Day 21 29/04
After a couple days relaxing, cleaning and repacking I was ready to leave the BC cold behind for what I thought would be some Californian sun starting in San Francisco. An early greyhound into Vancouver for a lookie at Granville Island for Sig’s benefit as he had not been there and we were off on a flight into San Francisco with a transit in Seattle.
Now the weird thing is that you clear US immigration and customs in Vancouver airport! So actually we had just entered the US by crossing the airport terminal before boarding our flight…
An In N Out burger (chain) made for a late dinner in our first night in San Francisco (locals call it SF); staying with our cousins (thanks Jason for sleeping on the couch to make space for us) some which I had not seen for about 17 years abouts.
30/04
Jason, our cousin would chauffeur us to Ocean Beach unfortunately the cold Pacific wind made for winter apparel at the beach! Then it was onwards onto a coastal trail that overlooked the Golden Gate Bridge.
On the not to scale map we thought we would investigate by foot Fishermans Wharf (there is a free antique arcade museum there too), Lombard St, Coti tower and Chinatown. With its famous hills this really wasn’t a good idea. After dinner we braved the rain and again cold winds at a nearby outlook called Twin Peaks, already that summer dream was turning into a cold reality.
It was then (probably after I whined too much) we learnt that SF has a rather mild climate, rarely gets very hot or very cold yet you probably going to be wearing/carrying a jacket of sorts just in case.
01/05
Today we decided to walk by foot downtown SF and stumbled across City Hall and UN Plaza before crossing Chinatown on route to a WWII submarine docked back at Fishermans Wharf we saw the day before. Though this time we were better armed with Metro tickets to rest our tired feet.
02/05
What else is SF famous for? Alcratraz of course. The national park service allows only one tour operator to run tours to it and so it gets very busy, it felt almost every tourist in SF was on the island. We got to learn of the history of jails in the US and of that infamous escape from D block. Note that besides the jail block themselves (maintained for tourists) everything else on the island is in serious disrepair due to the harsh elements on the island and hence made way for a large seagull colony.
Afterwards I waited the 40mins to ride the infamous cable car back into town, every other mode of transport is faster due to the long queue caused by tourists like me but I got to hang off the side at the very front to enjoy the oncoming traffic, steep gradients and great views.
03/05
This was a catch up with relatives day and so it consisted of eating, shopping at Costco which is a large bulk discounter (note all big box retailers are banned in SF county and so we had to cross into another county), crossing the Golden Gate bridge for a view from the other side and yet more eating that night.
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