San Francisco
I arrived into San Francisco international about 2pm, caught a BART to the city and was checked into the hotel by 3.15pm. I don’t mind admitting that it was a touch on the overwhelming side to be in a strange, teeming, city centre on my own. I basically limited myself to a wander among the neighbouring blocks and buying something to eat.
On Sunday I had breakfast in a 50’s style diner then I headed to the SF Museum of Modern Art . This is a pretty damned impressive collection and building (OK the Tate Modern in London kicks it’s ass, but you would expect it to). I spent nearly three hours in there, and I was particularly impressed by the Modern Masterworks, Cut: Revealing the Section and Lee Friedlander exhibitions. Their general collection of photography is pretty amazing, with some outstanding early photographs and pieces by real masters.
Around the corner from SFMOMA is the Cartoon Art Museum. I spent a good while in here, it had exhibitions on a recently deceased cartoonist for the SF Chronicle, single panel cartoons on sex and sexuality by upcoming female cartoonists and a pioneering cartoonist Craig Flessel, as well as a general collection of cells from animated cartoons from Disney, The Simpsons etc, and a general collection of original cartoons from across history including Krazy Kat and Calvin and Hobbes and all sorts in between.
That night I went to a multiplex and saw the Iron Man movie. It was a lot of fun, but still basically a big dumb action spectacle.
Monday was down as Alcatraz day in my intinerary, as I’d bought my ticket weeks before online. The visit to Alcatraz ending up being pretty much the highlight of the trip. I’ll spare you the full details for now, but I may end up doing a separate entry on it later.
After Alcatraz I headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf. I think it may compare with Times Square in New York as a tacky tourist trap. While I was down there though I thought I’d try the recent winner of best North American fast food chain on ILE – In-n-Out Burger. Just about the busiest burger joint I’ve ever been in, the burger was good and the fries tasted of potato!
On the way back to my hotel I passed through Chinatown and took some photos of the area, but I couldn’t work out what to try in terms of restaurants so I just headed back to the hotel.
It had been a beautiful day and I was very close to being sunburnt, so I just chilled out in front of the TV rather than going the Laura Veirs gig as planned. For the very first time I was able to watch WWE Raw live. Actually it was the first WWE wrestling I’ve seen in years and it was every bit as cheesy as I remembered. I must say that bit of TNA that I’ve seen lately isn’t as far behind as I thought. WWE wrestling is not what it was at it’s popularity peak.
On Tuesday it was time to hit the shops. Fortunately for me the two must-visit shops happened to give me some real sightseeing opportunities too.
First up was Amoeba records, which happens to be right at the top of Haight Street, almost at Golden Gate Park. To get there I took a bus. Public transport in the states is a different planet to the UK. Only the dirt poor take buses. Which lets you see a slice of life you’d otherwise miss.
A fabulous record store, Amoeba, with a huge and varied selection. I managed to limit myself to the ten purchases.
Once I finished there I wandered down to the junction at Haight & Ashbury, famous as the home of the psychedelic movement in the city during the sixties. It’s become a curious mixture of boutiques and cheesy hippy/tye dye memorabilia.
I headed back to the hotel to apply some sun blocking cream.
After lunch I caught another bus, this time to the Mission district. This area is a world away from the city centre. The section I saw was pretty low-rent and rundown but still vibrant and largely Spanish speaking.
I was there to visit Borderland books. This is a specialist Science Fiction bookstore, while not huge, it has an amazing selection of books. The second hand paperback section would ruin me…
Escaping having only spent $80 I pottered about the area for a little while before getting a bus full of school kids back to the hotel.
After having something to drink I headed out the shops around Market Street to do some more shopping and walked away with DVDs, baseball caps and a Nintendo DS.
Wednesday was checkout day and I decided to have a long lie-in and only head out once it was time to check out.
So around 11.30 I headed towards Grace Cathedral, camera at the ready. I ended up taking a walk back through Chinatown towards the Ferry Building at the end of Market Street. After sitting in the sun, taking the occasional photo of skateboarders doing tricks I walked the length of Market Street, pausing only to have lunch before collecting my suitcase and catching the BART to the airport.
The flight home was long, but I did have a very nice young couple sat next to me who just happened to be science fiction geeks too. By the time I was picked up at Edinburgh airport by my parents I’d been up for something like 27, 28 hours and my head was swimming round in circles. I slept for over 13 hours that night.
Overall San Francisco was magnificent and I barely scratched the surface of the city. Which just means I’ve got an excuse to go back!
I found a copy of the ebook of this on an old thumb drive.
