Gold - San Francisco, open your Golden Gate

Open your Golden Gate

Gold

I could have used the element Gold, atomic number 79. a lot of times on this holiday I could have used it for the first visit to San Francisco when we visited the Golden Gate Park and the Golden Gate Bridge. I could have used it in Homer and Fairbanks, both which owed their founding to the Alaskan Gold Rush. But I was saving it up, in the hope (thankfully fulfilled) that the Golden Gate would come out of the cloud for us, as surely as Denali finally did last week. Today was that day - we came and saw the Golden Gate and the fog stayed away.

Open your Golden Gate

Armistead Maupin characterises views of San Francisco by comparing the two songs for which the City is best known. He says there is the survival mode, depicted by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1936 film San Francisco, with its setting in the 1906 earthquake, and the sentimental mode represented by Tony Bennett in 'I Left my Heart in San Francisco'

I was asked a few months ago which is my favourite City in the world. I pondered if it was New York, Dubrovnik or San Francisco. All have a place in my heart: New York for its brash, no nonsense ways; Dubrovnik as I remember it before the Croatian-Serbian war and how I have seen it recover from the trauma of death that came to it in that war: but San Francisco is the place which brings me back time and time again. Its variety, its openness, its amazing mix of cultures are all huge attractions. So on this my ninth visit I am again filled with the joy this city brings. I have visited Dubrovnik, 9 times too, and New York six times, but when it comes to the 10th time I think this City will be the winner.

The Comfort Inn by the Bay - the place we stayed the first time we came to SF

San Francisco manages to reinvent itself so often, even in the 25 years since my first visit here I am caught up in the things which remain the same and the things which have changed and developed. A little of my heart is always here in San Francisco and walking past the hotel where I stayed first when I came here (the other eight times have all been at the Triton), I enjoy the memories. 

Breakfast

Enough of the sentiment, on with what we did on Wednesday.

I woke at 5am and blogged about the travels of the day before. Drew woke a little after 6am and I went down to the lobby for coffee. 

Morning at the Triton

After showering etc we were out of the hotel by 8:30 and on to Walgreens for our one day passport Muni Passport. Here the Clipper card, of which I spoke when we were here last, means we can buy a day passport for $12 each. The paper version for non-Clipper users is $23. A huge $11 benefit for going digital!! I'm so glad we did.

Walgreens - Powell Street

We chose to go to Lori's opposite Walgreens for breakfast. This is a great place with traditional San Francisco style. It is set out like a 50s diner. 

Orange Juice, Grapefruit Juice and Coffee

We began with an Orange Juice for me and a Grapefruit Juice for Drew and Coffee for us both.

Two eggs over easy with Bacon

Drew went with two eggs over easy with Bacon and white toast for his breakfast.

Corned beef, potatoes and green onions served with eggs over hard

I went for corned beef, potatoes and green onions served with eggs over hard. Yummy with crunchy potatoes and salty corned beef, not of the fatty kind that come in tins in the UK, but beef treated in the same way as pig is turned into ham.

Lands End

Our Route today - Two Buses and Cable Car and walking

When we were here before our Hawai'i and Alaska trips we walked beyond the Golden Gate to Bakers Beach. But after 7.75 miles we didn't have the stamina to get to Lands End. I'd always wanted to get to Lands End as Mary Ann, takes Norman there in the first Tales of the City book, and he falls to his death.
So we walked down two blocks to pick up the 38R bus from Geary and Powell to Lands End and 48th Avenue. The R in the bus title is for rapid. The bus only stops every five stops downtown to ease the morning rush hour. So it was 18 stops before we arrived at Lands End at 10:00am. 

Sutro Heights

Sutro Park Entrance

The first place we come to at Lands End is Sutro Heights where in 1896 the millionaire mayor of San Francisco Adolph Sutro set up his home as a park and allowed visitors for a dime. 

The site of the conservatory!

In 1938 his heirs gave the park to the City and they demolished most of the buildings. The park now, oddly, has signs saying things like: "Here was the conservatory...before it was demolished." 

Ocean Beach

However the park is very pleasant, with great views out to the Pacific and down to Ocean Beach, where we were a few weeks ago after our long walk through Golden Gate Park.

Lands End Park

Sutro Baths - Lands End Park

Views of the Sea - Lands End Park

Sutro Park gives way to Lands End Park, and you begin to see how easy it would be for someone to fall here. The imagination is helped by signs like this:

Cliff Danger

We walk a little further around the bay and Drew gets his first real view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

First View of the Golden Gate Bridge

While I have seen the bridge without fog before. I was here in January 2000 and San Francisco doesn't have winter fog. Drew has been here on five previous occasions and has taken many pictures of and from the bridge in fog. He was really pleased to be able to see it in all its glory today. There are many (and I mean many) more shots of the bridge on Flickr if you'd like to see them.

Golden Gate from Lands End

Sea Cliff

At the end of Lands End park we arrived at the community of Sea Cliff and walked along El Camino del Mar. Sea Cliff has its own entry pillars.

Sea Cliff

El Camino del Mar brings us to the place we caught the bus last time we were here. After a 3.25 Miles, 1 hour 40 minute walk from Sutro Heights to here, I'm glad we didn't carry on last time, it would have been to much. 

Golden Gate

It was the soldier and politician John C. Fremont who after confirming a Gold finding in the hills beyond the City called the strait at the end of the San Francisco bay the Golden Gate:

To this Gate I give the name of 'Chrysopylae,' or Golden Gate, for the same reason that the harbor of Byzantium was called 'Chrysoceras,' or Golden Horn.

Fremont also spoke of the Gold that would enter this gate through the trade with the Orient. The name stuck and in 1936 when the Bridge was being built it was given the name of the strait, so much so than many people think the bridge is the Golden Gate not the strait. 

Drew at the Golden Gate

We walk on and take lots of photos of the bridge that has hid from us all these years and didn't appear to be here just two short weeks ago.  

Drew on the Bridge

We walk on to the bridge which bounces and sways a little, scaring Drew, but he bares it and takes and is in some great photos. 

Downtown San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge

Back to Downtown

We have walked 6.4 miles so far today, so we decide to catch a bus back from the bridge.

Why to use the Clipper Card

We catch the 28 to Van Ness and North Point, a sign on the bus is a reminder of why we use the Clipper Car.

Ghirardelli Square

We get off the bus on Lombard Street and walk up to the hotel where my sister, brother in law and brother first stayed when we came to San Francisco (See the beginning of the post). From there we walked to another San Francisco Icon - Ghirardelli Square.

The Fountain - Ghirardelli Square

We have visited Ghirardelli Square at least once every time we have been to the city. It holds great memories for me. It has been updated and renewed since we were last here but retains the chocolate factory feel. 

Cable Car

Cable Car

From Ghirardelli Square we walk to Bay and Hyde, the terminus for the Powell to Hyde Cable Car. We have already travelled on the other two cable cars in the city - Powell to Taylor and California but the Powell-Market to Hyde-Bay route is the best of the Cable Car routes. 

Going Up

Drew and I both decided to ride the running board of the Cable Car. A lovely experience and, as I was at the front, one from which I was able to take a lot of photos of our ride. Again I point you to Flickr for all of them, starting here 

Coming Down

However many times I do this it never gets old

Coffee

We got off at Bush and walked past the hotel to a Starbucks for a coffee. Then we went back to the hotel at 4pm to upload the photos, iron some clothes (a first for us on holiday) and prepare for our dinner tonight at Quince.
The meal will get a whole blog post of its own.