April in San Francisco

A few weeks ago Bree, Rachel and I took a long weekend and flew out to San Francisco. Neither Rachel or Bree had ever even been to California and we were all itching to get out of town for a little while so with the help of some outstanding recession-priced airfares we settled on San Francisco as a destination.

We flew out of Denver early on Wednesday morning. We had some concerns about how Rachel would react to getting up so early in the morning to be rushed off to the airport. We were pleased to see that she behaved very well. That morning she really set the precedent for the rest of our trip. On the plane it helped that the little girls sitting in the seats behind us were smiling and making funny faces at her through much of the flight. Rachel really feeds off of the interaction with other babies and small children. Unlike her father, I doubt seriously that she will wind up being a shy child.

To save money and the hassle of parking, I put off renting a car for a couple of days. We figured that we could find plenty of stuff to do around the city without needing a car. That meant that we took the train, commonly known as the BART, in to the city from the airport. It turns out that this is really the way to go. The train picks up passengers right at the airport and after about a half hour ride, drops them off in the heart of the Union Square neigborhood. When we emerged from the subway station we were surrounded by tall buildings with crowds of people pushing their way past us. With the help of a hot dog vender we quickly got our bearings and made the three block walk to our hotel.

We stayed in a hotel that I had found a special on after many hours of searching the internet. It was called the Hotel Serrano. The building probably dated from the 1920's, was about 19 stories tall, and had been built using the Moorish architecture that was common in that period. The lobby was small but ornate and they had a table full of board games which guests were welcome to play. Every evening the hotel hosted a complementary wine reception for one hour where guests could spend time in the lobby drinking wine and mingling with other travelers. The couple of times we were around the hotel when they were holding the wine reception, I made sure to take full advantage of it. After all the walking around and hard core sightseeing that we were doing it was nice to come back to the hotel for some wine. In the mornings they had free coffee in the lobby and your choice of newspapers including the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. This was an incentive for me to get up before Bree and Rachel so that I could go downstairs and have a little quiet coffee and newspaper time before heading out for the day. The only thing to disturb it was that the sliding doors to the lobby were often open and it got very cold in there in the mornings.

Our first afternoon, after checking into the hotel, we walked over to Union Square and watched a small Passover celebraton that was taking place. A Jewish one man band of sorts was playing highly dancable songs to the small crowd of Jews that was gathered nearby. I had arranged to have lunch with my old friend Serena Huang from business school here in Denver. She is now working at an old, and very stylish department store called Gumps. www.gumps.com
The store itself is really worth a visit. Most items are well out of my price range, but they have some really unique and gorgeous merchandice. Serena seems to have a pretty responsible job there and works upstairs in one of the offices. But she was able to give us an interesting tour around the jade selectin in the jewelry department. I had never known that jade comes in as many colors as it does and that buyers will go all over the world to get the best specimins of different varieties of the stone.

We had lunch in a nearby food court that was buzzing with activity. It was good to catch up with Serena whom I had not seen since I was in San Francisco several years ago for Halloween. Serena has since gotten married and from the sounds of it, she married a pretty interesting guy. They met after they and some other friends of theirs had gotten laid off after the dot.com bust. She said that there were a lot of people around with no jobs and a lot of time on their hands. The solution was to organize a large music festival. It turns out the festival was pretty successful. I was impressed by this story. A lot of people when they lose their jobs will get depressed and circle their wagons. The fact that these people got together to organize a festival with multiple musical acts as well as several vendors is pretty darn impressive.

After lunch and spending time admiring the merchandise in Gump's, we walked up through China Town. China Town in San Francisco is worth a visit but I wouldn't spend too much time there. I believe the much of the authenticity of this historic, ethnic neighborhood has given way to gift shops and other businesses geared toward the tourist trade. We took a circuitous route back to our hotel by way of Nob and Russian Hills. This way we were able to get our exercise for the day as well as get an opportunity to walk through some of San Fran's more traditional neighborhoods and admire the ornate Victorian architecture.

The first night we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on the top level of Macy's overlooking Union Square. I can't think of a more touristy place that we could have had our supper. That said, it was really nice. There is rooftop patio from where we were able to have a beer and look out over the city while waiting for our table. An added bonus was that the Brewers happened to be playing the Giants and the game was on the TV above the bar.

It was raining the next morning. It wasn't a hard driving rain, but it was the kind of misty rain that forms in coastal cities when the clouds roll in off of the Ocean. The clouds were low over the city giving it a very different feel from the previous afternoon. This is what I imagine San Francisco being like much of the time, cool, misty and gray.

We decided that since it was raining that we would take the train over to Golden Gate Park the, walk around, and go to one of the museums. We were misinformed about subway so after walking to station and realizing that the train was not going to go where we needed it to, we decided to walk. We had rain coats, and Rachel's stroller had a built in umbrella and she was wearing a warm coat so we figured we'd be okay.

Market Street in San Francisco as you make your way away from Union Square gets seedy fast. The grittiness of the neighborhood was accentuated by the grayness of the morning. Homeless people milled about with businessmen and women making their way to their jobs in the government buildings at the nearby civic center. Every corner seemed to have its own doughnut shop. Many of the buildings appeared to have historic value. Some were ornately detailed. But most of the buildings around here still seemed run down and in need of some serious rehab.

After walking for several blocks the neighborhood was gradually improving. Eventually we came to Haight Street and turned right and headed up a steep hill. Immediately the area we were walking through began to feel much more friendly and the general maintenance and upkeep of the real estate took a giant turn for the better. We walked up and and down several hills and for what seemed like a very long time until we finallypassed Buena Vista Park and were in the famous Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood.

It was still pretty early in the day, so many of the little shops catering to tourists were not even open yet. We decided to stop in the People's Cafe for a late breakfast and some coffee. Bree looked through some of the shops afterward while Rachel and I walked along the sidewalk looking in windows and watching the interesting mix of people that were becoming more abundant as the morning wore on.

It was still raining lightly when we walked to the end of Haight Street and entered Golden Gate Park. We walked by the antique merry go round and the playground and saw a drug deal go down nearby while making our way to the Conservatory of Flowers and then to the Japanese Tea Garden.

I thought it was a perfect day for the tea garden with the mist and fog making an ideal backdrop for the meticulously planned gardens. We also happened to be lucky enough to be there at the height of the cherry blossoms. The Conservatory of Flowers is basically an old greenhouse split up into three different rooms each hosting a slightly different environment. They keep it very hot and humid inside for the benefit of its impressive orchid collection.

As the aftenoon wore on the rain started coming down much harder so we decided to go into the DeYoung Museum of Fine Arts. They were hosting a large special exhibit of works by Andy Warhol which we decided to forego due to its significant additional fee. We also agreed that it was not especially important that we go see pictures of Cambell's Soup labels. The rest of the museum had more than enough to keep us interested and occupied. The de Young boasts a large collection of American art dating from the 17th century through the present as well as large collections of traditional and historic pieces from Africa and the Americas. San Francisco has a large and respected museum devoted soley to Asian Art which we unfortunately did not have the opportunity to visit on this trip.

After leaving the museum we went to find the bus route that would take us back to Union Square. I, however, uncharacteristicaly steered us in the wrong direction and we wound up walking deeper and deeper into the park. We were beginning to get cold and tired although Rachel was still doing great all bundeled up in her stroller. Everybody we asked for directions seemed to also be a tourist. Several of the people we came across did not even speak English. Although my inquiries did get me roped into taking pictures of what I think was some sort of French soccer team.

Finally we found some people who were able to point us in the right direction. Instead of the bus we took a street car. Not one of the touristy street cars, but one that looks like a bus on tracks.
It was crowded when we boarded and it only got more so has the trian got closer to downtown. Bree was holding on to Rachel, but we had been pushed apart by the throngs of passengers. Abouth half way back Rachel started screaming. I wanted to go and help Bree, but there was no way I could have reached her, especially while holding the folded up stroller.

I rushed Bree back to the hotel where we fed Rachel and let her crawl around for a few minutes, not nearly long enough to work off all of the energy I'm sure she had been saving up all day stuck in the stroller. I had made plans with our neighbors, Donald and Jennifer, to meet at the Top of the Mark, at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. Bree didn't know they would be in San Francisco at the same time as us so I thought I'd surprise her by meeting them out for drinks without telling her. In retrospect this was sort of a stupid idea because Bree thought I was an idiot for wanting to be at a certain lounge at the top of a certain hotel right at 7PM on the 2nd night of our trip. But Donald and Jennifer were waiting for us when we arrived and they had gotten lucky with a table that commanded about the best view in the place. It also had a bench where Rachel could lie down and take a nap. The view was phenomenal. The sky had started to clear and the sun was setting casting bluish-gray and orange hues all over the San Francisco landscape stretching out below us. Donald and Jennifer had just sold their duplex down the block and were moving out a few days later to go pursue a new life in some small town in northern Alabama. After that night I ran into Donald once, but I doubt we'll ever see them again. They were very nice people and now I wish we had made more of an effort to get to know them socially before this. Our interactions had been limited pretty much to letting our dogs play with their dog, a black lab - sharpay mix named Riley, over at the playground down the street.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a restaurant for some sushi and then decided to call it a day.

The next morning I took the train back out to the airport to pick up the rental car I had reserved. If I had picked up a rental car at a branch location closer to our hotel every rental company I contacted would have charged me an additional $125 or so for the privilege. That seemed so ridiculous that I instead opted to get up early and and go back out to the airport. Ever concerned about the environment, I rented a Prius Hybrid. The part of getting the car that seemed to take the longest was getting the child safety seat installed. But after some trial and error, working up a sweat, and finally asking for help, I was off to pick up Bree and Rach back at the hotel.

We spend the day heading north out of town, first making the obligatory stop at the Golden Gate Bridge. We popped Rachel in the stroller and walked about half way across the bridge. The views were great, but we had to share the sidewalk with plenty of other tourists and there was so much traffic noise on the bridge that it made it difficult to talk. From there, we headed up through Sausalito to Muir Woods, the famous preserve of Redwoods that escaped logging early in the 20th century due to a few very forward-thinking people who were able see what a national treasure these giant trees were and still are. Muir Woods was also very crowded, at least the parking area and the first quarter mile of pathways into the park. As with so many trails here in Colorado, the crowds thinned out considerably the further we got from the cars. I carried Rach in the Erbo carrier and she seemed to be enjoying getting out and having a look around also. We spent about an hour meandering through the small valley containing most of the largest specimans and then decided to take a side trail up to a place called Camp Eastwood. To our amazment this place was not named after Clint, who of course makes his home not far from here, but instead after someone named Alice Eastwood.

Alice Eastwood, as it turns out, was a reputable botanist who made her name in the early years of the 20th century by identifying and clasifying new genuses of ferns and sunflowers. Much of her time was actually spent in Colorado although her most of her most famous botanizing took place later on in California. "She was by all accounts a woman of robust stature and ample voice." according to one website dedidcated to those people who have been commemorated in plant names of the Eastern Sierra. I suppose she would have had to be a hard woman to play in the ultra-macho world of serious botany. The trail that we took that bears her name was delightful and allowed us an opportunity to see some of the surrounding landscape without the company of hundreds of other people. In fact, in the hour or so we were walking, we only came across one other person.

The plan was to leave from Muir Woods and drive up Highway 1 to Point Reyes National Seashore. We took a wrong turn upon leaving the woods that led us back to Sausalito. So after a little cussing and a quick stop at Taco Bell, we drove back up through the windy canyon and found the road that led us down to the coast. In many ways I think that this drive was the highpoint of the trip for me. The drive was slow on the the narrow, windy, two lane road and it took much longer to get up to Point Reyes than I had planned, but every bit of the trip was filled with some of the most unique and beautiful land and seascapes that I have ever seen. With few exceptions, the beaches didn't look very inviting. Most of the coast was made up of craggy cliffs and rugged, rocky shorelines. But the hills to our right were green and inviting. There were several pristine pastures where cows and sheep grazed and very few houses or buildings of any kind to mar the view.

Point Reyes National Seashore itself was generally a much harsher landscape. It stretches inland for several miles from the ocean on a large peninsula. The narrow road leading in toward the coast took us past several small ranches or farms, each of which had a number. I suspect that these old ranches are somehow grandfathered in and sanctioned by the Park Service. The area probably was not heavily settled because of the harsh conditions in the area. The wind was blowing throughout our drive up the coast, but at Point Reyes, the wind was at a totally new level. The famous old lighthouse, which had been our ultimate destination that day, was actually closed due to the conditions. There were only a few other cars in the parking lot at the end of the road. We got out and walked to a spot overlooking the ocean. Bree, being a little lighter than I am, had to lean into the wind to stay upright. I had Rachel in the carrier pressed to my chest covered up by my coat. We managed about 10 minutes out of the car, but that was about all we could handle. If the the wind blows like that more than occasionally out at Point Reyes, it is no wonder that more people didn't want to settle here.

We got back to our hotel fairly late in the evening, and after such a long day Bree just sent me out to find some carryout to bring back to the hotel. Several people approached me for money in the couple of blocks I ventured away looking at the menus in the various restaurant windows. I even gave a dollar to a skinny, sickly looking woman who was very grateful, and told me that since it was Friday that it was a late night at the shelter, so she was trying to scrape together enough cash to go and have a good time before curfew. Knowing that I was able to help her out gave me a nice feeling as I walked back to my nice hotel room with a load of Thai food.

Rachel had been crawling a little bit before we left on our trip, but she really seemed to make some serious improvement while we were in San Francisco. Our room seemed very clean so we didn't feel too bad about letting her crawl around on the floor. We tried to let her crawl as much as possible when we were in the room because she spend so much time cooped up in the car seat and in the stroller over the course of our trip.

The next day we had considered going up to Sonoma and touring a vineyard or two, but after having spent so much time in the car the day before, we decided to stay in town instead. It was a nice day so we decided to go down to the beach since we hadn't really been able to spend any time at the beach the day before due to the conditions. As it turned out, when we got down the the beach, we found the wind to be howling in off of the Pacific much the same way it had the day before. We parked our environmentally friendly hybrid in a public lot acroos the road from the western edge of Golden Gate Park, so when we found that the shore was not going to be hospitable to us, we walked into the park. Once we got into the trees and away from the ocean, the conditions improved dramatically and we were able to spend several hours walking around admiring the gardens, ponds and towering groves of euchalyptus trees in the park.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the Haight-Ashbury district so Bree could spend some time poking around in the eclectic shops that make up the neighborhood. She didn't even buy anything, but I think that she had a good time browsing. One of my minor goals of the trip was to find a little cafe where I had spend a couple of pleasant mornings the last time I was in San Francisco, which is going on 9 years ago or so. I was pretty sure it was up in the Cole Valley nearby, and sure enough we found the place, much as I remember it being several years ago. It is called Crepes on Cole and I still think they have a great place and a great concept for a cafe and restaurant that might do well here in the Denver area with the right location. http://www.yelp.com/biz/crepes-on-cole-san-francisco

That evening we went up to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. I haven't been to San Francisco's Fisherman's wharf since I was a kid, so I didn't remember it much. We found it to be basically one great big tourist trap, but since we were tourists, we decided to make the most of it and ended up having a great meal of bay scallops and shrimp in a cramped little restaurant that looked like it had been serving since the 1940s. The booths were apolstered with vinyl and the walls covered with dusty and weathered looking nautical stuff, much of which looked like it could have come from a rummage sale.

We had walked over half the way back to our hotel before our bus finally showed up and after having to sit across from the psychotic gentleman mentioned in my last post, I wish we had walked the rest of the way.

Our last day in town we started off by walking back through China Town. This time we spent a little more time in the shops, although not too much. I got Bree a pair of jade earrings. We walked over to the Embarcadero and made our way all the way around until we were back at Fisherman's Wharf. We toured the USS Jeremiah O'brien, one of only two surviving WWII liberty ships. This was an inexpensive and interesting attraction that did not seem overwhelmed by other tourists. The people working here were made up of an interesting mix of people, mostly ex-navy, who all seemed absolutely into what they were doing and all seemed very knowledgable about the ships history, not just in WWII, but its subsequent missions as well. The ship is maintained in functioning order and still sails periodically for different functions.

We also went to Ghiardelli Chocolate Factory and split a sunday and had a lunch of clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl. We walked back to Union Square over what has to be the steepest hill in town and were sadly off to the airport to catch our evening flight back to Denver.

We were able to pack quite a bit in to our long weekend, but it didn't seem nearly long enough. San Francisco is a great city to explore, especially if you don't mind doing some walking. On our next visit, I'd like to spend some more time in the countryside as well and maybe be able to take in a theater performance or two. Our next trip looks to be Milwaukee for the 4th of July.