My trip to California - part 3
This is all in San Francisco.
We started the morning by going to the coffee shop, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, around the corner from our hotel. It sold my favorite tea, genmai cha, and had better coffee than anything we've ever had from Starbucks.
I snapped a shot of Lauren when she wasn't looking
We took a walking tour that Chris Christensen took on an episode of The Amateur Traveler.
We started out around Union Square. There was a statue and several plaques.
This heart was also there.
The Dragon Gate to Chinatown.
You can see the Transamerica Pyramid rising above some Chinatown shop.
Stopping to rest is frequent with all of the hills in town.
Inclines are steeper than you can imagine until you get down there.
There are beautiful views all over town.
Grace Cathedral
I'm walking the pattern outside of Grace (50 awesome points for catching the reference here).
We stopped off at the Cable Car Museum. These machines power all of the cable cars in the city.
We went back thru the main part of Chinatown and got some food. This was pretty good.
This belongs on Cake Wrecks.
Chinatown was crowded and out ready to "assist" tourists.
This is me at a Chinese restaurant. I wanted to real dim sum.
There are quirky bits of architecture wherever you look.
There were few things with Engrish. Most translations were accurate.
The bay window heavy Victorian architecture was almost overdone. It's used everywhere in the city.
Next, we went to City Lights Bookstore. Several famous writers from the Beat Generation would frequent this store. I didn't get a picture of the storefront, but inside the store:
Next door, Vesuvio had some crazy murals.
These were in the cement between the stores.
These books were suspended by wires over the street corner across from City Lights.
We found a Pittsburg bar. We stopped to sit for a bit.
Washington Square Park (which had free municipal wifi)
Next, we headed down thru a residential area on the way to Fisherman's Wharf.
Hills behind us
The bay ahead of us
Fisherman's Wharf really is a tourist trap. I still wanted to see Alcatraz. This is with my camera zoomed all the way.
The Golden Gate Bridge can barely be seen in the distance and thru the fog.
Lauren had to get a Lefty's pen.
We went down to Haight-Ashbury, the home to the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. I had my camera put up for most the that part of the city, except for I had to get this store.
After that, we went back to the apartment for dinner. This was the view from the room the next morning.
Being the podcasting geek that I am, I had to stop by the CNET Building.
The Bay Bridge
San Francisco really does have micro-climates. We went straight from the bay side to the ocean side for pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It went from cool but sunny to cold and foggy in the distance of two miles.
Here's the Golden Gate Bridge.
San Francisco in the distance
The Marin Headlands
We drove by Russian Hill and down Divisidero to The Castro on the way out.
You know when you're in The Castro. There are rainbow flags on every post.
That's all for now. I leave you with jut a few shots of the hills outside town.
We started the morning by going to the coffee shop, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, around the corner from our hotel. It sold my favorite tea, genmai cha, and had better coffee than anything we've ever had from Starbucks.
I snapped a shot of Lauren when she wasn't looking
We took a walking tour that Chris Christensen took on an episode of The Amateur Traveler.
We started out around Union Square. There was a statue and several plaques.
This heart was also there.
The Dragon Gate to Chinatown.
You can see the Transamerica Pyramid rising above some Chinatown shop.
Stopping to rest is frequent with all of the hills in town.
Inclines are steeper than you can imagine until you get down there.
There are beautiful views all over town.
Grace Cathedral
I'm walking the pattern outside of Grace (50 awesome points for catching the reference here).
We stopped off at the Cable Car Museum. These machines power all of the cable cars in the city.
We went back thru the main part of Chinatown and got some food. This was pretty good.
This belongs on Cake Wrecks.
Chinatown was crowded and out ready to "assist" tourists.
This is me at a Chinese restaurant. I wanted to real dim sum.
There are quirky bits of architecture wherever you look.
There were few things with Engrish. Most translations were accurate.
The bay window heavy Victorian architecture was almost overdone. It's used everywhere in the city.
Next, we went to City Lights Bookstore. Several famous writers from the Beat Generation would frequent this store. I didn't get a picture of the storefront, but inside the store:
Next door, Vesuvio had some crazy murals.
These were in the cement between the stores.
These books were suspended by wires over the street corner across from City Lights.
We found a Pittsburg bar. We stopped to sit for a bit.
Washington Square Park (which had free municipal wifi)
Next, we headed down thru a residential area on the way to Fisherman's Wharf.
Hills behind us
The bay ahead of us
Fisherman's Wharf really is a tourist trap. I still wanted to see Alcatraz. This is with my camera zoomed all the way.
The Golden Gate Bridge can barely be seen in the distance and thru the fog.
Lauren had to get a Lefty's pen.
We went down to Haight-Ashbury, the home to the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. I had my camera put up for most the that part of the city, except for I had to get this store.
After that, we went back to the apartment for dinner. This was the view from the room the next morning.
Being the podcasting geek that I am, I had to stop by the CNET Building.
The Bay Bridge
San Francisco really does have micro-climates. We went straight from the bay side to the ocean side for pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It went from cool but sunny to cold and foggy in the distance of two miles.
Here's the Golden Gate Bridge.
San Francisco in the distance
The Marin Headlands
We drove by Russian Hill and down Divisidero to The Castro on the way out.
You know when you're in The Castro. There are rainbow flags on every post.
That's all for now. I leave you with jut a few shots of the hills outside town.