Denise's San Fran Vacation - Final Update

Saturday, July 18

Well, flew home today. United leg of trip definitely not as smooth as Air Canada portion, but we made it home in one piece so that’s the most important thing. Got to the airport at an ungodly hour (ha! Why do I always pick itineraries I end up regretting?!) and decided to have breaky there. Found a good restaurant and ordered the full breakfast. We asked for dry scrambled eggs but when they got to the table they were running all over the plate – ick. Skipped that part.

There are lots of shops to keep you busy, especially with typical San Fran stuff to take home like Ghirardelli and See’s candies, salt water taffy and everything you can possibly imagine putting a bridge on – shirts, bags, mugs, hats, jackets, chocolates, pictures, postcards and on, and on, and on. Naturally I now have a reusable shopping bag with SAN FRANCISCO blazened all across it in varying colours!

Snoozed the whole way to Denver, pretty typical for me on a plane; sometimes I don’t even make it to the end of the runway. Once we got to Denver I was so excited. I’ve been trying to route trips through Denver for a few years now after seeing a show about the fabric roof they were installing over the terminal. At one point (and it probably still is) it was the largest fabric roof in North America (or was it the Northern Hemisphere?....) Anyway, we step off the plane, look up… and it’s a solid roof. So we start moving (away from the gate we need for our connecting flight) thinking each new area is going to be “the one”. Then I spotted it outside a window – and it’s about a mile away. Denver is the 3rd largest airport by land area in the world. Hubby reluctantly agrees to check it out after I tell him he has no choice. We start truckin’ over there because it’s FAAAAR and we only have an hour. Manage to find a train to the other terminals, so we hop on and get off at the next stop…. and the roof is solid here too. So, we’re going to get back on the train to try another terminal but we just happen to catch sight of an information booth where the guy proceeds to tell us that it’s actually outside of security and if we’re going to see it we need at least a 2 hour stopover. All these years, so close and yet so far. Darn.

No TV or movies on the return since it was a little Canadair Regional jet, but such a great look at the mountains. I can't imagine being stuck in an aisle seat, there's always something amazing to see outside!

All in all, a really great trip. Something we had never considered before, and yet had an amazing time.

Some final tips:

You’ll be pretty sore the first day as your legs get used to climbing hills. But you do get used to it very quickly; at least the regular stuff. The CRAZY steep hills still take a lot of energy.

There is a flock of wild parrots at the Filbert Street Steps, which lead to the Coit tower and offer really great views. Although we never made it to the tower, we were lucky enough to see them across from the Ferry Building, in the park at Embarcadero Plaza. Heard a great big birdy racket and there they were, swooping overhead. Pretty fast little guys!

San Francisco isn’t afraid of its history. They’ll talk about the dirty days of the gold rush. They don’t hide the ugly truth about what happened to Chinese immigrants in the 1800s and the Japanese in the 1900s. They embrace Alcatraz’s past including military prison, federal penitentiary, and native occupation.

Depending where you’re going to be staying and where you’ll be visiting, you might seriously consider a MUNI pass. They’re good for buses, trams and cable cars. Individual rides can be a couple dollars each, but an unlimited pass is only $18 for 3 days or $24 for a week. They also have one day passes available. The passes were a lifesaver for us. Because we were visiting quite a few different locations and we weren’t staying at the water it really helped us get around easily and cheaply.

If you want to catch a cable car, early morning is best and the turnaround near The Cannery at the wharf is the busiest. We were there one afternoon and even though there were three cars to be loaded, the lineup was still going to take an hour for us to get our turn. Instead we ended up catching the California Line at Market and riding all the way to Van Ness which is only a few blocks from our hotel. But, if you don’t want to just ride, if you also want to see the turnaround (where the conductor gets out, grabs hold and gives a heave to physically turn it around on the track) try the other Powell-Hyde turnaround at Taylor and Bay or the Powell-Mason at Powell and Ellis.

Because our trip to the zoo took longer than we planned we never made it to Golden Gate Park, but I feel pretty confident in saying that it would be a worthwhile trip. There’s a lot to see and do, so check it out before you go and decide which section of the park suits you best.

We were there Tuesday to Friday and the crowds were great. But Friday starts to pick up and we heard that Saturday is absolutely crazy at the piers. Keep that in mind if you don’t like waiting or being jostled. But, there’s a lot more going on those days too with street performers out in full swing including a tightrope juggler, dancers and airbrush painters.

There are coupons available, in print and online, for food and attractions.
Print: Bay City Guide and the Rental Guide are both free on the street. There are also maps all over the place – handed out at hotels, restaurants and attractions, and they usually have coupons all over them.
Online: http://www.sfguide.com/ and http://www.baycityguide.com/.

Denise's San Fran Vacation- Day 4

Friday, July 17
Spent the whole day at Pier 39 today. It wasn’t actually our plan, but that’s the way it ended up and it worked out great.

First we needed to change hotels; we have to be at the airport for 6am so I want to save the 40 minute travel time. We caught the bus to the Financial District so we could catch the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train at Embarcadero to the Airport. Then from the airport we caught the Sheraton shuttle to check in. Except the room wasn’t ready so early in the morning so we just dropped off our bags with the bellman and caught the shuttle back to the airport where we did everything in reverse. At the end of the day we did it all over again. Sounds like a lot of work, but it’s really simple, it’s almost the same time for the trip, and I saved us at least $85 over cab rides. Sounds like a good plan to me!!

We had originally arranged with a door-to-door shuttle company to take us to the airport at the end of the day to get to our new hotel. We told them to meet us at the Holiday Inn on Beach. But after we ate lunch we noticed that the Radisson was much closer to where we were going to be so we called and changed it. Right after we hung up we realized that it was almost the exact same trip, but $10 cheaper and on our own timetable if we caught the train.

We went back to the Beach Street Grill for lunch and sadly it wasn’t as good the second time. The food was still good, it was just server snags.

After lunch we were going to catch a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge to get the great and amazing pics we were hoping to frame and put up. I had looked the trip up online and knew where to catch the bus, where to get off, and the 25 minute walk to the bottom of the bridge. All laid out, nice and neat.

We found the bus shelter okay, but when the first bus pulled up the other guy at the stop asked the driver something about the Golden Gate. She said that not only does the Golden Gate not stop at this stop, but it doesn’t run very often. Hmmm. We decided that since it said Golden Gate Transit right on the glass that she was likely wrong, so we were going to ask the next bus driver. He said that yeah, it stops there, but not very often. We checked the signs and found a note that said to call 311 if you have questions. We called and they couldn’t help us because GGT isn’t run by MUNI (which is who you reach when you call 311). They suggested that we take a MUNI bus, but it stopped much further away than the GGT did, so it could be a 45 minute walk each way. But, they also gave us another number to call for GGT. They didn’t have any better news. 1) The bus wouldn’t be at our stop for 40 minutes. 2) They don’t run very often so we could be stuck at the bridge for a loooong time before we get a ride back. 3) she said the good pictures aren’t even from the San Francisco side. Every picture you see of the bridge is from the North side looking back to San Fran. So we’d have to catch the bridge all the way across to Sausalito then hike from wherever we landed over there. Suddenly it didn’t seem that important to get that “awesome” shot.

So, we moved up our plan to go to the Aquarium of the Bay and headed over to buy tickets. BUT, while we’re in line there’s a sign for a combined tour – buy Aquarium tickets and a cruise around the Bay for only $33 – so we’re going to see the bridge after all! The Aquarium was fun, they have a lot of hands on stuff which is great for everyone, not just kids. They have a pool with rays, skates and a leopard shark that you can pet – awesome. The also have a tide pool where you can pet sea cucumbers, and hard and soft starfish. Totally cool. And that whole floor of the aquarium is run off solar power.

That’s one thing I haven’t mentioned. San Francisco is VERY environmentally conscious. Lots of recycling, biking, and just generally healthy planet ideas. There are recycling bins around the whole city, all over the airport, and every hotel recycles. Blows Winnipeg away. At the airport there was even a card on each table about which seafood you should and shouldn’t eat based on stocks, vishing method, environmental impact and health (mercury, etc.).

Anyway, back to the aquarium. One level has two tunnels, they call them “dives”, one for shallow water, one representing deeper ocean. There’s a stationary sidewalk and a moving sidewalk (which wasn’t working when we were there). The tanks were loaded with fish of all sizes and several different sharks. There were also 2 schools of anchovies – man those guys have a crappy life. One school of smaller ones just tucked themselves into the tiniest corner and writhed around and around. If a “stream” of some started away from the group, they immediately doubled back through themselves and into the main group again. The tunnel tank is a couple hundred thousand gallons of water and you could have tucked those crazy fish into a 100gal tank without them even noticing!

They also have two kinds of jellyfish in one room and they are amazing. Everyone just stares, mouth gaping open at these amazing creatures. One type was completely see-through. And there was nothing to it. It’s just a bag with some strings and it’s an ANIMAL. Really cool.

The aquarium only takes about an hour to visit, so then we got in line for our boat tour. While in line, we stopped at the Ben & Jerry’s booth right behind us for a snack… don’t bother. Filthy and gross. The staff are all filthy, the counters, windows, floor, everything is disgusting. The staff took out the garbage and then went back to making people’s food without washing. And don’t expect quick service – it’s like they were having slow races with each other. Who could take the longest to serve a person.

Boat tour was interesting. They kinda oversell so unless you get to the rail quickly when you’re loading, or else you’re taller, you may not get the shots you wanted. Luckily a good portion of the other tourists were of short stature so Darrin and I got to sit and he stood up whenever he wanted to take a picture; neither one of us was interested in standing for a whole hour.

San Francisco was bright, clear, sunny and hot but as we moved out into the bay the fog settled in and got thicker and thicker. I was getting a little worried about what our pictures might look like, but even if there was fog drifting in and around the cables, it would look pretty cool. But, nature had other plans. As we toured the bay, getting history about various buildings along the water, and the city itself, it was getting pretty clear we weren’t going to get the shots we wanted. By the time we got to the bridge the fog was so thick it was like there were bridge supports to nowhere – the deck was completely invisible in the fog, We sailed right under it and could see some, but certainly not those cool shots you see on posters. We couldn’t even tell it was orange! But it was fun anyway, and we could say that we at least tried to see the bridge. After the bridge we cruised around Alcatraz and got a better look at some of the places you couldn’t go on the tour. They used some audio from the tour and then filled in with some new stuff too, so even though we’d already been we still learned something new. Then we passed the Bay Bridge, which has an interesting history and I actually like it better than the Golden Gate. The last thing was going past the sea lions sleeping on the docks. That’s it, they just sleep. And occasionally one barks. But even though they don’t do much, it was great to see them so close.

After the cruise (which again, wasn’t rough enough to make anyone even slightly ill) we did a quick bit of shopping (some Ghirardelli chocolates of course!) and grabbed a quick bite before catching the tram to Embarcadero station to get to the airport to catch the hotel shuttle.

We thought “when in San Francisco” and decided to eat at Boudin’s, the sourdough company. They have a restaurant right at Pier 39. I love sourdough bread, and you get your fill in San Fran. Restaurants serve it as croutons, toast, side of bread, for sandwiches, and even burgers come with sourdough sometimes instead of a bun. But I have to say, I didn’t like Boudin’s. The bread wasn’t very sour, and it was so tough and chewy, it never broke down. I chewed on it forever and it was still just a piece of bread in my mouth. Not enjoyable. And hubby didn’t really like his sandwich either, it was a low quality, and strange, BLT. The biggest problem was the T. They cut a medium sized tomato in half and put that in the sandwich. Half a tomato! C’mon, that’s just silly. The sandwich was so big you had to take it apart to eat it, I mean, there was and inch and a half of tomato! Plus the ham and bread weren’t great. It was actually kind of disappointing that our last meal was a letdown, especially at something so “San Francisco”.

We caught the tram, the train and the shuttle back to the Sheraton. It’s a nice night, no wind, nice a cool. A great night to leave the window open and sleep in the fresh air. And this expensive bedding doesn’t hurt either.