By the Bay in San Fran

San Francisco

Tony and I visited San Fran about 12 years ago, just after we were married. We were keen to take the children, as well as see it for ourselves again. It didn't disappoint: we had lovely weather, cooler than the last few weeks, blue skies (doesn't always happen in San Fran, due to the constant fog) and a great feel. San Fran has lots of street art, which I liked, as it livened up the city and transformed drab corners. We saw a few drab corners as we were staying in a rather undesirable part of town, unfortunately!

We arrived late afternoon and immediately caught up with Tony’s niece, Sophia di Marco, for dinner. Sophia was in San Fran for work. It was great fun seeing a familiar face again and we had fun sharing our stories with her.

We filled our days by doing the touristy things that you do. 

We caught the cable car, which only involved a moderate wait - about 15 mins. 

Always fun and the children got to hang off the side. 

We walked up Lombard St, which claims to be the crookedest street in San Fran; however two other sources told us it is the second crookedest! We didn’t get to the “other crooked” street to check it out though! 

I love how the street is so steep - it has 8 switchbacks in a short space, but then the rest of the street, seen in the distance in this photo (tree-lined street) is so long and straight. There were several houses and apartments on the street - imagine conquering those driveways and reversing out! Not to mention the constant flow of tourists sticky-braking!

We introduced the children to the local delicacy, clam chowder. Only Sophie was game enough to taste it and she loved it - I think she had some every meal! Its ironically called Boston Clam Chowder, but San Fran is renowned for it … we wondered why it didn’t have a west coast name!

The children were given some choices about our activities in San Fran. They chose this activity/ ride where we went on a “Duck” - a tour on a boat that takes you on the road and then straight into the water. The children just loved this and we even enjoyed it more than we expected! Everyone got a turn at driving the boat. Tony felt right at home, after so much RV driving!

We visited the Exploratarium, which is the interactive science museum in San Fran. The children really loved this and could have spent many more hours than we did.

We caught up with a friend of a friend …. our good friends in Sweden, the Zetterbergs, hosted an American by the name of Paul, many years ago. Tony did meet Paul about 20 years ago and every time we visit the Zetterbergs, we hear about Paul. As soon as Paul heard we were coming to San Fran, he was keen to catch up. We met him late afternoon and had a chat while the children played at a park, then he took us out to dinner. We were at Golden Gate Park, which runs right through to the Pacific Ocean. 

On our previous visit to San Fran, we had spent all our time around the Bay, so it was good to get out to the ocean. There were a few brave souls paddling in the water, and a couple of surfers, but they all had wet suits on. The water is pretty cold!

Paul’s sister, Jane, and her 11 year old daughter Vivian joined us. We had a very fun night with them. Vivian entertained our children and they loved being with her. We enjoyed the local wines and a yummy meal, despite being a little chaotic as the children ran around. This dinner was the night of our massive bike ride, so the children were actually ridiculously tired!

Then we did a bike ride. This was a off the tourist trail! This little bike ride around San Francisco Bay turned into a mammoth effort, about 25 kms and crazy hills. How the children kept going, we don’t know (well, the option of turning around and going back wasn’t much better!). 

We started by riding over the Golden Gate Bridge, along with the other thousand odd tourists who walked and rode it also. It wasn’t actually much fun as it was so crowded. We decided to ride to the west, towards the Pacific Ocean, and follow a track to Golden Gate Park. We knew it was quite a distance but thought over the course of a day, we would be fine and we would get some different views of San Fran. Well …. it was a long way but the hills were much more challenging that we expected! The bike hire place didn’t quite mention that the hills went on, and on, and on! We climbed a long way and each time we hoped it would be the last, but it wasn’t. It was hot, so there were lots of stops, but the children managed so well. Off a few times to walk the bikes, but generally they rode as much as they could. We eventually ended up at Golden Gate Park, then had to ride the length of it. 

View from the western side of the bridge.

Sophie rode a tag-a-long behind Tony, which turned out to be a blessing. The hills would have been too much for her. It was rather funny riding behind her and Tony ... her arms flapped around and she wriggled and waved ... don't quite know how much assistance she was in pedalling!

Golden Gate Park is a little like Central Park, but just a little smaller. It has lots of different fields and sporting grounds, great picnicking areas, a great children’s playground and an old carousel. A few roads run through the park and cyclists get priority on all the roads. A lovely place to spend some time.

We were able to return our bikes to a depot at the park … no-one wanted to ride them back to the wharf area to return them! It took the children two days to recover from this ride so we had a few quieter days following.