the many changes that were occurring in Ghirardelli Square. The new owners are turning much of the old factory building into condos/time-shares, keeping the façade the same (since the outside is part of historic preservation) but gutting the inside. They’re not renewing the leases on many of the shops and the atmosphere of the square has changed completely since my last visit. It feels a little desolate, which is a shame.

Our big goal for the day was the Palace of Fine Arts, so we followed the waterfront through the park area of Fort Mason, and down to the Marina. There were some amazing kites in the air, and we stopped to watch for a while. The Palace of Fine Arts is like a little piece of ancient Greece plonked down in modern-day California. It’s lovely and peaceful, and we walked all the way around the lake, taking lots of picture of the architecture and the swans. And this was also a ‘Vertigo’ filming site, so we got to cross one more off the list. Since our time was winding down and we didn’t know how long it would take us to find a cab or walk back, we decided to save the Exploratorium for the next visit, and headed in the direction of our luggage. We were fortunate enough to catch one of the rare cabs by the Marina, and went to Union Square to people watch for a bit. Back at the hotel, we went up to the View Lounge on 39, which was MOST impressive, looked through our pictures, and took a few more.

Collecting our luggage and our cab, we made it to the airport with time to spare – I was expecting it to be crowded, but it was empty! Our flight home was uneventful, and we were both a little sorry to leave – we already have our list going for the things we want to do on the next trip!

By the way, K may be more infected with the travel bug than I thought. She’s starting a column in her 5th grade newspaper called “Travels with K”!

ElendilPickle

What a great trip report! I'd love to do a trip like that with one of my children.

Lee Ann

Grassshopper

Wow, you did some major walking! I'm impressed. Good for K too.

SandyBrit

seasweetie:

What a lovely weekend you had together, very busy and lots of walking.

We did the Alcatraz tour in July and the audio tour was part of our ticket, no extra cost. It was so informative and made the tour.

Thanks for posting your report.

Sandy

Grassshopper

This trip report is too good to let sink this fast.

MelissaBeckoff

SOunds like you both had a good time
Melissa

seasweetie

Thanks, Grasshopper! I'll add some pics after the weekend.

dovima

Dear seasweetie,

If I had not grown up in San Francisco, I would dearly loved to have had a favorite aunt or other grown-up to favor me with such a great trip. I'm sure your daughter will remember this for the rest of her life.

kansasmom

Great report! Your daughter sounds like a wonderful travel companion. I hope you can continue to travel w/ her; she'll remember it forever.

seasweetie

I've posted some pics from our San Francisco trip, with more to come:

http://community.webshots.com/user/amyfk

Do enjoy!