As I write I am sitting in the San Francisco airport, waiting to leave after a very busy but most fabulous 3 days of fun with my 15 year old daughter, Megan.
I decided to test out the Economy X offering from Virgin to see if if really did make a difference. It is hard to compare accurately as we were in the front row of Economy X, meaning that we had no-one in front of us. The seats were a bit hard for my tastes and I spent most of the flight wishing I could lay back just a little bit further!
I suspect we both managed about 2 hours of sleep.
We arrived into LAX at around 7am Wednesday, LA time and spent the next couple of hours in lines. We found the staff there remarkable grumpy considering they were dealing with hordes of sleep deprived passengers. The first line was to use the kiosk to scan our passports and fingerprints, and to take a photo. One of the officers kept herself busy by calling out that this was US customs and we should all know what to do if we paid attention. This only made us afraid to ask any questions. I can't imagine how it must feel for non-English speakers. (Actually I can imagine because we did it in Vietnam, only they were able to speak English to us). The kiosk printed out a receipt to take to the next line for immigration.
For some unknown reason, Megan got a cross on her receipt, which meant we had to join the really long line as opposed to the much shorter line for people without a cross. This line really did seem to take forever. I think the more tired you are, the slower time moves.
After immigration we collected our bags and joined the queue for customs. When we were on the plane, we were given custom forms and told we MUST fill them out correctly or we would have to do them again. In the end they did not even collect them.
The next line was to transfer our bags to the next flight to San Francisco.
Finally, we made our way to the Delta terminal and joined the line for security to get into the terminal. The staff there were especially grumpy, snapping at Megan when she tried to walk up to the desk with me, saying that we had to come up one at a time. Poor Megan had to virtually strip as she was wearing a belt, and a jacket, and a watch, and shoes of course - all of those things that must be removed to go through the machine. While in the line we came across our friend from Uber again. Not having used Uber before, I asked her some questions and learned that even though we did not yet have a cell phone connection, we could order an Uber using wi-fi at the SF airport, and did not need a connection at the end of the ride.
Delta had only recently moved to this terminal so there was a lot of construction going on, and the Sky Lounge was quite small, but it was a welcome reprieve from the chaos at the boarding gates.
The flight to San Francisco was short, but we both had a quick snooze. We were afraid that once we arrived in SF that we would be too tired to do anything. We arrived just before lunch time.
I had booked the Cow Hollow Motor Inn based on reviews from Trip Advisor and the general location. I wanted to be able to minimise our transport costs, and this motel is located on Lombard Street, with the Presidio on one end and the Pier areas on the other end.
Our room was not ready but they were able to store our bags for us so that we could go and explore. We could smell ourselves and would have loved a shower but did not want to waste the afternoon.
Our first stop was a T-Mobile store around the corner that I had looked up before we left, to purchase the $30 tourist plan, which gives 2GB data as well as unlimited texts. This was quick and easy with friendly and helpful staff.
Not far from the LucasFilm building is the Walt Disney Family Museum. This museum chronicles both the life of Walt Disney and the history of the Disney movies and parks. I found it quite fascinating to see the process of innovation that they went through in the early days, finding ways to improve animation and movies. I also came away with the sense that he was one of those people who seem to ooze ideas and dreams as well as the energy to pursue those dreams.
Outside of the museum there is a huge grassy area with large red lounge chairs to relax in. With aching feet we sat down and enjoyed the sunshine for a bit. Of course five young kids decided this was a great time to come and play on the chair next to us. The weather for our whole trip was fantastic. It has been clear and sunny for the most part, and warm enough to be comfortable, but with a chilly edge on the breeze that feels great when you've been walking a long way. Dad had previously sent me a song "If you're going to San Francisco" so we made him a short video featuring the song, but couldn't find any flowers for our hair :)
By this time it was 4:30pm, but we decided that this was a good opportunity to go and see the Golden Gate Bridge, as the entrance to the bridge is within the Presidio. There is a free shuttle bus that goes around the Presidio called Presidigo. We hopped on the next one and it took us up to the Golden Gate welcome centre. It is very windy on the point and we were glad to have taken our jumpers. We walked out to the point where the big fences stopped and enjoyed the view for a while. Underneath the bridge we could see Fort Point. If we ever come back I would like to go and explore that area some more.
To get back to the hotel we caught another shuttle back to the Presidio Visitor Centre, and then yet another shuttle to the edge of the park. From there we walked back towards our hotel, stopping at a small takeaway to pick up some dinner to eat back in the room. It looked promising but was worse than average. We were too tired to really care, and after a welcome shower we collapsed into bed.
Megan had seen an iHop just up the road and was very keen to try it out for breakfast. She didn't realise how big the meals would be. I ordered crepes. She ordered crepes and 2 hashbrowns, thinking they would look like the McDonalds ones. Think of a bread and butter plate, and imagine it covered in grated potato and you will be imagining their hash browns. I thought they were quite tasty but definitely not what she was expecting.
The first stop in the plan for the day was the crooked portion of Lombard street.
I have decided that Google Maps needs a special symbol for streets that are actually mountains. It is one thing to see that something is a kilometer away. It is quite another when the street goes up and down like a roller coaster. Add that to jet lag and we tired quickly. We enjoyed the scenery though and stopped to take a lot of photos. San Francisco has some quite unique architecture, at least not like anything that we have at home.
I am Megan's official Instagram photographer for this trip. We have had a laugh when we have seen other pairs of people where one is obviously directing the other to take good photos that are post worthy.
We knew when we were close to the crooked street as we could see the crowds ahead taking photos. It was hard to get a photo from the top that did justice to it. As we started to walk down we saw a young couple with twin babies in a pram that were debating how to get down. We told them to carry their babies and we would push their pram. That was a bit of a workout! About half of it was shallow stairs and the rest were normal stairs where we had to carry the pram. It was probably good for working off those crepes. We thought the better photos were from the bottom of the street.
Our next walk was down to the Piers. We started at Pier 44 at the Musee Mechanique. This was quite amusing. It is a museum of arcade games and amusement machines. It is free entry but you can use quarters to try out the machines. We came to the conclusion that there were some pretty strange people making these early machines. There were a couple that were puppets performing executions. A number were peep shows. Then there were some that were just plain bizarre, like laughing puppets or crying babies. We had a good laugh trying out some of them though.
We made our way back towards Pier 39, stopping for an icecream at Baskin Robbins. At Pier 39 we started by watching the sea lions for a while. If you add dialogue they are pretty funny to watch, climbing over each other to get the best position, and shoving each other off the docks. They are also quite noisy, and we learned later that it is the males that do the barking.
Inside Pier 39 was not my favourite place. There were people everywhere, and the crowds seemed to peak around mid-afternoon.
Megan was keen to do the 7D ride. I was expecting it to be pretty cheesy and lame like Infinity at home, but it turned out to be quite fun. You can choose Werewolves, Zombies or something else that I can't remember. You sit in a chair and buckle up the seat belt, and are given 3D glasses and a laser gun. As the movie plays, zombies jump out at you and you have to shoot them. At the same time, the seats are moving around and wind is blowing so it really does feel like you are driving, or falling off a mountain. At the end they rank all of the players by points so you can see how well you did. For $12 it was a bit of fun and a chance to sit down.
For a late lunch/early dinner we stopped at Boudin sourdough. Megan had a chicken pesto sandwich and I opted for the tomato soup in a sourdough bowl. Both were delicious and I would highly recommend it.
Once on Alcatraz, we met our guide, a park ranger named Wendy. She was extremely knowledgeable and told us many stories as she guided us around the off-limits area of the island. We went into the old laundry rooms and she told us about the films such as The Rock that were filmed in there. We walked through some of the underground tunnels and learned about the abandoned industries building.
We spent some time in the old chapel room, where we learned about how the room was used, and saw some more graffiti from the Occupy era. A series of paintings of a view of San Francisco from the island was on display, and Wendy told us about the prisoner that painted them. They are unique because at the time no artists or photographers were allowed on the island, so they represent a view of San Francisco that was rarely documented in that era.
Alcatraz was a fascinating step back into history. I did not realise that it was so much more than a prison. It started as a fort, when they were afraid of attacks during the gold rush. The harbour opening was called the golden gates and the island was 3 miles away, making it the perfect distance for cannon fire. There never was an attack though.
Then it became a military prison, also used for political prisoners such as native american chiefs who opposed what was happening to their people, and conscientious objectors during ww1.
After that it was turned into a federal penitentiary, until 1963.
There was a period of about 18 months where it was occupied by Native Americans who believed the land should be returned to them, and they wanted to turn it into a sort of refuge/learning center for all indigenous people in the Americas.
Finally it was turned into a national park as a trial to see what interest there would be, and they now get up to 3000 visitors a day.
A highlight for me was going down into the dungeons which they pretended did not exist for a long time, where there were 8 solitary confinement cells. They would stay down there for periods of 14 days at a time. Our guide turned the lights off and it was literally pitch black. She later took us into the D block solitary cells. They were pretty dark too but you could at least see light around the door.
After completing the behind the scenes tour, we went on to do the night tour, where they give you an audio device (available in many languages) and it guides you through the prison and tells stories about the various inmates, guards and rooms. This was also excellent.
The self guided tour finished at the gift shop (as most tours do), where signs were posted describing additional talks and tours that could be taken for the rest of the evening. We chose to go and listen to a talk about escapes. The guide told us the story of the only guy to ever successfully swim off Alcatraz, except he couldn't swim, so he inflated rubber gloves and put them inside his shirt. He had the exceptionally bad luck to make it to shore at Fort point, a huge military camp. The guide was a talented story teller and we moved from location to location on the island as he spoke, finishing at the docks where we hopped on the ferry to head back to the mainland.
Megan was starving so we made a quick trip to McDonalds, where she was most interested to see how they do things differently in the US, as she works at McDonalds back in Australia. The menu was different as were the uniforms. She also couldn't get a staff discount sadly. Mostly she marvelled at the massive sizes of the french fries and drinks compared to at home.
Our first stop on day 3 was Ghiradelli square. We ate breakfast in our hotel (Weetbix) so we were not starving but thought we had to try something. Megan had an iced chocolate and I tried a raspberry sorbet with chocolate fudge. Oh my! So good and so huge.
From there we walked along to the waterfront to the Cable Car station. On the way there were a number of vendors selling things like knitted goods. We stopped and couldn't resist a little batman cap for Jace, my nephew.
We started off sitting on the bench seats, but the ladies standing in front of us disembarked not long afterwards, so we took the opportunity to stand on the side rails. It was actually quite fun, especially on the steep hills.
At this point Dallas messaged us asking us if we could pick him up a Go-Pro from of all places - a store right across from the Cable Car stop where we were standing for an hour earlier in the day. After much confusion we decided we would try to go back and get it the following morning as it was too far to go back that day.
It took us a while to find our way through the many levels of the park to find our seats, but once we did we were quite excited to see that we had an amazing view of the harbour and the entire field. I am sure that for a real fan these nosebleed seats would not be that great, but we thought they were awesome. Megan went off to find us some nasty ball game food, and came back with garlic fries, which were actually quite tasty.
We stayed until the 7th innings and then decided it would not be smart to be looking for an Uber along with every other fan in the park, so we walked up the street a bit to request an Uber for the ride back to the hotel.
Megan had been looking out for street art, and noticed that this area appeared to have some amazing murals. I was struck by the contrast between the beautiful art and the widespread homelessness.
As we left this area we noticed a man wearing a blanket struggling with a bike. As we went past it became apparent that he was stealing it as he had one wheel off and was working on the other one. It was a timely reminder that we had seen the shiny side of San Francisco, and had walked 37km of hilly streets, but we had barely scratched the surface.
Getting there
We left Brisbane on Wednesday at 11am. In the Singapore Airlines lounge (Virgin Airlines partner) we met a girl who works for Uber in San Francisco and she offered to send us a guide she had written for new employees about the city. She also warned us against going to an area called "Tenderloin". She works in tech recruiting for Uber and told us they 4000 engineers in SF alone. This turned out to be a fortuitous meeting.I decided to test out the Economy X offering from Virgin to see if if really did make a difference. It is hard to compare accurately as we were in the front row of Economy X, meaning that we had no-one in front of us. The seats were a bit hard for my tastes and I spent most of the flight wishing I could lay back just a little bit further!
I suspect we both managed about 2 hours of sleep.
We arrived into LAX at around 7am Wednesday, LA time and spent the next couple of hours in lines. We found the staff there remarkable grumpy considering they were dealing with hordes of sleep deprived passengers. The first line was to use the kiosk to scan our passports and fingerprints, and to take a photo. One of the officers kept herself busy by calling out that this was US customs and we should all know what to do if we paid attention. This only made us afraid to ask any questions. I can't imagine how it must feel for non-English speakers. (Actually I can imagine because we did it in Vietnam, only they were able to speak English to us). The kiosk printed out a receipt to take to the next line for immigration.
For some unknown reason, Megan got a cross on her receipt, which meant we had to join the really long line as opposed to the much shorter line for people without a cross. This line really did seem to take forever. I think the more tired you are, the slower time moves.
After immigration we collected our bags and joined the queue for customs. When we were on the plane, we were given custom forms and told we MUST fill them out correctly or we would have to do them again. In the end they did not even collect them.
The next line was to transfer our bags to the next flight to San Francisco.
Finally, we made our way to the Delta terminal and joined the line for security to get into the terminal. The staff there were especially grumpy, snapping at Megan when she tried to walk up to the desk with me, saying that we had to come up one at a time. Poor Megan had to virtually strip as she was wearing a belt, and a jacket, and a watch, and shoes of course - all of those things that must be removed to go through the machine. While in the line we came across our friend from Uber again. Not having used Uber before, I asked her some questions and learned that even though we did not yet have a cell phone connection, we could order an Uber using wi-fi at the SF airport, and did not need a connection at the end of the ride.
Delta had only recently moved to this terminal so there was a lot of construction going on, and the Sky Lounge was quite small, but it was a welcome reprieve from the chaos at the boarding gates.
The flight to San Francisco was short, but we both had a quick snooze. We were afraid that once we arrived in SF that we would be too tired to do anything. We arrived just before lunch time.
Day 1 - 15,200 steps (11.06km)
The Uber website said that we could be picked up from the Departures level. Using the airport wi-fi, I entered our location, and then it asked for the terminal and the door number that we were standing at. Within a few minutes, our ride arrived and whisked us off to our hotel.
Our room was not ready but they were able to store our bags for us so that we could go and explore. We could smell ourselves and would have loved a shower but did not want to waste the afternoon.
Our first stop was a T-Mobile store around the corner that I had looked up before we left, to purchase the $30 tourist plan, which gives 2GB data as well as unlimited texts. This was quick and easy with friendly and helpful staff.
Presidio
From here we walked up to the Presidio. I believe the Presidio was at one time a military fort/camp, but is now a beautiful park as well as a residential area. We stopped at Starbucks for lunch and then made our way to the LucasFilm building to see the Yoda fountain and take the obligatory photo. If you are looking for it, you take the first right after Starbucks and walk up between the buildings, and to the right of the carpark you will see the statue. Behind the statue are the doors to the lobby. Inside the lobby they have a number of statues of characters such as R2D2 and Darth Vader.
Not far from the LucasFilm building is the Walt Disney Family Museum. This museum chronicles both the life of Walt Disney and the history of the Disney movies and parks. I found it quite fascinating to see the process of innovation that they went through in the early days, finding ways to improve animation and movies. I also came away with the sense that he was one of those people who seem to ooze ideas and dreams as well as the energy to pursue those dreams.
Outside of the museum there is a huge grassy area with large red lounge chairs to relax in. With aching feet we sat down and enjoyed the sunshine for a bit. Of course five young kids decided this was a great time to come and play on the chair next to us. The weather for our whole trip was fantastic. It has been clear and sunny for the most part, and warm enough to be comfortable, but with a chilly edge on the breeze that feels great when you've been walking a long way. Dad had previously sent me a song "If you're going to San Francisco" so we made him a short video featuring the song, but couldn't find any flowers for our hair :)
By this time it was 4:30pm, but we decided that this was a good opportunity to go and see the Golden Gate Bridge, as the entrance to the bridge is within the Presidio. There is a free shuttle bus that goes around the Presidio called Presidigo. We hopped on the next one and it took us up to the Golden Gate welcome centre. It is very windy on the point and we were glad to have taken our jumpers. We walked out to the point where the big fences stopped and enjoyed the view for a while. Underneath the bridge we could see Fort Point. If we ever come back I would like to go and explore that area some more.
To get back to the hotel we caught another shuttle back to the Presidio Visitor Centre, and then yet another shuttle to the edge of the park. From there we walked back towards our hotel, stopping at a small takeaway to pick up some dinner to eat back in the room. It looked promising but was worse than average. We were too tired to really care, and after a welcome shower we collapsed into bed.
Day 2 - 21,979 steps (15.25km)
The first stop in the plan for the day was the crooked portion of Lombard street.
I have decided that Google Maps needs a special symbol for streets that are actually mountains. It is one thing to see that something is a kilometer away. It is quite another when the street goes up and down like a roller coaster. Add that to jet lag and we tired quickly. We enjoyed the scenery though and stopped to take a lot of photos. San Francisco has some quite unique architecture, at least not like anything that we have at home.
I am Megan's official Instagram photographer for this trip. We have had a laugh when we have seen other pairs of people where one is obviously directing the other to take good photos that are post worthy.
Crooked Street
We knew when we were close to the crooked street as we could see the crowds ahead taking photos. It was hard to get a photo from the top that did justice to it. As we started to walk down we saw a young couple with twin babies in a pram that were debating how to get down. We told them to carry their babies and we would push their pram. That was a bit of a workout! About half of it was shallow stairs and the rest were normal stairs where we had to carry the pram. It was probably good for working off those crepes. We thought the better photos were from the bottom of the street.
Coit Tower
Megan was horrified when I told her we were walking next to Coit Tower, as she could see it in the distance. We made it though, over more roller coaster hills. Coit Tower is in Pioneer Park, where they have signs warning you about the local coyotes. Thankfully we did not see any. Around the base of Coit Tower are murals commemorating the early local industries. They were very colourful and detailed and we enjoyed a quick stroll around the bottom. The terrace outside offers excellent views of the bay and we sat down to enjoy a rest with a view.
Piers and Fisherman's Wharf
We made our way back towards Pier 39, stopping for an icecream at Baskin Robbins. At Pier 39 we started by watching the sea lions for a while. If you add dialogue they are pretty funny to watch, climbing over each other to get the best position, and shoving each other off the docks. They are also quite noisy, and we learned later that it is the males that do the barking.
Inside Pier 39 was not my favourite place. There were people everywhere, and the crowds seemed to peak around mid-afternoon.
Alcatraz
Our Alcatraz tickets said to be there at 3:50 for a 4:20 departure. I don't think we got on the boat until about 4:10, but when we did, we were pleasantly surprised to find that instead of 600 people, only the 30 people on our tour were on this trip. We had chosen to do the Behind the Scenes tour, which sells out well in advance, and I can now see why.Once on Alcatraz, we met our guide, a park ranger named Wendy. She was extremely knowledgeable and told us many stories as she guided us around the off-limits area of the island. We went into the old laundry rooms and she told us about the films such as The Rock that were filmed in there. We walked through some of the underground tunnels and learned about the abandoned industries building.
We spent some time in the old chapel room, where we learned about how the room was used, and saw some more graffiti from the Occupy era. A series of paintings of a view of San Francisco from the island was on display, and Wendy told us about the prisoner that painted them. They are unique because at the time no artists or photographers were allowed on the island, so they represent a view of San Francisco that was rarely documented in that era.
Alcatraz was a fascinating step back into history. I did not realise that it was so much more than a prison. It started as a fort, when they were afraid of attacks during the gold rush. The harbour opening was called the golden gates and the island was 3 miles away, making it the perfect distance for cannon fire. There never was an attack though.
Then it became a military prison, also used for political prisoners such as native american chiefs who opposed what was happening to their people, and conscientious objectors during ww1.
After that it was turned into a federal penitentiary, until 1963.
There was a period of about 18 months where it was occupied by Native Americans who believed the land should be returned to them, and they wanted to turn it into a sort of refuge/learning center for all indigenous people in the Americas.
Finally it was turned into a national park as a trial to see what interest there would be, and they now get up to 3000 visitors a day.
A highlight for me was going down into the dungeons which they pretended did not exist for a long time, where there were 8 solitary confinement cells. They would stay down there for periods of 14 days at a time. Our guide turned the lights off and it was literally pitch black. She later took us into the D block solitary cells. They were pretty dark too but you could at least see light around the door.
After completing the behind the scenes tour, we went on to do the night tour, where they give you an audio device (available in many languages) and it guides you through the prison and tells stories about the various inmates, guards and rooms. This was also excellent.
The self guided tour finished at the gift shop (as most tours do), where signs were posted describing additional talks and tours that could be taken for the rest of the evening. We chose to go and listen to a talk about escapes. The guide told us the story of the only guy to ever successfully swim off Alcatraz, except he couldn't swim, so he inflated rubber gloves and put them inside his shirt. He had the exceptionally bad luck to make it to shore at Fort point, a huge military camp. The guide was a talented story teller and we moved from location to location on the island as he spoke, finishing at the docks where we hopped on the ferry to head back to the mainland.
Megan was starving so we made a quick trip to McDonalds, where she was most interested to see how they do things differently in the US, as she works at McDonalds back in Australia. The menu was different as were the uniforms. She also couldn't get a staff discount sadly. Mostly she marvelled at the massive sizes of the french fries and drinks compared to at home.
Day 3 - 14,988 steps (10.79km)
Ghiradelli Square
Our first stop on day 3 was Ghiradelli square. We ate breakfast in our hotel (Weetbix) so we were not starving but thought we had to try something. Megan had an iced chocolate and I tried a raspberry sorbet with chocolate fudge. Oh my! So good and so huge.
From there we walked along to the waterfront to the Cable Car station. On the way there were a number of vendors selling things like knitted goods. We stopped and couldn't resist a little batman cap for Jace, my nephew.
Cable Car
The line for the Cable Car did not seem that long, but it took a very long time to get on. There were four men working there, who would push the cars onto the turntable at the end of the line, rotate them around, and then push them up to the waiting area for the passengers to get on. Each car had an inside section, and an outside section. The outside section consisted of two long bench seats, with standing rails along the bottom and hand rails for those who wanted to have the movie worthy experience of leaning off the side of the cable car as it barreled along.
Union Square
This took us all the way to Union Square, where the plan was to do some shopping. Megan had a few things in mind and we made a few purchases but with the exchange rate being just average, we didn't purchase a lot. It was interesting to browse some of the high end stores and see how the other half lives.At this point Dallas messaged us asking us if we could pick him up a Go-Pro from of all places - a store right across from the Cable Car stop where we were standing for an hour earlier in the day. After much confusion we decided we would try to go back and get it the following morning as it was too far to go back that day.
AT&T Park - our first Baseball game
Before we left for San Francisco I had done some research to see if there were any upcoming sports games that we could experience, and it just so happened that the San Francisco Giants were playing at AT&T Park on Friday night. I jumped onto FaxXchange where I found tickets as cheap as $8. We figured that even if we didn't stay for the whole game, $8 was worth it to experience a "real American baseball game".
It took us a while to find our way through the many levels of the park to find our seats, but once we did we were quite excited to see that we had an amazing view of the harbour and the entire field. I am sure that for a real fan these nosebleed seats would not be that great, but we thought they were awesome. Megan went off to find us some nasty ball game food, and came back with garlic fries, which were actually quite tasty.
We stayed until the 7th innings and then decided it would not be smart to be looking for an Uber along with every other fan in the park, so we walked up the street a bit to request an Uber for the ride back to the hotel.
Leaving Day
An Uber took us to the camera store to pick up the Go-Pro for Dallas, and then we easily picked up another Uber to take us to the airport. As it happens, this driver took us through the middle of the Tenderloin area on the way to the airport.Megan had been looking out for street art, and noticed that this area appeared to have some amazing murals. I was struck by the contrast between the beautiful art and the widespread homelessness.
As we left this area we noticed a man wearing a blanket struggling with a bike. As we went past it became apparent that he was stealing it as he had one wheel off and was working on the other one. It was a timely reminder that we had seen the shiny side of San Francisco, and had walked 37km of hilly streets, but we had barely scratched the surface.
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