San Francisco Trip

Wonderful, amazing, spectacular, fabulous…. I don’t have enough adjectives to describe this unique and diverse city. San Francisco, spread across a large area and a hilly landscape, is a very trendy city and a blend of diverse cultures. The wonderful weather combined with many tourist attractions and innumerable employment opportunities make it not only a good tourist hotspot but also a great, albeit expensive, city to live in.


SFO - Sailor's view 

My trip started with me and a friend catching the 8:35 PM flight from Minneapolis on Thursday night, the 17th. Arriving at SFO the first thing that brought a smile to our face was the late evening temperature of 60F. Pretty soon we were home at our relatives place and in bed for a good nights sleep.

Day 1

As expected we did not get up early and took our time getting ready. I also had my first look of my 10 day old nephew and even managed to hold the tiny little baby for some time. By noon we were of to SFO with the first stop being Pier 39 to catch a ferry to ‘Alcatraz’ or a ‘Bay cruise’. It turned out to be the latter as we missed the last trip to Alcatraz for the day. However the Bay cruise did not disappoint as we were taken under the ‘Golden Gate Bridge’, around the Alcatraz Island and shown the San Francisco coastline, bay bridge and the bay area. The sea wind was refreshing and an hour on the cruise truly relaxing.


Classic Golden Gate view 


Alcatraz 

Next up we headed up to ‘Golden Gate Bridge’ to get a closer look at the incredible structure. Standing on the bridge gave us an idea of how big it really was. After spending sometime on the bridge we headed back to SFO downtown and my friend and I were so thrilled to see the busy streets like the ones back home. We also drove through crookedest Street in the world. Then it was time to head home.


Golden Gate 

Day 2

Another good night sleep and I was ready for another day of travel. With my friend bailing out, I decided to go in on my own and caught a ‘Caltrain’ to SFO which took over an hour. Not that the train is slow, the distance from my place was over 40 miles. I reached King and 4th street and after exploring the area briefly I caught a ‘Muni’ to Fisherman’s Wharf. ‘Muni’ is an electric bus that they have here – quite unique it is a combination of a Bus and tram moves on rails. The ride took me through the lot of interesting places in the downtown area which me a glimpse of life at SFO. After the enjoyable ride I roamed around the Fisherman’s wharf area and to pier 39 which were lined with souvenir shops.


Fisherman's Wharf 

Meanwhile my friend had decided that he would join me at this point I had to handg around had a great time exploring the area and even got myself some lunch. Once we met, next on our agenda was the ‘Cable car’ ride. The steeply inclined streets made for an exciting ride, especially with me and my friend hanging from side of the cable car. I managed to get some good snaps.


Cable car view 

The last stop was somewhere on Powell street and from there we were exploring the down town area street by street. Among other interesting things, we saw a line wait at a new H&M store. Having never heard of H&M before, I was surprised to see a line wait at a store and only next day did I learn from the papers ‘what the fuss was all about’. I would recommend to anyone visiting SFO to go around and walk the streets to get a real feel of the life here. After sometime spent pub hunting, we decided to head back as we couldn’t find one to our liking.

Day 3

We started earlier than the previous two days and headed for Santa Cruz to the ‘Mystery point’. As far as I could tell it seemed like an optical illusion with surroundings exaggerating the inclination effect of the slope. After taking a not so impressive guided tour, we headed to Pebble beach. We took a scenic 17-mile drive around the famous or the hallowed Pebble beach golf course. The drive had many view points, picnic points and beaches. Got a good look at the Pacific Ocean and even felt its cold water. The drive was a good way to conclude our trip.


Scenic drive - Viewpoint 


Pebble beach 


Ghost Tree 

We caught the flight back to Minneapolis in the night and were home next morning. On the flight, as we were taking off from SFO my friend brought my attention to night time view of SFO and I remarked ‘That epitomizes my view of San Francisco - beautiful and radiant’