Well today was a much better day weather wise, the sun was out and the sky was clear. Was still nippy, but we were happy. We chowed into the complimentary bagels and muffins at our hotel -(were loving bagels, so good, I never eat them at home), before heading up to the car rental joint to get the car for the next two weeks.
The guy tried to up sell us a bigger car, luckily we said no, cos what we ended up with is this huge Dodge Charger. I feel like Al Bundy!
Driving the streets of San Fran initially was quite daunting, trams, hills and trolley buses all freaked me out. It's funny when you drive abroad, it's like you forget how to drive. You start to make really silly errors, like turn the car off and leave it in drive.
Anyway, we ventured down to Lombard St, The famous Crooked Street. We walked it at first, before we drove down. I must say it's quite cool driving down it, purely for the novelty factor alone.
We then drove across town to Alamo Square to check out the Painted Ladies -aka the terrace houses where Full House was shot. It's pretty much the iconic San Fran postcard shot, with the city in the background. We wandered the area checking out more interesting colored and patterned row houses.
We then drove around to the St Marys Cathedral, a large crucifirm concrete building designed by engineer Piere Luigi Nervi. The outside was cool, kinda Opera house like, but less cool, however the inside was amazing! The structure was so beautifully expressed and the details and decorations were accentuated by the amazing light quality that the building offered. Was a really lovely building. Up there with Kenzie Tanges Cathedral and Opera House (not as good tho).
We then headed out to the iconic San Fran tourist site - Golden Gate Bridge. We parked the car and walked to the first pylon. My immediate feelings were how windy it was. I can only imagine how difficult it mustve been when it was being built. Still, it was quite something standing beneath the huge red pylons and large cables. Such an iconic bridge, was interesting to experience up close.
We jumped back in the car and headed out along Ocean Beach through Lincoln Park. We had seen so much already today and it was only midday. Living having the rental car - it's like your own self guided tour.
We drove along the edge of the pacific, which started to make me think of home. On the otherside of the ocean lay Home. We drove down to Golden Gate Park, and checked out the H&deM's De Young art Museum and Renzo Pianos addition to the Science Museum. I say checked out but I really mean we just wandered around them for a little while. They were expensive to go into and quite frankly we were a little Museumed Out!
We then hit the hippie part of town, and drove through Haight & Ashbury. We strolled the main street of the area, Haight St; checking out the famous record store Amoeba Music as well as the numerous hippie clothing stores and stores that sold various types of smoking utensils.
Was a pretty cool place - kinda like King St Newtown on drugs (literally).
We ate lunch at a quaint little coffee shop on Cole St where the Barista looked exactly like John Lennon from his Sgt. Pepper days. BEST COFFEE IN AMERICA. And really good sandwiches too.
After lunch we drove right back through the city over to Russian Hill area. We were becoming very familiar now with the city, it's amazing how quickly you can get your bearings in a place. We drove back down Lombard Crooked St, purely for the fun of it, before heading back over to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. The observation deck was now open, so we ventured up for a look. The views were pretty stunning, and it was a nice time of day to be up there. The late afternoon sun was setting behind the Golden Gate and the bay skies were clear still.
We headed back to our hotel, stopping on the way at sims card shop for another looksy. She loves that place.
For dinner we couldn't decide weather to go up Columbus for Italian in San Frans version of Lil Italy or do Chinese in Chinatown. We decided Chinese, mainly on the basis of it being closer and it was cold outside. We weren't let down. Awesome dumplings. Really really good. And so much food too, really yummy.
I can't believe how much we crammed in today - was such a benefit having the car-- Rodger Dodger as we've nicknamed him.
We've both really enjoyed San Fran, definitely a place you could easily live and very pretty, still I don't think it trumps Sydney. She is still number 1 in my book!
- Blog from iMat
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