"Oh! The Places We'll Go!": May 2024

San Francisco - Sep 21-23

Sep 21 - Back on land for a couple of days!

Today we flew from Vancouver to San Francisco. We arrived at Hotel Zoe around 5 PM; our cab driver was great, weaving in and out of lanes of traffic! and pointing out some of the sights along the way. As we hadn’t eaten since breakfast we decided to have dinner here at the hotel in their restaurant, Pescatore. Wonderful Italian place!

Sep 22 - Exploring

After a great sleep we sauntered down to breakfast around 9:45! Interesting menu - no fruit or cereal! Coffee is $5!!! We then headed out to the hop on hop off bus for a little sightseeing.

Hotel Zoe is only two short blocks to the first Big Bus stop! There was a very long line which meant we had to wait an hour to get a bus, but it was worth it! Mary went up top and got tons of great photos (no doubt she’ll post them on FaceBook!); I didn’t tackle the stairs so stayed on the lower level.

There was a narrator who pointed out the places of interest and the route took 3 hours to complete. it included Chinatown, the Financial District, Union Square, City Hall, the Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 35 and 39, among other sites. The city is crawling with tourists!! Every attraction has hoards of people milling about, taking photos etc. We chose the hop on hop off bus so we would have an overview. Tomorrow we might get back on the bus and perhaps hop off at some points - or not! Remember to click on the blue print links for more info!

There are several methods of getting around. Here are a few of the options…

By car - lots of electric cars; Teslas everywhere!

By bike or rent an electric bike

Stroller powered by Dad!

These cute little GoCars!

Streetcars of all types

But the most unusual thing to see were the driverless electric taxis - Waymo!!!! At first we had no idea what these things were - police vehicles surveilling the area? Google maps updating their photos?

Back at our hotel we’ll put up our feet, edit photos or perhaps watch a little TV.

Love,

Two Tourists

Sep 22 - Back on the Big Bus!

We had purchased a two-day ticket so decided to take the round trip bus tour again; this time I went up top and it was a whole different view! the weather has been perfect - sunny and comfortable temps about 20°.

Yesterday I was concentrating on transportation; today’s topic is architecture! We drove through several neighbourhoods with houses built up the sides of steep streets. Some areas more affluent than others. These were my idea of typical SF housing.

The financial district is home to dozens of skyscrapers, intermingled with much older styles.The huge variety in terms of style is based on the fact that many buildings were constructed in the 19th and 20th centuries.