Wrap up Frisco to Go...

Saturday morning we still felt that we needed to catch more of the essence of San Francisco. Since our motel was on the far southwest corner of the city and the bridge that we would need to use to leave town was on the northeast we got to choose a route that would offer sights we hadn’t yet seen. We ended up turning into and driving through the Golden Gate Park. It’s similar to the Central Park in New York, a large, partially natural park in the heart of a large city. The west half of the park was the mostly natural part, the east half was where everything was happening. I had already scoped out some spots in the park I would like to see, from a photography point of view and as we drove I spotted one – the Shakespeare Garden. So we visited that, it was quite small but I WANT ONE!! Rick kept hearing a noise that he wanted to check out so we began to wander. We never found out what the noise was but found the Music Concourse, an architecturally stunning amphitheater with benches, trees and grass in front of it. There were a few dozen people doing Tai Chi and a man serenading his wife on the violin.

Next, when attempting to find the carousel, instead found a really neat playground area done in an underwater theme with that really soft, foam ground stuff they use in playgrounds now. We thoroughly enjoyed our impromptu visit to the park.

We made it over to the Fisherman’s Wharf area again so Rick could get the shot of the cablecar coming down the hill that he was yearning for. But that place is where all the action is; Ghirardelli Square, a wooden ship anchored in the harbor, cablecars, bikers, shops, street musicians, etc, etc. We again had a great time wandering and discovering something to shoot around every corner.

One of the things that was hard to ignore was the myriad of modes of transportation available. As every normal city has, San Francisco offers the usual cars, buses, and taxis. Then there’s the renowned cablecars. Some oddities should be expected, though, from a city as colorful as Frisco and there was no shortage of those either. One were these little, bright yellow 3 wheel motorcycles that fit 2 side-by-side called Gocars. They were outfitted with GPS to lead you to all the tourist destinations. There were also tour buses with the tops cut off, similar to the London double-decker buses but not quite the same, much cheesier. But probably the funniest ones we saw were guided tours done on segways. Those are the 2-wheeled vehicles that resemble an old push-mower and are ridden standing up. We saw 3 or 4 groups of around 10 people on these riding down the side of the road, usually wearing brightly colored vests and helmets.

So that pretty much wraps up our trip to the beautiful Bay area. We opted to just hit I-5 and head for home, we’ll save the Oregon coast for another trip so we can spend a 3 day weekend and see everything we want to see there.

In the future, we’d like to go back and spend some time in Grant’s Pass, OR, Fort Bragg, CA on highway 101 and Mendocino, CA on highway 1. All 3 towns had lots of interesting buildings, cars, and people. Very unlike the desolate, nearly dead small towns we ran across on our trip to eastern Washington a couple months back. These towns were all very much alive!

I’m writing this blog on the road, on my laptop. We’re in central Oregon and Rick says “the ‘check engine’ light just came on.” Uh-oh, might be the beginning of another story….

1 cats hacked up hairballs:

Maggie July 10, 2011 at 11:16 PM  

Oh thank goodness, I was getting so travel weary and the Ore coast sounds like a wonderful trip too. I always wanted to do it but some how we never quite got there. Saw some but not all I'd like.

I thought the Alcatraz was very interesting. Lovely décor.eh?

About Me

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After 2 unsuccessful marriages I spent 12 years as a divorcee, only to fall prey to another man's wiles. We had a fun 5 years together and then he decided he wanted more freedom so once again I'm single.

So I'm freshly divorced at 57 and have 5 great kids and now 7 grandkids. My kids are still a major part of my life but I'm busy helping my aging parents on Kauai.

I've lived in California, Hawaii and Oklahoma before finally settling here in Washington. I love Washington and come back to visit family, friends and take care of my garden often but will be temporarily a resident of Kauai.

I've moved 30 times in my life (no, my parents weren't in the service, at least not since I was about 2) and finally planted roots when I got my little house that I've owned since '91.

My family are Jehovah's Witnesses, I've been one since '72.