August 17, 2013: A Day Immersed In San Francisco

Date: August 17, 2013
Event: A Day Immersed In San Francisco
Location: San Francisco, California
Cost: $24 for transportation to SF and a day pass on the transit system
Summary: San Francisco is a place I want to spend more time

In the middle of August, I found myself back in California for business. It was supposed to be a fairly short trip – just three and a half days. However, a few things came up that would require me to be in California the next week, as well. So I had a choice: fly home to NYC for a weekend then fly back to SFO. Or, just stay in SFO. I was really torn but ultimately decided to stay.

Best Decision I’ve made in a long time!

As I described it to friends: The bad news is I had to stay over in San Francisco for an extra week. The good news is I had a weekend to spend in San Francisco!

And while I only spent one out of the two days in the little city, I FILLED IT UP. Originally, I just googled walking tours in San Francisco. So many of them involved walking certain staircases (especially around Telegraph Hill). Intrigued, I started Googling staircases in San Francisco. And once that search started I was all, who knew there were so many and so awesome?!? But there ARE so many and they ARE so awesome! So the plan for the day was: seek out and walk up and down and see and photograph the best staircases in San Fran. But, the day turned into so much more. I actually only did about 60 to 70% of the itinerary I had planned for myself and while it was dominated by staircases, I added in so much more.

The details of the day are contained in these three posts:
Part 1: The Cable Cars are as fun as you hear and Lombard is as pretty as you hear.

Part 2: You might think climbing staircases would be a terrible way to pass time in San Francisco. But you'd be wrong.

Part 3: Street Cars, Rainbows, Wild Parrots, and Murals, oh my!

Below is the summary…

August 17, 2013: A Day Immersed In San Francisco, Part 3

Date: August 17, 2013
Event: A Day Immersed In San Francisco, Part 3
Location: San Francisco, California
Cost: $24 for transportation to SF and a day pass on the transit system
Summary: Street Cars, Rainbows, Wild Parrots, and Murals, oh my!

This is post three of four posts about my one day in San Francisco (yes, just one day, lol). See these other posts if you’re interested.

This post has photos and descriptions from the third section of my day which involved mostly a disjointed self-guided trip (including three transfers) on San Fran’s street cars, a tour of the Castro District (this was mostly unexpected happenings that I was delighted to have seen), a couple smaller but still unique staircases (with wild parrots – wild parrots!), and an alley filled with murals.

Here’s the territory I covered in this third section.

August 17, 2013: A Day Immersed In San Francisco, Part 2

Date: August 17, 2013
Event: A Day Immersed In San Francisco, Part 2
Location: San Francisco, California
Cost: $24 for transportation to SF and a day pass on the transit system
Summary: You might think climbing staircases would be a terrible way to pass time in San Francisco. But you'd be wrong.

This is post two of four posts about my one day in San Francisco (yes, just one day, lol). See these other posts if you’re interested.

This post has photos and descriptions from the second section of my day which involved both book guided as well as self-guided stairwalking tours of various stair cases on Russian Hill as well as Telegraph Hill.

Here’s the territory I covered in this second section (after getting to San Fran).

August 17, 2013: A Day Immersed In San Francisco, Part 1

Date: August 17, 2013
Event: A Day Immersed In San Francisco
Location: San Francisco, California
Cost: $24 for transportation to SF and a day pass on the transit system
Summary: The Cable Cars are as fun as you hear and Lombard is as pretty as you hear.

This is one of four posts about my one day in San Francisco (yes, just one day, lol). See these other posts if you’re interested.

This post has photos from the first section of my day which involved getting to San Fran, riding the old time trolley car in San Fran, and walking up Lombard Street (the most crooked street in America).

Here’s the territory I covered in this first section (after getting to San Fran).

July 19, 2013: Walking Across the Golden Gate Bridge

Date: July 19, 2013
Event: Walking Across the Golden Gate Bridge
Location:  San Francisco, California
Cost: FREE
Summary: It was overcast, foggy, windy, and cold.  And I loved it.

Work took me back to the west coast again for a week in the San Francisco Bay area.  When I spend a week there, I usually try to get a very early morning flight on Friday back to New York.  But this trip I ended up booked on a 4:00 pm flight Friday.  I was very grumpy about that.  Until I came up with a plan:  use the extra time in SanFran on Friday to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

This plan made me less grumpy.

The weather, however, didn't exactly cooperate.  It was overcast.  It was foggy.  And I was there early (6:45 am) before any of the fog and clouds were burned off.  But you know what?  That's okay.  It made everything very moody but I still loved the walk and I loved the pictures.

A couple impressions of Golden Gate -- it's loud.  You're walking right next to the road deck where cars and trucks are whizzing by at 45 to 50 miles an hour.  Also, it's windy and cold.  Take a jacket.  It's might be a bit scary for those who don't deal well with heights, but not too bad.  The railing along the majority of the bridge is not super high but you certainly couldn't accidentally fall off or anything, and the bridge does move a bit (shakes and rumbles) as bigger vehicles go by.  But, as someone who does have issue with heights, I was able to make the walk without any problems.

But it is worth the effort.  The bridge itself is spectacularly beautiful, of course and an engineering marvel.  The walk is really pretty easy -- 3.5 miles round trip to go all away across and back.  And it's just wonderful to get outside and do something different!

And best yet -- I was able to get standby on the 11:20 am flight.  So I got to walk across the bridge AND get back to NYC at a not completely unreasonable time.  Win-win!

Okay, some mysterious and moody pictures...