The Streets of San Francisco

"The Streets of San Francisco" -  good name for this post and it would be a good name for a TV series.

Did you know California is a really big state?  We knew it too but you don't really comprehend just how big until you start planning to see as much as you can with the time available.  Riding the top motorcycle rides is driving some of our decisions, roads accessible by big-rig RVs is another factor, Rhonda's main interest was the redwoods (been there, done that now), and we wanted to see one of the many large cities.  San Francisco (SF) is our choice for that with an extra treat of seeing some Looper friends of ours from Santa Rosa, about 50 miles north of SF.  Meet Kit and Pam Kersch who completed the Great Loop Cruise in October of 2016.  We met them when they came through our area on the Tennessee River and docked at Joe Wheeler State Park where "Help Me Rhonda" was docked at the time.  They invited us to park our RV on their property but it was gonna be a bit tight fitting through the beautiful entrance to their home, so we opted to stay at a KOA in Petaluma, between SF and the Kersch residence. Kit and Pam are wonderful folks and it was good to see them again.  When they finished the Loop the first time, they decided to keep going for a second trip around! Their boat, "India Jane" is a beautiful 43-foot Mainship trawler, currently docked in Ft. Myers, FL.  They are taking a break from the Loop to care for Kit's Mom during an unexpected illness and just happened to be home while we are in the area. We spent a day with them in Bodega Bay which I'll cover in another post.

And speaking of the Great Loop Cruise, Rhonda has been complaining that I do not include "Wilson" in our RV travels.  If you have not met Wilson, he joined us when we were stuck in Lock #11 for 2 weeks on the Erie Canal in 2013.  There was serious flooding and damage to the dams, necessitating the canal authority putting "Help Me Rhonda" and 3 other boats inside the lock for our safety. Here's our "castaway" story if interested -  http://wrmcmanus.blogspot.com/2013/06/castaways.html

So, Wilson is still around and is a reminder of problems you can incur while traveling, and hope for better times.  Hey, it can happen to anyone, just ask Galen and Becky Dunmire, Ken and Trudy Price, and Tom Hanks!  We try to keep Wilson busy and he still doesn't say much.  His most recent assignment is taking care of the baby redwood tree traveling with us now.

Getting down to Petaluma and settling in at the KOA was an all day affair, so we headed out early the next morning to SF looking forward to the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB), "the most photographed bridge in the world."  We couldn't see much of it but the fog is par for the course this time of year. Awesome picture though, huh?  I wish we had a video of the fog rolling up the hills from the west and down the hills close to the bridge - pretty cool to watch.

Not much better on the bridge itself.

We knew nothing about SF other than some general areas from our research, so I plugged in the address for Lombard Street, "The Crookedest Street In The World," as our first destination.  Here's an aerial shot, and I was determined to drive through it with our truck which is MUCH larger than the cars in the photo below!

Rhonda was on the phone with her sister when we were ascending the hill up to Lombard and had no idea what was happening.  And many of the streets in SF are so steep you cannot see over the front of the truck at the top. On the way up below.

So it was a bit of a surprise for Rhonda when we topped the hill and started down!  "It's too late to turn back now."  There was not much room to spare, we may have touched the curb in a couple of turns, and I'm confident we didn't take out any shrubs or flowers.  The view from the top.

And the view from the bottom.

We had researched the top 10 steepest streets in SF, so we had to check them out also. (From Rhonda: Wayne decided the signs did not apply to Southerners who drive dually trucks.)

Approaching one of the crests before heading downhill.  (Rhonda says going uphill, imagine driving while leaning back in the dentist chair.)

The pictures do not do them justice but here's #1 at 31.5 degrees - Filbert Street between Leavenworth and Hyde. Try and visualize 13.5 degrees shy of 45 degrees.  I think we rode it 3 times! We DID NOT go airborne at any time. After two days, we also did not see another dually in SF - might be a reason for that.  The streets are really tight, very narrow lanes and tight turns.  It's also very difficult to find a dually parking spot.  And when you do, they charge you $3.00/hour and in some spots $3.00/15 minutes, not kidding.  We finally found one spot in front of Pier 33 but there was one problem - "No vehicles over 6 feet tall."  Living up to the "Southerner" reference Rhonda noted, I got out my tape measure and checked it - 6'6" - took our chances, paid the $9 for three hours and it was not towed.

We were disappointed that we could not get tickets to visit Alcatraz.  They were booking tickets 9 days out when we inquired at Pier 33.  But here's the island, a very interesting story and quite the historic landmark.

Pier 39 is the main shops-and-food (and ice cream) pier.

But the main attraction on Pier 39 is the sea lions. They took up residence there in 1989 and average about 300 on site most of the time.  Peak residency has been recorded at 1701 in 2009.  Do you think they are absolutely positive it wasn't 1700 or 1702???  The males are about 7 feet and 850 pounds, the females 6 feet and 220 pounds.

Pier 45 is a tribute to WWII military vessels but we did not visit this one.

Coit Tower was a must-see for Rhonda.  We watched a movie once where the family decided they would meet at Coit Tower if by chance they got separated during a disaster.  It's definitely easy to see from about anywhere in SF. Of course it fell over in the movie, so Rhonda decided in the event of an earthquake, she would get on a boat so she would have a bathroom, water, and a bed. Not sure how I'm supposed to know which boat out of all the ones in SF?

Fisherman's Wharf is the heart of the waterfront district on the north and east sides of town.

We had an outstanding lunch at "Boudin" - the original SF sourdough bakery, restaurant, and gift shop in the heart of Fisherman's Wharf.  It started in 1849 and is the oldest continuously operating business in SF and makes outstanding sandwiches, brownies, lemon bars, and chocolate raisin bread - we tried them all.

Electric lines overhead for some of the public transportation is pretty common.  The bus in the photo is "connected."

We did not ride one, but cable cars are a transportation staple in SF and are actually pulled through the street by an underground cable.  I read a website about ten things "Not To Do" in SF.  One of them was to "never call a cable car a trolley."

I believe this one qualifies as a trolley.

"Haight-Ashbury" was the "Peace and Love" destination for lots of hippies in 1967.  Most of the streets in that area still look the part.

I assume this is a tribute to Jimi Hendricks.

"Painted Ladies" houses - another popular attraction.

We tried several ways to get on the main drag in Chinatown but one-way streets and construction were a problem.  But there is no doubt when you are there - the population, shops, restaurants, and signage are all Chinese.

A view of the financial district from I-80 on the east side of town.

The "pier" side of SF from I-80 with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance on the north side.

In addition to riding Lombard and the steep streets of SF, we did risk our lives once with a ride through UC Berkeley, only 2 days after the Antifa rioting the previous weekend.  We were a little concerned that our Alabama license plate might attract some attention.  Our truck was pretty dirty and we thought about writing "We Love Bernie" in the dirt and grime but took our chances and did just fine.  

SF from across the bay in Sausalito.

And we finally caught the GGB without fog!

  

Looking west toward the Pacific.

There was a lot we missed, but San Francisco was a great town and a great time.

Saying goodbye to San Francisco!

We are way behind on the blog, still need to cover several small towns and sights, and we are actually just finishing up 4 days down in the Monterey, Pebble Beach, and Carmel area, heading toward Las Vegas tomorrow.  We'll catch up eventually, just been busy!  Later.