San Francisco Trip - Travel Log

Friday 3/26/2004

It was quite a long day yesterday. I got into SF around 11:40 PST, then took a public bus to downtown, where i walked to my hostel. Since my sister tracy was due in a bit later in the day, i walked around the neighborhood, getting some pictures of various things. I walked east on broadway towards the bay and then back northwest.. I climbed Telegraph Hill and found a cool little out of the way area with a lot of nice looking homes and apartments. I then went on to Coit Tower at the top of the hill and went up to the top of it. I got some really good pictures of the north and east bay, plus some good city shots as well.

I walked back towards the hostel sort of haphazardly, trying to go in the right direction. I saw a lot of the North Beach area, it has a large italian influence. I got back to the hostel and waited around for a bit, then tracy arrived a bit later than she expected to. The hostel was having a free dinner that night, so we sat down in the ballroom to wait. We met a couple from new york who was planning to move here, plus a few guys from england who had just quit their jobs and decided to hang out in california for a month. Oh yeah, there was also a fun scotsman.. hehe

The dinner was good, so afterwards we went out walking whereever we felt like. We walked through chinatown and then through nob hill (the upscale area) and stumbled upon union square. There was a huge macy's there with a cheesecake factory on the top floor. We went up to see what the wait was, but it was over an hour, so we left. Waiting an hour just to get dessert didn't jive with us. We ened up at the Sony Metreon, a collection of shops and restaurants, plus there was a movie theatre there too. We ended up eating dessert there, and had some cheesecake (which i couldn't finish as i'm not used to sweets anymore) By that point it was getting pretty late and it'd been a long day, so we headed back to the hostel and turned in for the night.

We're planning to see fisherman's wharf or the museum of modern art today, plus a few more attractions. We might go to Golden Gate park or to see the bridge tomorrow.

Bye for now!

Saturday 3/27/2004

Well yesterday was quite busy. Tracy and I had breakfast at the hostel, then headed out to walk around the city. We went through the North Beach area, heading toward the north bay. The area was dominately italian, until you get closer to the waterfront, when it turns into Fisherman's Wharf. We stopped by Ghirardelli Square and took a look at it, then walked out on a public pier and got quite a few good photos. We then walked along the waterfront towards Pier 39. This is a very touristy area, and it was quite populated. Of course that makes sense for a weekend morning. We passed by "The Bushman", this guy who would hide behind some eucalyptus bushes and jump out to try to scare people.. hehe ;) Pier 39 is a large commerical shopping and dining area. We ate lunch at a place called Dante's Seafood Grill, then walked on and saw a large group of Sea Lions hanging out near the end of the pier.

After that, we walked along The Embarcadero, south towards Market St. We were heading for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It took us a while, but we finally found the place. It's a rather large building, and has galleries on the top 4 floors. We stopped and had a drink at the museum cafe afterwards, then headed across the street to Yerba Buena Gardens to just chill a little and give our legs a break. It was about 4:30 by this time, so we headed back to the hostel to rest up a bit before dinner.

We had dinner at a small Italian joint called Pizzelle. It was pretty cozy, but the Service wasn't very good. Our entrees took forever to arrive. I think it was because there was effectively only one waiter because the other one didn't seem to do very much at all. After dinner we walked up the hill by our hostel and got a great view of the Oakland Bay Bridge all lit up.

We're planning to hang out with my friend Paul today. He lives in the SF Bay area, and recently visited Dallas about a month ago.

Sunday 3/28/2004

Yesterday was even more taxing than saturday. My friend Paul came to pick us up around noon, then we drove out to Mt. Tamalpais, but he took us through th really curvy part of Lombard St. in the city. We went out over the Golden Gate bridge to Marin County and picked up some sandwiches at a deli to have on the mountain. Anyway, we drove up to Mt. Tamalpais. The road was quite curvy, and i got a little bit queasy, but we made it to the top and parked. It was then a 10 minute hike up to the summit, where we ate our lunch. I got some good pictures of the bay area, then we headed back down to the car.

Next we drove to nearby Stinson Beach. We stopped a few times along the way to get pictures and such, but then arrived at the beach. Finding parking there was hard, and the beach was quite crowded. I guess it's to be expected on a sunday afternoon when it's sunny and warm out. We stayed there for a little while, but moved on since Tracy and I had already gotten sunburned the day before. After that we went to the Muir Woods national monument, where we hiked along the path and saw lots of very tall redwood trees.

I suppose it was about 4pm by this time, so we drove up a little ways more, and Paul wanted to take us to a Tourist Club and Biergarten. We had to hike along the 'sun trail' to get there. It was longer than it looked. Paul is a member of the club, so we had a beer when we got there and went back to the members area. There were about four other guys there so we talked for a bit and drank our beers, then headed back to the car as the sun was starting to go down. We didn't want to have to walk the trail in the dark, as one or two missteps could send a person tumbling down a pretty steep slope.

We had dinner at a nice cafe in Sausalito, then headed back to the city, stopping to get some photos of the golden gate bridge and the city all lit up.

I'm sitting in an internet cafe now, and Tracy has already left since her flight leaves around 11:40, so i have some time to kill until i leave the city around 5pm.

Monday 3/29/2004

I walked around the city a bit more before I had to leave.. I tried to go to the Haight-Ashbury area, but it was too far by foot. I ended up getting on the BART train to the airport around 2pm.

I got through security and everything and went to the gate then waited for a while. I saw a really pretty vietnamese girl sit down at the same gate, so i went over to talk to her. We were both going back to dallas, so we ended up talking for about an hour before the flight was ready to go. I got her contact info before we left, and hopefully i'll see her here in Dallas sometime soon. I got into Dallas real late and was just in time to make an appearance at the Flying Saucer. I talked with friends there and ate something, then went home to crash.