San Francisco and the Bay Area

Heading south from wine country, our California exploration took us to the Bay Area. San Francisco was high up on our original list of cities to check out, closely followed by some of the slightly less expensive areas like Berkeley. Not surprisingly, environmental jobs abound in the area, so it’s a definite career possibility.

Coming in from the north, our first stop was the John Muir Woods National Monument to see some more redwoods.

They were pretty, but didn’t quite have the expansive feeling of the parks up north. Still, it’s a great park for being so close to a major metropolitan area.

We headed down to Sausalito for lunch. It was a cute, albeit super touristy, place. They did have a pretty sweet bike shop though and the views of the city were spectacular.

With a little time to spend, we headed up the coast to stop and gaze at the Golden Gate Bridge.

We then intended to keep driving up to Point Reyes National Park, but the going was slow on the super twisty seaside road, Route 1. We made it as far as the John Muir Beach overlook which was quite picturesque. We even had a small history lesson as we strolled by WWII lookout points.

On our way to see Michelle, a cycling friend from the OSU days, we stopped by Berkeley. We had cup of coffee at the original Peet’s Coffee and Teas shop.  It seemed like a college town, with a cool central street jammed with restaurants and shops.

That evening we joined Michelle and company in Oakland to watch the Presidential Debates in New York.  We had fun yelling at the TV and then appropriately followed it up with Dr. Strangelove.

The next morning we got up and put on our tourist hats.  We took the BART into San Francisco and walked along the waterfront from the Embarcadero up to Fisherman’s Wharf.  We saw the famed cable car, but at $6 per person, we skipped a ride and enjoyed the walk.

Along the way we climbed Telegraph Hill to see the Coit Tower.  The Public Works murals were pretty neat to ponder, especially with the financial crisis that was hitting right about that time and all the news about “the worst…[this, that and the other]…since the Great Depression.”

We had crab salad sandwhiches for lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf after watching the sea lions on Pier 39 and finished up our culinary delights with a trip to the Ghirardelli factory ice cream store.

That afternoon we wandered into the Maritime National Historic Park and were pleasantly surprized.  We happened upon a Park Service guided tour of the pier and followed along with San Francisco’s maritime history.  One cool tidbit is that this ferry used to be part of the famous Highway 101 before there was a bridge.

We would recommend it for anyone who happens to be in the area and has an hour or so. The view of the city from the top of the ferry is one of the best we had.

Walking back to the BART, we meandered up through the North Beach area.  We found a lovely sushi restaurant and had great, fresh fish.  It was fun to walk along the restaurant row and see all the people out and about.

We didn’t stay in the area long, but we were there long enough to know that it’s a cool place and somewhere we might want to live in the future when we have a bit more money.  Unlike DC with all its free events, San Fran definitely feels like a place you’d want to be bringing in a decent paycheck.  A special thanks to Michelle for hosting us while we were in town!