April 15, Oakland

We met a woman from Oakland while on the Castro walking tour who told us that Oakland was not safe and that we should "never walk" while in Oakland. As you can imagine she had us just a little paranoid as we headed to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station three blocks from our hotel, to catch the train to Oakland. We knew that we were very safe on the San Francisco side but had no idea what awaited us on the Oakland side.

Needless to say, when we reached our stop in Oakland, we were not mugged, or approached by anyone! We very easily found a cab that took us the 1.5 miles to our hotel. We chose this hotel because it is within walking distance to the Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics. Both the cab driver and the hotel staff told us that it is perfectly safe to walk to the ballpark and walk we did!

The Oakland Coliseum is an old park in a rather run down area of the city, but that didn't take anything away from the great atmosphere inside the park. We had excellent seats, the pitching was great, but unfortunately the home team lost in extra innings. We walked back to our hotel...safe and sound.

April 14, San Francisco

In order to catch the 9:10 ferry to Alcatraz we left the hotel at 7:30. We had decided to walk the 1.5 miles to Pier 33 so that we could experience yet another view of San Francisco. We are urban hikers. The ferry ride was short but afforded a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. We were again dressed in layers as it was chilly in the harbor and on the island.

Alcatrez was originally built to be a fort in the late 1850's. It was later a military prison until it was decommissioned in 1907. In 1934 it opened as a federal penitentiary where some notorious gangsters, bank robbers and murderers did time, among them Al Capone and Robert Stroud, "The Birdman of Alcatraz". The prison is now a National Park and a natural habitat for thousands of sea birds. The fascinating tour of the island was self guided.

We saw individual cells, solitary confinement, the recreation field, the prisoner's dining hall, the library and the holes in the wall where three prisoners chipped away for over a year to make the hole big enough for an escape. Although they did escape it is not known what happened to them. Some say they got to South America while most believe they perished in the cold current in San Francisco Bay. Outside the walls of the prison there were many birds nesting and lots of flowers making for a very peaceful setting. We stayed on the island for over three hours and thoroughly enjoyed Alcatraz.

April 13 San Francisco

This morning the forecast indicated that we might experience showers and that dressing in layers would be a good idea. Feeling bulky, yet warm we set out to catch a bus to the Presidio and The Golden Gate Bridge. The 30 minute bus ride took us through Japan Town, past the University of San Francisco through the Laurel Heights District to Presidio National Historic Park.

By the time we got to the Bridge, the clouds were gone and the sun was out. It was, however, windy on the bridge but that is of course, the norm. The walk across is about 1.6 miles of spectacular views. I am surprised that I didn't bump into people as it was hard to look where I was going with the incredible view of the Pacific on one side and the city of San Francisco on the other.

We felt like locals as we easily navigated the bus system back to Union Square where we looked for and found the Boudin Bakery Cafe for a very fresh sandwich and a hot bowl of soup. After lunch we joined the other tourists and the locals who spend time sitting on the grass and benches on the square and just watch the world go by.

Although we are not "shoppers" we did walk through Macy's and the Levi's store. With no purchases in hand we walked back to our hotel and labeled the day a resounding success.


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April 12 San Francisco

Although we could have taken the bus, we chose to walk an hour to get to the Castro District where we met a walking tour. The city, through the Public Library system, offers tours of various locations throughout the city. The tour group included four from France, one from Italy, one from Germany, two Americans and six Canadians.

Our tour guide told us the history of the district, and pointed out places of interest, including many very expensive Victorian homes. A very nice, but relatively modest home now sells for over one million dollars. The Castro has become a very trendy place to live. Although it is still considered the gay capital of the USA, the population of the Castro is aging and changing so that now, rather than all, only 75per cent of homes are gay owned. The Castro became well known in the 60's and 70's as the place where people campaigned and fought for gay rights. Harvey Milk lived here, served as a district supervisor and was shot, along with Mayor Moscone in 1978. A park is named after Harvey, along with several shops and most notably an elementary school that focuses on civil rights education.

  After lunch at a restaurant where the locals eat, we chose the bus as our mode of transport back to our hotel. After a two hour rest, we set out on foot again,this time for A T & T Park where the World Series winning San Francisco Giants played their arch rivals the LA Dodgers. It was a great game with the Dodgers going ahead 3 - 0, before the Giants came alive and won the game 4 - 3. It was very cold and windy at A T & T Park tonight...a mere 45 American degrees! Even so, it was a treat to experience this famous ballpark; to see the boats in McCovey Cove and sit amongst the fanatic Giants fans as they chanted and cheered for their team. Thankfully the ride home was warm. The bus driver had the heaters on full blast.

April 11 San Francisco

Up early for coffee and muffins in the lobby of our quaint hotel, The Grant. Although cool this morning (about 50 American) it looks like it will be a nice day. We thought we were going to take a "hop on, hop off" bus tour but after waiting almost an hour at the stop and no tour bus came, we decided to walk. We discovered that San Francisco is easy to see on foot as long as you don't mind very steep hills.

Our first stop was the 210 foot tall Coit Tower, built with money left to the city by philanthropist Lillie Coit. The tower is in the shape of a fire hose nozzle because Lilly so admired the firefighters who fought the 1906 earthquake fires. The views from the top of the tower are spectacular.

A walk down Telegraph Hill led us to the Piers where we found Sally's Famous Fish, a take out that specializes in fresh haddock "fishwiches" prepared before your eyes. It was by far the freshest haddock I have ever tasted! After lunch we set out on foot again and ended up at the Ghirardeli Chocolate factory where we forced ourselves (because of the rave reviews) to try their very special hot fudge sundae...yum!

Needing to walk off all that food we decided to tackle the steepest street in San Francisco...Hyde Street with a 31.5 per cent grade. On the way up we stopped to watch cars navigating the "crookedest street in the world, Lombard Street. Its eight switchbacks were installed to reduce the steep grade from 27 per cent to 16 per cent.

Walking all the way to Civic Centre we were thrilled to take pictures of each other next to the bust of Harvey Milk at City Hall. We also witnessed a couple of weddings and could hear the council in session behind closed doors.

Walking through the Tenderloin District we noticed many homeless people but were only approached by a few. We did, however see a dead body on the sidewalk with two police officers standing near her. It was a shocking sight but no one around us seemed shocked! People were just going about their business.

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at a small market and bought a few items for our fridge. With sore feet and tired eyes we ended our first full day of exploring the streets of San Francisco.



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April 10 San Francisco

Up at 3:30 this morning. Flight at 6:30 on time. Flight at 10:00 in Toronto on time. Long flight but watched "Incindes" and two episodes of "Raising Hope."

We arrived at Grant Hotel, checked in and headed down the street to catch the cable car. The cable car stops in the middle of the intersection to pick up and let people off. We walked around the extremely touristy Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Ate a freshly prepared shrimp crepe and watched the sea lions fight for space on the docks.

Got to ride the cable car "hanging on" on the way back from the wharf.
Exhausted, we returned to the hotel and worked at staying awake. As I write this and keep one eye on the ball game on tv, I see that although it is 7 pm here, my internal clock tells me that I have been awake for 18 hours. I will soon be ready to just give in and fall asleep. San Francisco will be explored further tomorrow, possibly using a "hop on hop off" bus so that we can see all the highlights in one day.

Off to California on April 10!