San Francisco

As I mentioned earlier there are some things that you just "have to do" when you're in San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge - done that, ride a cable car and visit Alcatraz, okay so we know what we are doing in San Francisco for the 4 days we are here.

As we drove to Wade's house in the suburbs of San Francisco, it dawned on us that we simply couldn't get everything done that we wanted to if we stayed there. So as soon as we arrived I hijacked Wade's computer and booked a hotel in the heart of San Francisco city.

Cova hotel room.

 The hotel turned out to be another good idea as we only just managed to do all the activities we had planned with a City Pass voucher book. We stayed a night at Wade and Debbie's and their twin boys, Aleksy and

Eric before Wade drove us to the BART station for our ride into town. BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit and is an electric rail system - which was surprisingly loud.

Union Square the heart of San Francisco.

After checking into our boutique hotel (Hotel Cova) we immediately set out to walk to the wharfs and get our Alcatraz tour tickets and city pass. Once that was sorted, we wandered along to the Bay Aquarium for our first attraction activity.

Manta Ray cruises above the walk trough aquarium.

The aquarium tunnel with a school of fish.

Petting stingrays at the aquarium.

Petting a shark at the aquarium.



Water animals weren't the only animals at the aquarium.

The aquarium was a great start to our tour of San Francisco attractions. When we finished there we caught a trolley bus back to a street near our hotel. Walking the inner streets of San Francisco in the early evening was like walking most North American inner city streets - full of poor and homeless. But unlike other cities here, it did not feel threatening.


Sea lions another surprise attraction.

For the second day of our city attractions we chose to visit Alcatraz, aka The Rock. But before we even left the wharfs we heard sea lion calls and following the sounds happened across this colony of sea lions who have taken over Pier 39. Some 200 live here all year round with the numbers growing in summer to many more. 

What a poser!



Not to be outdone - this one swam in close for a picture too.


This island is so popular that we had to book a timed visit and arrived with 360 others! These trips arrive every half an hour from 9am to 5 pm every day. We were there in the quiet times as these trips often book out completely many days in advance!

One of the many island ferries.

Alcatraz Island.



There's a story to go with the Indians Welcome part.

 The Indians welcome is not a slur on the type of inmates imprisoned here, but rather another part of the islands history. In the early 70's Native Americans tried to claim the island and live there. it lasted only a couple of years before they were removed and the prison became a National Historic site. 

Entering the prison.



Not much space to live in 24 hours a day 7 days a week.



If only I could close the door....!



Prisoners tried to make their cells liveable.

 After the island we decided to catch a cable car from the piers to the centre of the city - an absolute must when in San Francisco.We were fortunate enough to get seats and steps on the outside. the weather was sunny yet cool and the ride fantastic. The drivers were relaxed and because we were delayed for extended periods along the way for "spice checks" (not a misspelling) they started to tell jokes and chat.

Our first cable car ride.



The gizzards of a cable  car.

Not the steepest street - but steep enough.




A stream of cable cars waiting.



Yep, we got the steps to hang out on.

 Another attraction was the California Academy of Sciences. This huge museum has a 4 storey rainforest exhibit, a planetarium and a multi storey aquarium. The aquarium could be seen from above, below and alongside.

Aquarium at California Academy of Sciences.

Elevator in a rainforest.

On the last day we planned to visit the Museum of Modern Art, only to discover they are closed on Wednesdays. So we caught another cable car to the pier area (which was packed and not quite as much fun) and then a bus across to the Exploratorium. When we arrived we were surprise to see this huge ornate building named the Palace of Fine Arts.

Palace of Fine Arts.



Palace of Fine Arts.

Palace of Fine Arts.



Listening station at Exploratorium.

Bubbology at the Exploratorium.

 
 Wade and his boys had met us at Exploratorium with our car so we could all drive a few places in the city before returning to his place for another night of camping.
Lombard street is known as the most crooked street in North America and possibly the world. This section runs for about 300 metres down a steep hill  and has a turn every 10 metres or so. Great fun to drive - twice!

Top of Lombard Street - crookedest street in North America.



Looking up Lombard Street.



Sunset from Coit Tower, San Francisco.

 We ended our stay in San Francisco city with gorgeous sunset views from the Coit Tower. A perfect way to end our stay in a truly beautiful city. This is definitely my favourite to date.