San Francisco, Ameripass stop 5

Best things to do: Alcatraz, walking near the Golden Gate Bridge, eating sourdough bread filled with clam chowder.

Quick Tips:

Try and do more research on the nightlife before you go there. We were kind'a stuck without anywhere to go since we couldn't find anything with an under-30 crowd.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bart bus system and taxis

When Greyhound pulled in, we walked the half mile or so to the Cartwright Hotel at Union Square. They let us check our bags and told us we could check in early at 1:30pm instead of 3pm. We walked up Jones St. about a mile towards the wharf. When we got back to the hotel at 1:30pm, we checked in and both just took showers. The room is nice with two twin beds, a ceiling fan, a TV, and a clean bathroom. It's a typical boutique style hotel in a downtown location. We booked it off hotwire.com for $60/night! This definitely beats staying in a hostel, and the staff was very friendly.

When we got to the wharf we asked an information store where to get good breakfast, and he gave us a 20% off coupon to Franceschi’s and told us to tell them "Groovy" sent us. I had three eggs scrambled with Dungeness crabs, home fries, and sourdough bread for $12.75 minus 20%. It was really good food.

The restaurant is right at the west end of Fisherman's Wharf and they have outdoor and indoor seating. The staff is very friendly and my mouth still waters when I think about the scrambled eggs with Dungeness crab. Make sure to get sourdough bread with your meal.

We walked to Chinatown and found a Dim Sum place at 4:39. We found out we had to order Dim Sum by 4:45, so we had about 5 minutes to figure out what we wanted. We ordered 11 different things including dumplings, egg rolls, almond Jell-O, etc. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs so we gave the leftovers to the cleanest, most honest looking bum we could find. (SF is full of dirty bums.) He was ecstatic to get a real meal. It was my first experience with Dim Sum, so I didn't realize how much food ends up coming out. Definitely make sure to do what we did by splitting everything. That way you can try twice as many things on the menu. Supposedly Chinatown in SF is famous for this type of dining.

Alcatraz was one of the most fascinating things we’ve ever seen. We got a self-guided walking tour through an MP3 headset. It led us through the cell blocks and told stories along the way. At times you could actually hear the chains and moans of the prisoners in their cells (through the headset), and it was so realistic that you'd actually take off your headphones to see if it was real.

We almost got attacked by a mother seagull protecting her chic on the walkway around the island. The view of the city and bridge was astounding.

Make sure to bring a sweatshirt or jacket, even during the summer, since the wind picks up frequently.

Definitely DO NOT be cheap by skipping the audio tour. We really thought we were wasting our money until we tried it and then deemed it the highlight of San Francisco.

We didn't realize what people meant when they said this city was hilly. There were some 45+ degree angled streets that were two blocks up and two blocks down. I am very impressed with the ability to construct a city on this terrain. Our legs ached for 3-4 days after we left SF, but I'd imagine if you're here for a week, not only do you get used to it, but I'm sure you'd get in amazing shape. I was shocked to see bikers riding up these hills. The pictures below definitely show the hills from both the top looking down and at a distance looking towards the mainland from Alcatraz.

We walked south to Market St. and then SW to Valencia. The streets were lined with so many strip clubs that it actually became redundant and boring. We were on a mission to find cool rock clubs, bars and record stores. However, nothing was to be found anywhere in the city. We thought 16th and Valencia had a ghetto feel. In fact, Market St. felt just like Philly with filthy streets. It was actually a relief because Philly is no longer the dirtiest, filthiest city. We even asked some girl where young people all hang out and she said there really wasn’t anywhere in town like that. This city is the exact opposite of Denver. Denver was boring during the day and great at night. SF is awesome along the wharf during the day, but boring at night. We ended up renting "Old School" from the hotel and sleeping from 11 pm-9:30 am. We were tired from the hills and the boredom. In all seriousness, between the filth, the bums, the unfriendliness of the people, and the lack of fun, this city is 2nd worst to Cleveland!

We were amazed at the view from the beach (west side of the city), which included cliffs, rocks and mountains to the north. The water was freezing, but the sand was Jersey soft and darker brown in color. It looked as if it would be an awesome beach to hang out on, but not for swimming.

The next bus we took brought us up to the Holocaust Memorial which was very morbid. From there, we followed the Legion of Honor Dr. down around the cliff and saw a breath-taking view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the southwest.

We walked through the Sea Cliff neighborhood and I figured out where I’ll live when I’m a millionaire. We saw perfect, huge houses with a view of the GG Bridge and the beach from a cliff. These were absolutely the nicest properties I’ve ever seen.

We finally took a taxi back to our hotel when we were exhausted.

When we left Franchesci's (breakfast), we walked west towards the Golden Gate Bridge and walked out on the pier near Aquatic Park so I could take a panoramic of the bridge, wharf, city, and Alcatraz. We walked east through the wharf and bought $30 Alcatraz tix for 11:30 am tomorrow from some Irish chick who was here working for a year. We walked through Pier 39 which was just like an overpriced, overly commercial version of the boardwalk in Ocean City, but we caught 5 or 10 minutes of a magic show. We then got a sourdough bread filled with clam chowder from a vendor on the wharf and filled ourselves with it. It was soooo good. Fisherman's Wharf is definitely a tourist trap, but it can be fun to watch the live bands playing on the street and eating sourdough...make sure to get the clam chowder!!

We left Fisherman's Wharf and walked down Stockton St., passed the Coit Tower, towards Washington Square and North Beach. There was a music festival there and the streets were packed with people. We needed showers, so we didn’t stay but we walked through North Beach (their version of Little Italy) and Chinatown. It was the first time I’ve ever been able to look in every direction on a crowded street and not see another white person (except Aaron) and not see any English signs, either. They had some really interesting looking fruits and vegetables, so we agreed to have dinner there.

We took a "Bart" bus all the way to the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city from the east end. The bus was only $1 and came with a transfer that was good until 8 PM (4 hours). The schedules were very easy to read and the busses ran frequently. We used our transfer to get on and off about 5 times as we kept seeing different sites in a short period of time. The longest we had to wait for any bus was about 15 minutes. This was much cheaper and faster than calling a cab for every stop!

We left Fisherman's Wharf and walked east, following the bay around the northeast corner to Oakland Bay Bridge to sit under it while resting and chatting about our trip so far. The bridge has two levels, one going in one direction and one in the other. It's a very quiet section of the city with more of a clean, yet industrial feel.

After 15 minutes or so we continued south until we reached Pacific Bell Giant’s Stadium. I took a picture by Willie Mays' statue for my dad. The stadium looked beautiful, but unfortunately the Giants were out of town that day, so we couldn't see a game. We then walked west until we caught a bus to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.