Take a lift to the top of the Empire State,
Take a drive across the Golden Gate,
March, march, march across Red Square,
Do all the things you’d ever dare.‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’ – The Human League
Visiting San Francisco to go over the Golden Gate Bridge was, for me, one of the major highlights of booking this tour because, as I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I wanted to “complete the song”.
In my late teens/early twenties, I was a big fan of the Human League, and they had a song out in 1981 called The Things That Dreams Are Made Of and, as well as a catchy tune, it features Phil Oakey singing about enjoying your life, living your dreams and taking time to see the ‘wonders of the world’. In the song, he describes taking a cruise to China, a train to Spain and going around the world. He mentions that everyone needs life and adventure and talks about going up the Empire State building, marching across Red Square in Moscow and going over the Golden Gate.
When Trevor and I listen to the song, after each line we say “Yep, done that, been there… yep, done that too”…. in fact, the only thing in the song we hadn’t done was to ‘take a drive across the Golden Gate’.
But today we were going to do exactly that! Then we could say we had completed the song! 😀 😀
We were up at 7.00am so we would have time to use the coffee machine in our room, accompanied by breakfast cereal bars. We got washed and changed and headed towards the hotel foyer in good time for our coach’s departure at 8.00am. The weather, for California, was not as warm as we had expected, around 17°C, and Frank had advised us yesterday to bring a cover-up or wrap, as it is usually quite breezy in San Francisco. Apparently, SF is windy primarily due to the temperature difference between the hot inland California valleys and the cool Pacific Ocean, combined with the city’s unique geography. This creates a natural “vacuum effect” that pulls ocean air directly through the city.
I therefore wore my denim jacket as well as putting an alpaca wrap in the rucksack, particularly for later on. The irony was that we were here in California and it was 17°C, yet back home in Durham (in northern England) they were having an unseasonable heatwave of 30°C! 🙂
Frank drove the coach slowly through the Tuesday morning traffic, ready for our first brief photographic stop, which was to the impressive Civic Centre Plaza and the City Hall. The City Hall, designed by Arthur Brown Jr. was built between 1913 and 1915 to revitalise the city after a massive earthquake in 1906. Several other buildings were added in the Plaza during the 1930s.
Our next visit was to the famous ‘Twin Peaks’, two rounded prominent hills of around 925 feet in the centre of San Francisco. They are named “Eureka” and “Noe” and act as a natural divide for the summer coastal fog pushed in from the Pacific. Their west-facing slopes often get fog and strong winds, while the east-facing slopes receive more sun and warmth.
There is a well-known spot called “Christmas Tree Point” which, despite its name, hasn’t had a Christmas Tree for about 75 years now. They used to place a massive, lit-up tree there (from 1927), but this practice stopped due to increasing costs and the general disapproval of the locals who did not think it was right for a large, living tree to be cut down just to be displayed for a couple of weeks.
We arrived at the top and Frank told us we had about 20 minutes up there to look around and take photos of the fantastic views. He was right about a couple of things; it was very windy up here and the views were absolutely amazing. Not only could we see the whole city spread out below us, but we caught our first glimpse of the Golden Gate! 🙂
Back on the coach we continued through the sunlit streets towards our next stop. At one point we had to wait at a red traffic light, and we could not believe our eyes when we saw a guy just unzip his fly and start to urinate in a flowerbed, right in broad daylight in a crowded street! Disgusting man.
Soon we arrived at the Golden Gate Park, which is an urban park between the Richmond and Sunset districts on the west side of San Francisco. It is the largest urban park in the city, containing 1,017 acres, and the third-most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 24 million visitors annually. It was also one of the main places for the famous 1967 ‘Summer of Love’ that took place in SF.
Today it was not too crowded, and Frank said we had about 45 minutes here to explore, or just to stroll around the manicured gardens.
One part of the part was dominated by a large building that looked, on closer inspection, like a massive bandstand, and there were areas where it was obvious that seats were set out for audience members. Google Maps told us it was Spreckels Temple of Music, which had opened in 1900 and was a gift to the city from sugar magnate Claus Spreckels. Above the large archway where the inspiring words “LIFT EVERY VOICE”.
We walked around and looked at the fountains and the architecture. We didn’t have time to visit the museum or the Japanese gardens, but we enjoyed the interlude nevertheless. Like Central Park in New York, it’s surreal to see such a green place in the middle of the urban sprawl.
The next part of our excursion was what we had been waiting for – we were going to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. Trevor and I looked on, with baited breath, as the large burnt orange pylons of the bridge came into view, getting closer and closer. Then the coach was on the bridge! We were here! We were doing it! This was so exciting, and now we had “completed the song”. 🙂
Incidentally, the ‘burnt orange’ colour of the bridge makes it look as if it is coated in primer which someone then forgot to paint over, but in actual fact it was painted that colour so it was more visible in the fog, both to trafftic and to ships.
Once over the bridge we were now in the Marin County side of SF, and Frank said we had about an hour to spend at Vista Point, from where we could walk back over the bridge and get some great photos, which is exactly what we did.
We also stood for a while in front of the statue of The Lone Sailor, and read the inscription, which I found quite meaningful and moving. I have reproduced the inscription in full below, under the photo.
“This is a memorial to everyone who ever sailed out the Golden Gate in the service of their country – in the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine.
A ship heading for the sea passes directly by this spot at the northern end of the Golden Gate. Here the sailor feels the first long roll of the sea, the beginning of the endless horizon that leads to the far Pacific.
There is one last chance to look back at the city of San Francisco, shining on its hills, one last chance to look back at the coastline of the United States, one last chance to look back at home.
Thousands and thousands of American seafarers have sailed past this place, in peace and war, to defend this country and its sea frontiers. Many of them never returned. This monument is dedicated to the ordinary sailors and marines who sailed from this place and did their duty.”
Afterwards, we had a walk around as I needed to find a restroom. On the way back, the appetising smell of barbecue smoke and sizzling sausages reminded us that we were quite hungry, and we soon came across a hot-dog stand that was doing a roaring trade. We didn’t have a lot of US dollars with us (Trevor had been trying to find an ATM) but luckily the vendor took credit cards, so we each bought a fresh hot-dog with juicy fried onions and sat down on a bench with a view of the Golden Gate to enjoy them. 🙂
Around 11.30am we had to make our way back to the coach for our next stop a 30 minute drive away; the picturesque seaside town of Sausolito, in Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate. What a great little place it was! In lots of ways it reminded us of the more upmarket British seaside towns, with its charming restaurants, studios and boutiques lining the waterfront. Its compact size (just over two square miles) made it easy to walk around, and we enjoyed browsing the shops and walking along the seafront.
Richardson’s Bay has its enclave of houseboats (I’ve always wanted to live on a houseboat!) as well as its marina with many yachts and pleasure cruisers. We spent quite some time strolling along the boardwalk looking at the boats and, for some of them, wishing they were mine. 🙂
As we made our way back into the main street, we spotted a bar that looked very much like a typical old-fashioned pub you would see at home, and we decided a cold beer was very much in order, so we went inside. 🙂
The bar area was quite long, and ended in a sort of ‘lean to’ that had been added on at the end and opened into a garden area, where the smokers went outside. As it had a glass roof it was quite hot in there, so we decided to remain in the bar, where it was cooler. We each ordered a cold local beer and took our seats at a table, where we could people-watch, listen to the music, and try to make sense of a ball game we could see playing on a TV screen above the bar. 🙂
We enjoyed our beers so much we had another one each, then it was nearly time to start making our way to the meeting point at the ferry terminal, where Tomi was waiting for us all. It was now almost 3.30pm and we still had so much more to see and do on this, our last full day in the good old US of A.
The ferry had just come in and the queue to embark was already beginning to form, so we took our places and waited until the incoming passengers had all disembarked. We were so excited to be taking the ferry; it would afford us some wonderful views of the famous sights of San Francisco bay; the Golden Gate (of course!) as well as Alcatraz island and its infamous prison. In addition, there was also the longer and older (but less famous) Oakland Bay bridge. Oakland Bay Bridge is older than the Golden Gate by six months. It opened to traffic on 12th November 1936, whereas the Golden Gate Bridge opened on 27 May 1937.
Once we boarded the ferry, we made our way to the upper deck so I had an unimpeded view to take my photos. This was fantastic!
All too soon, we arrived at the Port of San Francisco (Pier 3) and from here, we decided to part ways with Frank and Tomi and do our own thing.
We decided to walk along to the famous Pier 39 at Fisherman’s Wharf, where they also had a Big Wheel (as you know, I can never resist a ‘big wheel’). We strolled along in the sunshine and browsed the shops and just enjoyed soaking up the vibrant atmosphere. We found ourselves on a multi-level building where we could look out over the marina, and especially at the many, many sea-lions that had ‘hauled out’ on wooden floating pontoons. Not even in our amazing, unforgettable expedition in the Galápagos islands in 2017 had I ever seen such a concentration of sea-lions all in one small space.
The air was alive with their “ohuh ohuh ohuh ohuh” grunts as well as the distinctive, fishy smell of them. They frisked and frolicked in the water, hauled themselves out (often pushing some of their mates off the boards in their efforts to claim some space!) and were generally very entertaining. We could have watched them for hours. 🙂
Have you ever seen so many sea-lions in such a small area? 🙂
Reluctantly drawing our eyes away from the sea-lions, we continued on our way, heading purposefully towards the big Sky Star Ferris wheel, where we hoped the queues would not be too big. In fact, we were able to board straight away, and we set off on our circular journey above the sights of Pier 39 with our ever-changing view and, in the distance, the distinctive Golden Gate. This was brilliant! 🙂
There was one more thing we still needed to do in San Francisco, and that was to take a ride on a vintage tram. For some reason it’s called a ‘cable car’ in SF but it isn’t like any cable cars we’ve ever been on! A quick look at Google told us we needed to take the “Powell-Mason” line, which would take us from Fisherman’s Wharf all the way back to Union Square, which was only yards from our hotel.
We used Google Maps to make our way to the Powell-Mason cable car turnaround, which contained a large, manually operated turntable. As the ticket office was closed, we downloaded and used the app on our phones to purchase a ticket each. There was quite a long queue, but we weren’t in any hurry, and it allowed us the chance to watch the arriving tram cars, and see them on the turntable, which I found quite fascinating.
We waited in the queue for 50 minutes before we found ourselves at the front, with the advantage of being the first to board the next tram, and therefore having our pick of the seats. Rather than sit inside the body of the tram, we wanted to sit in those seats that are outward-facing with an unimpeded view. They would be colder, but the view would be well worth it.
Along came the tram, and we watched as it was pushed around on the turntable so that it was facing back the way it came. Then the driver beckoned us on and Trevor and I hotfooted it into those ‘open’ seats. A large lady, who was behind us in the queue, tried to force her way in between is, but Trevor sat firm and would not budge an inch, so the lady moved elsewhere, tutting to herself. We were before you, missus! 🙂
With an evocative “ding ding” on the hand-rung bell, the tram rumbled into life and set off. It immediately reminded me of Judy Garland singing The Trolley Song:
Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Ding, ding, ding went the bell
Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings
From the moment I saw him I fell.
This was brilliant! The steep streets and the San Francisco trams ae just so iconic, and we loved experiencing a little bit of bygone times in this vintage vehicle. Listen out for the little “ding ding” at the end of this video clip. 🙂
It was around 6.45pm when the tram pulled up at the corner of Union Square and we alighted. Spotting a Burger King immediately in front of us, we suddenly felt hungry and decided to go inside. As the portions in the States are so huge, we each ordered a children’s Whopper meal, which was just the right size. We washed it all down with a tall carton of freezing cold Coke Zero.
We then set off towards our hotel, deciding we would go to the European Bar over the road for a couple of drinks and to sit and look back over our photos and discuss the absolutely amazing day we had had today. A wonderful trip all in all, apart from the missing suitcases. We tried not to think about the fact that we would be flying home again tomorrow. 🙁
When we went into the pub, there weren’t all that many people in, so we just had a pint of beer each before returning to the hotel, where we found the bar open and full of the other people on this coach trip. Everyone was making the most of their last evening in the States, and a jolly atmosphere prevailed, where everyone was telling everyone else what they had seen and done today.
We asked if anyone else had been on the trams, but one couple said they had plucked up the courage to try one of the ubiquitous driverless taxis. Like an Uber, you order it on the Waymo app and it turns up a few minutes later – minus a driver! They showed us some video footage they’d taken of their ride, and it just looked so surreal seeing the steering wheel moving by itself. I’m not sure whether I would completely trust one of these vehicles!
It was about 11.30pm when we returned to our room. We hadn’t done any packing yet because we didn’t have to vacate our room until 11.00am, and the coach wasn’t coming to take us to the airport until 12.30pm, so we had most of the morning at leisure in SF.
We settled down in our massive bed and slept very well, at least until 6.00am.