Wandering About San Francisco

Travel Day

• San Francisco, CA to Fremont, CA and return via various local roads, I-880 and US 101

Today I did a bit of touring around San Francisco, after which I met a friend for ice cream at Ghirardelli's in Ghirardelli Square. My tour plan was to do as much as I could of the 49 Mile Scenic Drive in San Francisco. It is a drive that takes you to most of the sights to see in the city. However, in my own personal style, I intended to follow it backwards, so the sights were on my left, so I could take pictures without getting out of the truck. More on this later.

My first stop was Lombard Street, locally claimed to be both the twistyest street in the world, as well as the steepest. Unfortunately neither claim is true. What is true is that this is a very picturesque street and a very poplar tourist attraction here in San Francisco. 

Having been at the bottom, I drove round the block and made the requisite trip down the hill. It has lots of signs which say "No Stopping". I stopped to take this picture. So sue me.

As you know, Lombard Street is not the only hill in San Francisco. This is the view up Lombard, looking east. That hill out there is Telegraph Hill, home to the Coit Tower. That was my next target.

This is the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. It is a very cool landmark in the city, designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle. That is, at least, one interpretation. There are others. It was built purely as a monument to beautify the city of San Francisco. It serves no real historic purpose.

From Telegraph Hill looking towards the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island. Treasure Island also has a history as a military installation.

Another view from Telegraph Hill overlooking downtown San Francisco. This is also the point at which the battery died in my camera. So I went back to the hotel from here and had a bit of lunch while the camera battery got a recharge.

When I started back on the Scenic 49, I decided to go "frontwards" instead of "backwards. It's just easier that way. The first place it took me, after going through Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square was the "scenic photo shoot location" for the Golden Gate Bridge. So I took another picture.

From there the route goes to the Palace of Fine Arts. It was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and, unlike most of the rest of the exposition, it was not torn down at the end. In fact it remains vibrant and live as a venue today. It's is beautifully built in a Greco-Roman style, reminiscent of buildings of ancient times. I love the pond here.

Next stop, another scenic lookout for the Golden Gate. San Francisco has a lot of these, so I have a lot of pictures of the Golden Gate. Note the afternoon traffic.

This is a view of the city from a viewpoint just inside The Presidio, another site with plenty of military history. It's a great shot of Fisherman's Wharf and the Marina district.

Here is one of the houses in the Presidio which used to be home for soldiers stationed here. I don't know what the status is on these places, but I suspect they are rented by the National Parks Service to people willing to pay a ton of money to live in a very cool location.

These used to be the administration buildings for the Presidio. Now they are occupied by various corporate entities, museums, and galleries.

My tour of The Presidio took me out the Lombard Gate. This is because I got lost and ended up going through the Presidio from the back instead of from here.

After the Presidio, I headed to Ghirardelli's to have ice cream with Burhan Syed. I took this picture simply because I liked the look of this Super8 on Lombard Street. I just think it's cute.

Yep, me. Thank you Burhan for this one.

Burhan also took this shot of the new Bay Bridge. The old Bay Bridge was determined to be unstable after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. They repaired it but further damage from the 1994 Northridge quake forced the decision to build a new bridge. Construction started in 2002 and it has just been finished for a couple of years. In fact it was not yet open when Ricky and I came here in 2013.

They are still tearing down the old Bay Bridge. That's it off to side.

We are headed down the I-880 to Fremont. After I dropped Burhan off I headed further south to San Jose, then back up the US 101 to San Francisco again. This, however, is the final picture of the day.