Visiting San Francisco: Eminent Tourist

“Near the end of a journey, it’s easy to look back and see the extrodinary momentum built up over the past steps. There’s a temptation to lean back and mentally coast.” – Old Sean

Long Endings

It’s nearly time to head back home to Texas.

I’ve been driving for nearly a month straight across the US, and my final few stops are winding down.

After visiting Rich at Grover Beach, I made my way north towards San Francisco.

The last time I was in California, I remember it being distinctly brown and a bit dusty. 

However, as far as the coastlands are concerned, the land is positively lush.  Round topped mountains boast almost unnaturally green hills folding across the land.  The orchards are bare due to the season, but floors of fresh growth make up for the discrepancy.  Great blimps of columbous clouds snooze overhead, casting deep dappled shadows that are beautiful to behold and frustrating to photograph.

As I made my way north, I dealt with near-constant rainfall.  While it was never very intense, the patter was fairly consistent. I I was granted a brief reprieve when I arrived in San Francisco.  Despite storm clouds walling off every horizon, I rarely had to deal with more than a slight drizzle.  So I capitalized.

Up and Down the Hills

While visiting San Francisco, I first stopped by Golden Gate Park. After driving for a while, I was eager to stretch my legs and I always appreciate greenery. 

Golden Gate Park is enormous and it’s positively stocked with some of the city’s most interesting attractions. They’ve got the Bison Paddocks, towering windmills, hefty foliage, a rather nice series of parks, a botanical garden and a picturesque boating lake with a waterfall. 

Most my morning was spent here, gradually working towards the coastline where I was a bit disappointed by the rough grit and graffiti of Ocean Beach.

However, if one would like a slightly prettier coastline with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Baker Beach fits the list.  From there I actually did go to the bridge itself, doing my best to avoid appearing in Chinese tourist group photos.

Urban San Fran

When I finally entered the actual city, I got a bit lucky in terms of traffic.  I found decent parking and wandered over to see the sights around Fishermen’s Wharf.

Firstly, for anyone struck frequently with fits of nostalgia, Musee Macanique has numerous gear-and-pulley turn-of-the-century games. These mechanical amusement machines harken back to a time when electricity was novel. 

Additionally, the area has a submarine and battleship parked out back.

Wandering further along the shoreline results in arrival at Pier 39, an enormous tourist boardwalk jutting over water. 

Sadly, I didn’t have time to check out everything, but the Mirror Maze was a fun little visit and the Aquarium of the Bay is the largest available attraction.  Besides that, there’s a glob of sea lions proudly sprawled like fleshy logs on floating platforms, occasionally barking unwelcome guests back into the water in a tremendous cacophony.

Uphill Gears

I spent the rest of my day carefully navigating the city.  Carefully, because rain makes things a tad slippery and San Francisco was built on painfully sharp inclines, making low-sitting cars like myself blind when cresting ridges. 

I eventually went up to Coit Tower to look at birds and enjoy overlooks of the city. At another point, I cycled (accidently due to construction) all the way back towards the Exploratorium, which is a entertaining interactive science venue.

One of the last things I wanted to check off my list was visit the meditative Yoda Fountain at the Lucasfilm offices in the Letterman Digital Arts Center. 

The remainder of my time in the city was spent wandering through a few of the nicer parks and scuffling around for food.  I left the city just after rush hour, driving north for Sacramento.

For this, I had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, at which point I discovered an undefinable sense of apprehension.  After introspecting, I think it’s because the Golden Gate Bridge is so frequently thrashed and destroyed in movies, that I somewhat expected something Godzilla-oriented to happen.

But I crossed the bridge safely enough and found a small hotel just outside of Sacramento. Currently, it’s quite late at night. I don’t have any time to delve into California’s state capitol.

But tomorrow’s a new day.

So until then,

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Written February 1st 2019

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