The San Francisco Experience: The Romantic Love Behind the Fabulous Facade of the Bay Area

The San Francisco experience is not an encounter you can enjoy in an hour or a day or at a The Romantic Love Behind the Fabulous Facade of the Bay Area.
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Biking over the Golden Gate Bridge itself was an unforgettable experience! Feeling the ocean wind in your face and sensing the majesty of this landmark was absolutely exhilarating. None of our photos really do it justice! Once we crossed the bridge, it was an easy minute downhill ride into Sausalito, a quaint and charming little seaside town.

We dropped our bikes off at the super convenient Sausalito Bike Return service and then made our way along the main avenue to The Barrel House for lunch. This was our favorite meal of our trip. Not only was the Eggs Benedict brunch perfection on a plate but the view we enjoyed of San Francisco and the Bay while we ate was simply spectacular. This place is so much more than just a transit hub! Locally-produced artisan goodies like Cowgirl Creamery cheese, and Hog Island Oyster Company make it a foodie paradise! After leaving the Ferry Building we hung a right and walked along the Embarcadero to Pier 15 for a visit to the Exploratorium.

Since this renowned museum and global learning center has been wowing people of all ages with creative and interactive exhibits exploring science, art and human perception. We were simply amazed by all the unique hands-on displays!

The San Francisco Experience by Harold Gilliam | leondumoulin.nl

From the tiny microbores to the giant inflatable installations it was a feast for our senses. Hanging another right out of the Exploratorium we continued up the Embarcadero to Pier 33 for our evening visit to Alcatraz. Tickets to Alcatraz sell out months in advance with Night Tour tickets being the most difficult to come by, often selling out as soon as they go on sale 90 days before the tour date.

I knew we wanted to do the Night Tour as it is substantially less crowded than the day time tours and more areas of the island are open to visitors. Furthermore, the National Park Service offers extra talks and programs exclusively in the evenings. Initially I had no luck finding anything available from the official Alcatraz Tour site. We purchased a tour that was bundled with the Alcatraz Night Tour from a Tour company.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you use a third-party vendor like we did just make sure it is a reputable vendor like Bay City. Many tours claim to visit Alcatraz when in fact all they do is sail by it. In it became a military prison and in it became a maximum-security federal penitentiary which it remained until You truly get a sense of what it was like to be in Alcatraz prison when it was in operation. The talks given by the National Park Rangers where also excellent and kept us enthralled.

From start to finish Alcatraz was one of our favorite experiences in San Francisco! It was just our luck that Big Bus Tours has a stop right at our Hilton hotel. It made it a breeze to hop aboard to begin our third day of exploring San Francisco from yet another angle. The unique thing about the city of San Francisco is that is comprised of around three dozen districts or neighborhoods and each has its own vibe, culture, and charm. We were able to take in everything from Union Square and Little Italy to the Castro and Civic Center and even the not so appealing Tenderloin district.

Having made almost a complete circuit we hopped off the bus at Golden Gate Park. The immense park stretches over acres from the Pacific Ocean to the center of San Francisco, forming an oasis of greenery and calm amid the bustling city beyond.

Among the many attractions of the park are meandering paths, sports facilities, lakes, botanical gardens and major museums. The park is even home to a herd of bison. The living roof which is accessible from a rooftop deck is filled with native plant species and designed to make the museum blend in with the surrounding parkland. We were wowed by the four story Rainforest Dome that took us on a vertical journey through four different rain-forest habitats complete with free flying birds and butterflies.

The giant Tyrannosaurus in the atrium is also amazing! Crossing the main concourse again we headed to the exquisite Japanese Tea Garden.

The San Francisco Experience

Here picturesque paths wind through the carefully manicured Japanese trees, shrubs and flowers. Built for the California Midwinter Fair of , the garden transports you to this day, to another land. The steeply arched Moon Bridge was a marvel as well, forming a dramatic circular reflection in the pond below.

This free museum is actually the powerhouse of the cable-car system. Anchored to the ground are engines and wheels that wind the cables through the system of channels and pulleys that run beneath the streets of San Francisco. It was fascinating to observe them from the mezzanine level and then walk down-stairs to see them in action under the street. The museum also houses several early cable cars and mechanisms that control the cars —the last of its kind in the world.

We hopped on the Cable Cars yet again and headed over to China Town. Chinatown actually attracts more tourists than the Golden Gate Bridge. We made sure to hit the top tourist sites like the Dragon Gate at Bush Street and Grant Avenue but we also took our time wandering down Stockton Street through the many markets, herbalist shops, tea stores and alleyways. The fortune cookie is actually a San Francisco invention! This shoe-box of a space, in operation on Ross Alley since is one of the last places in the United States where they are still made by hand. We watched as workers removed hot flattened cookies off the griddle press, placed a fortune inside, then deftly folded it into the traditional fortune cookie shape.

It was fascinating how meticulous the workers were. We continued our culinary explorations by checking out several of the bakeries dotting Chinatown selling traditional Chinese pastries and egg tarts.


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Then it was time for a Dim Sum dinner. Dim Sum is traditionally more of a brunch meal but there are many places in Chinatown that offer selections of delicious dumplings and pork buns into the evening hours for tourists like us. We dined at the Hang Ah Tea Room tucked into yet another quiet alley way. They claimed to be the first Dim Sum restaurant in the United States.

Plus, parking overnight can be crazy expensive. We opted to rent a car for just one day so we could head out to Muir Woods in a fraction of the time that it takes to use the shuttle service and then just return it at the airport before flying home. We started our fourth and final full day by picking up our rental car at a garage on Bush Street. The process could not have been easier and soon we were on headed toward the Marin Headlands.

Coit Tower

Muir Woods Woods National Monument was created in by President Theodore Roosevelt, making it one of the earliest national monuments in the country. To curb this problem the park service instituted a reservation system in January of We made sure to beat the crowds coming in on shuttles by visiting on a weekday in the early morning. I made our parking space reservation and purchased our park entry tickets together on-line ahead of time, selecting an entry time of 9: We further avoided the crowds by taking the road less traveled.

We hiked the Canopy View Trail which climbs up the canyon wall through thick sections of tall, straight, young redwoods. After a couple miles the trail loops back and eventually connects with the Redwood Creek Trail —the main trail in the National monument. One of the few remaining strands of first-growth coast redwoods, the woods are named for John Muir, a 19 th century naturalist who was the first to persuade Americans of the need for conservation.

The Romantic Love Behind the Fabulous Facade of the Bay Area

My favorite section was the Cathedral Grove where the trees tower toward the heavens like sky scrapers. We stopped by to take a look at this wide expanse of sand. We stopped in Sausalito on our way back again for lunch. The large selection of burgers and an even larger selection of beers were the perfect post-hike meal! A family-run chain of ice cream and gourmet coffee stores.

The flavours will whisk you off to far-off places like Manila Mango and Mexican chocolate cinnamon swirl. After making our way back across the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco we decided to make full use of our rental car for the day and do the drive down Lombard Street.

Running across the tip of the peninsula, Lombard Street is famous for the short, steep section on Russian Hill. The street was originally straight but the grade is so steep that developers had to make it curvy in order to drive down safely. During the summer weekends they close it off to through traffic so we were glad to be there on a weekday when we could drive down. In fact we went ahead and did it twice!

From iconic Lombard Street we headed to Alamo Square for another post card worthy vista. The grassy area here on the eastern side of Alamo square provides the perfect vantage point to view the Painted Ladies. So many grand old Victorian houses line the streets in this area that it has been declared a historic district.

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