There are few cities that I'm jealous about or that I think are better than Philadelphia. Few cities that I look at and think "that city is cool". Few cities that have distinct architecture that sets the city in a historical time period. Few cities with civic spaces and landmarks that balance being a tourist attraction and a place where locals hang out on the weekend. Few cities with an edge that combine grit and sophistication. San Francisco is one of those few.
San Francisco is America's Paris. It's St. Petersburg and Buenos Aires. As an East Coaster, San Francisco's culture, style, and setup feels foreign. The BART ride from the airport to Market Street passes brown hills before going underground. The steps at the Powell Street Station lead up to a cable car terminus. On one arrival, I rode the cable car from here to Broadway than walked through the North Beach neighborhood to the Green Tortoise Hostel. There's no better introduction to a city.
San Francisco is a city you need to visit two or three times in your life. Once as a kid. Once as an adult. And again with your kids. There are sites like Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Chinatown, and catching a baseball game at AT&T Park. You return as an adult and you can bike across The Golden Gate Bridge and take in vistas that would be trickier with kids. There's entire neighborhoods like Haight-Ashbury, Castro, and the Mission District and stores like City Lights that appeal to an older crowd.
San Francisco is America's Paris. It's St. Petersburg and Buenos Aires. As an East Coaster, San Francisco's culture, style, and setup feels foreign. The BART ride from the airport to Market Street passes brown hills before going underground. The steps at the Powell Street Station lead up to a cable car terminus. On one arrival, I rode the cable car from here to Broadway than walked through the North Beach neighborhood to the Green Tortoise Hostel. There's no better introduction to a city.
San Francisco is a city you need to visit two or three times in your life. Once as a kid. Once as an adult. And again with your kids. There are sites like Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Chinatown, and catching a baseball game at AT&T Park. You return as an adult and you can bike across The Golden Gate Bridge and take in vistas that would be trickier with kids. There's entire neighborhoods like Haight-Ashbury, Castro, and the Mission District and stores like City Lights that appeal to an older crowd.
I've seen the photos below and wondered - where were they taken? Marshall's Beach. I arrived in San Francisco around 5pm and my bags had barely touched the hostel room's floor and I was booking an Uber to Marshall's Beach. Marshall Beach is more accessible via Baker Beach, however, if you arrive at 5pm and are worried about the approaching sunset, there's a steep hike through some shrubbery that can get you to Marshall's Beach more directly. The views are spectacular. At sunset the bridges shade changes every few minutes. The rocky beach and the waves are constantly changing the scenery. I took over 100 photos and they all look amazing through no effort on my part. Orange and blue are complementary colors and the views at Marshall's Beach are the textbook example.
After an hour in the Marshall's Beach area I walked south along the coast line and found stairs I wish I saw on the way down. After a step climb back to main road I headed to a Golden Gate Bridge viewing area. Decent views but nothing compared to Marshall's Beach.
After an hour in the Marshall's Beach area I walked south along the coast line and found stairs I wish I saw on the way down. After a step climb back to main road I headed to a Golden Gate Bridge viewing area. Decent views but nothing compared to Marshall's Beach.
Beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco has several iconic locations but where is San Francisco, it’s most San Francisco-ian? For me it’s a multi-block street along Van Ness Avenue and the Polk Gulch neighborhood. The walk from Bob’s Donuts on Polk to Tommy’s Joynt is a stroll through an urban wonderland of yesteryear. Great cities have great, consistent architecture through the city center and this area is where San Francisco’s post WWII building boom is its greatest and most consistent. Van Ness is a wide and busy boulevard (technically U.S. Route 101) running north to the Golden Gate Bridge. While Van Ness lacks the population density of Manhattan’s major north/south thoroughfares, it shares the energy.
San Francisco doesn’t simply have iconic locations, it also has iconic experiences.
I’ve visited San Francisco three times and riding the cable cars never gets old. I have to imagine that if you are a San Franciscan, that even if you don’t ride the cable cars, there’s a pride and nostalgic feeling every time a car comes clanking past.
I’ve visited San Francisco three times and riding the cable cars never gets old. I have to imagine that if you are a San Franciscan, that even if you don’t ride the cable cars, there’s a pride and nostalgic feeling every time a car comes clanking past.
The wire humming below the street level, the squeaking wooden brakes, adds another sense to the cable car ride experience. On my most recent experience I woke early to ride the cable cars. If my cable car enthusiasm were to ever wane, it would be from waiting in line for a ride—but at 7am there’s no line and it’s the best way to get across town, any town.
While I believe that the Van Ness / Polk Gulch area is where San Francisco is it’s most San Franciscian, the North Beach area provides some competition. The struggle with San Francisco is separating tourist zones from local zones. Are the people wandering around North Beach locals? Are they tourists? Does it matter? The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Columbus Avenue—which is bookended by Fisherman’s Wharf on the north end and the Transamerica Pyramid at the south end. Walking along Columbus Avenue you can see Lombard Street and Coit Tower in the distance. It’s iconic image after iconic image.
While I believe that the Van Ness / Polk Gulch area is where San Francisco is it’s most San Franciscian, the North Beach area provides some competition. The struggle with San Francisco is separating tourist zones from local zones. Are the people wandering around North Beach locals? Are they tourists? Does it matter? The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Columbus Avenue—which is bookended by Fisherman’s Wharf on the north end and the Transamerica Pyramid at the south end. Walking along Columbus Avenue you can see Lombard Street and Coit Tower in the distance. It’s iconic image after iconic image.
Columbus Avenue and Broadway is the intersection/epicenter of the Beat Generation. This area maintains its gritty edge from an era when its residents included Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other Beat Generation writers who pushed the creative/censored envelope. In the morning I visited Caffé Trieste, where Kerouac supposedly nursed his hangovers. I enjoy visiting old haunts like this. Is this place living off its nostalgia? Probably. Is there a better place for a morning cappuccino? Probably not. In the evening I visited Vesuvio Café, where Kerouac consumed the alcohol that induced the hangovers. More nostalgia? Probably. But a beer is a beer and I think it’s cool to channel a bit of Kerouac. In between Caffé Trieste and Vesuvio Café, there’s City Lights —one of the few bookstores in the nation that published the controversial Beat Generation writings. The store has an entire bookcase dedicated to Kerouac. I finally picked up a copy of On The Road. Sixty years later, it’s comical there was controversy about this book. Across Columbus on Broadway is the Beat Museum which filled in my knowledge gap on the entire Beat Generation. Nearby is the Green Tortoise, a legendary (why, I don’t know, probably because of the location) hostel. I stayed here once and all I remember was the legendary funky smell.
San Francisco has several “Perfect Day” itineraries. Itineraries where one can walk, block after block, neighborhood after neighborhood, and have amazing experience after amazing experience. What follows is a perfect day experience that started with a street car ride to Outer Sunset. Los Angeles receives all the attention as the California megacity with beaches, but San Francisco has its own share of picturesque coastline.
It was a quiet morning on the beach. I grabbed a coffee at Trouble Coffee, which seemed to be surfer approved, then rode the street car back to the 9th Avenue and Irving Street intersection. San Francisco has great neighborhoods with pockets of commercial flair—I ate breakfast in a diner that I doubt had been remodeled since it opened in the 1950s.
North of Irving Street is Golden Gate Park. The bocce ballers and Chinese line dancers were out in force. If I ever moved to San Francisco, Outer and Inner Sunset are the areas I’d consider living. These neighborhoods feel a little out of the way but they are close to the beach, provide access to Golden Gate Park, and still retain the aura of San Francisco.
The next stop was San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury area which is on the eastern end of Golden Gate Park.
San Francisco is a city that keeps reinventing itself and keeps attracting new talent. North Beach was the stomping ground of the Beat Generation of the 1950s; Haight-Ashbury became the stomping ground of the hippies in the 1960s. There’s a Whole Foods at the Western End of Haight Avenue, otherwise the street maintains the hippy, psychedelic feel.
San Francisco is a city that keeps reinventing itself and keeps attracting new talent. North Beach was the stomping ground of the Beat Generation of the 1950s; Haight-Ashbury became the stomping ground of the hippies in the 1960s. There’s a Whole Foods at the Western End of Haight Avenue, otherwise the street maintains the hippy, psychedelic feel.
The neighborhoods two most famous residents were Jimi Hendrix, who lived on Haight Street, and The Grateful Dead, who lived on Ashbury Street. My understanding is that both homes are private residences, definitely The Grateful Dead house is—thus there’s no Hippie Museum equivalent to the Beat Museum in the North Shore neighborhood. It’s a walkby, snap a photo, and not much else.
TIGF. Aaaaaaah aaah aaah aaah. The milkman. The paperboy. The evening TV. It’s the Painted Ladies, a series of gingerbread style homes, on the eastern side of Alamo Square Park, made famous, to me any way, through the opening theme song to Full House. This park attracts a ton of photographers myself included. I had walked from Inner Sunset, through Golden Gate Park, through Haight-Ashbury to Alamo Square. I saw “Painted Ladies” everywhere. San Francisco has blocks of homes like the Painted Ladies. Even so, the Painted Ladies are another iconic San Francisco image, so I snapped a few photos and was on my way.
The walk south along Steiner Street leads to Market Street which to the west leads to the Castro Neighborhood. In addition to the Beat Generation and Hippies, San Francisco is also well known for its large Gay Community. Apparently, a lot of gay dudes came to the west coast to join the navy during World War II.
They were denied admission and sent to San Francisco. At least that’s my understanding. There could be worse situations in life than being detained in San Francisco. The Castro Theater is the destination to enter in Google Maps. It’s yet another iconic destination/experience and the epicenter of the Gay film scene.
From here I walked east along 18th Street to Mission Dolores Park to Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia Street in the Mission District. I felt that in the North/South streets (Valencia/Mission) in this area that I had finally escaped the pull of the tourism orbit. I think. I had gone from Hippies to Hipster. I grabbed a beer in Urban Putt but did not play a round.
Balmy Alley is off 24th Street and home to street art that mostly commemorates the Latino Community, who call the Mission District home. Not surprising, there’s a wide range of good Latino food in this neighborhood. I picked a place with a crowd and ate a torta.
That’s a perfect day.
Balmy Alley is off 24th Street and home to street art that mostly commemorates the Latino Community, who call the Mission District home. Not surprising, there’s a wide range of good Latino food in this neighborhood. I picked a place with a crowd and ate a torta.
That’s a perfect day.
I hit up three microbreweries on this trip: Anchor Brewing, the standard bearer; 21st Amendment, the new behemoth; and Cellarmaker Brewing Co, an up and comer.
My first perfect day in San Francisco came on a weekend trip I made from Portland, while I was in Portland on an extended business trip. I stayed at the Green Tortoise and on Saturday morning I walked north on Columbus.
Then up the curved section of Lombard Street before catching a cable car to the Fisherman’s Wharf area.
Then up the curved section of Lombard Street before catching a cable car to the Fisherman’s Wharf area.
From here I rented a bike for a long ride across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. One of San Francisco’s quality’s that make it a great tourist destination is that the city looks just as good in foggy weather as it does in sunny weather. The Golden Gate Bridge looks just as iconic emerging through the fog as it does on a sunny day or at sunset.
The ferry ride from Sausalito passes Alcatraz Island and provides unobstructed views of the San Francisco skyline before arriving at the Ferry Building in the Embarcadero area, another lively waterfront area.
From here it’s a short, fun walk to what is now known as Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giant’s, and unarguably the greatest modern baseball stadium. By now the fog has lifted and it’s a beautiful sunny day for baseball.