American tourism: San Francisco
I had been to San Francisco before, years ago, as part of a work trip that I extended over a weekend. Back then I enjoyed wine tasting in Sonoma Valley, incredible vegetarian dining at a place called Millennium, and listening to live music at Pier 23. When Randy suggested bringing me and the kids with him on one of his regular Bay Area trips this summer, I wasn't sure we should do it. I had no idea what kind of kid-friendly activities we could find.
But we did go, and we all had a memorable time.
More after the jump
Going to San Francisco for a few days for us was not unlike our swing-throughs in Europe except 1) everything was in English; 2) we could rent a car and take ourselves around; and 3) because of 1) and 2) Randy could handle getting around without my help trying to translate signs and announcements. It was actually a little strange for me to get off the plane and not immediately take charge. Randy was also amused at this adjustment as he quickly guided us through the labyrinth of SFO to get a rental car.
We still had an afternoon ahead of us, enough time to walk around the city and find something to eat. I thought Chinatown might be of interest, to see how people from the country we now reside had settled here as an expat community. We had also read The Earth Dragon Awakes two or three years ago, and some of it takes place in Chinatown.
Chinatown was interesting, and all of us (except poor Brigid who has no memory of the place) remarked how much it reminded us of Kowloon, with the wide-open shops selling inexpensive souvenirs. There was some sign that not all the shoppers were Westerners, though, when we saw one shop with 熊出没/Boonie Bears toys.
I was hoping that the recent influx of immigrants from other parts of China would have maybe meant we could find some really good Chinese food in this neighborhood. I searched on my phone, and all the highly recommended places were quite a walk from where we were.
We did see a Catholic Church that served the Chinese community.
We continued to walk until we saw a cute restaurant on the corner called Zoetrope. Where had I heard this name before, I wondered. Oh yes, associated with the Coppola family of actors and directors.
It wasn't the Chinese food I was hoping for, but it would be the Italian food we'd enjoy that night. I was tentative, believing that it might be busy and outrageously expensive. However, they were able to seat us without a reservation, and we didn't spend hundreds of dollars. It reminded me a lot of eating on Mulberry Street as I used to many years ago, and I guess that was the point.
I really didn't have room for desert, but I couldn't resist ordering a cannoli. You know, "Leave the gun; take the cannoli."
The next day we had all the time we wanted. The weather seemed as though it would cooperate (as much as it can in that part of California) so instead of spending hours in the museums, we decided to drive north out of San Francisco and see some outdoor sites in Marin County.
We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge that morning, a heavy cloud obscuring the top. Oohs and ahhs from us.
The whole drive north was incredible. In previous travels, we have enjoyed incredible scenery, but often in other parts of the US and Middle Europe what we saw were variations on things we've seen before in our Mid-Western existence. Lovely hills in green, trees turning colors in the fall. A few times we've been lucky in that we've seen something truly unlike anything we had ever seen before, like the Karst landscape of Yangshuo, or the rocky cliffs on the Elbe River, or the tide flats on Cape Cod. Driving through Marin County was one of those experiences for us. The vegetation, the fast-moving mist that seemed to blow across the road and upwards, the occasional glimpses of ocean.
We arrived at the Bear Valley Visitor center, and, once again, I have to hand it to the National Park Service. The exhibit at the center provided quite a bit of information about Point Reyes, covering history, wildlife, and geology.
One reason for stopping at the center (other than to make a restroom stop) was that the active San Andrea Fault is a short walk from it. While the visible trace was now a narrow dusty strip, it was still enough for the kids. We stood over the San Andreas Fault!
To get there the Park Service has a short path that loops around and returns at the center. Along the way were several placards explaining earthquakes.
In the immediate aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, G.K. Gilbert and Alice Eastwood investigated the damage, seeking the epicenter. When they reached this part of the fault line, they found a fence on the farm that was here that had been split in two pieces, separated by 16 or so feet.
We continued on to Point Reyes Lighthouse, and the drive still took us past even more points of interest. There was Marine Radio Station KPH and AT&T's Ship-to-Shore voice communication towers.
And then we passed several of the historic cattle ranches and dairy farms in this unlikeliest of places.
Known to this day by their assigned alphabetical designators, these farms represent one hundred and fifty years of commercial agriculture in Northern California.
At long last we reached Point Reyes Lighthouse. Or rather the parking lot. We still needed to walk around the rocky cliffs to reach the actual lighthouse.
Again we were amazed at how gorgeous and exotic this place seemed. The mist-clouds blowing quickly over our heads, the fairy house trees, the dune cliffs far below us.
And then finally we reached the Lighthouse stairs. Looking down, we did not mind at all that the Lighthouse was not open that day. We would have to walk all that way down and then back up again.
What a lovely lonely life the lighthouse keeper surely had.
On the way back to San Francisco, we wanted to find supper, but our choices were limited in such a sparsely populated area. We had found in Inverness a sign for a Czech Restaurant. It was too curious not to pass up. Myles was delighted that they had goulash with bread dumplings.
It was just getting dark when we crossed back over the Golden Gate Bridge. Randy and I decided to try to squeeze more thing in our day, the one thing Brigid most wanted to do in San Francisco. We rode the Cable Car from Fisherman's Wharf, down to Union Square, and then back up the hill.
The next day Randy had his meeting. The kids and I could wait for him at a Starbucks that he passed all the time in his visits here. Oh, and we would drive past the Apple Campus in Cupertino, and would I like to see that?
I wish I could say I was too cool to attempt pictures of Apple, but I wasn't. My photos just were all blurry, so I have none to post. But I did think it was interesting that within a few minutes I witnessed the extrema of Apple commuters: one guy skateboarding in, and another in a beautiful white Maserati.
While at the Starbucks, I had a chance to try Powermat, the wireless phone charging system.
The kids wanted an explanation about how it worked, so we talked about magnetic fields and inductive coupling. The Powermat rings lit up when they were in the right spot, so Myles and Brigid both fiddled with axial and radial distance to see how close the ring had to line up with the power source to work.
The kids grew a little restless after our physics lesson. I then remembered something else I knew about Cupertino, that one of my favorite authors, Ron Hansen, was a permanent deacon at St. Joseph of Cupertino parish. A quick look at my phone's maps showed that we were only about a block away. I didn't think we would see him. I could hope, couldn't I? But what would I say if I did see him, "Hi, did you know you're awesome?"
We walked over to take a look around.
There was adoration in one of the side chapels, so we went in for a rosary-worth of time, and then walked around outside again. There was a shady meditation garden, the centerpiece of which was this statue of St. Joseph of Cupertino about to take flight himself adoring the Cross.
We returned to the Starbucks to wait a little longer, and buy food to carry with us for lunch. When Randy was done with his meeting he wanted to drive straight up to Muir Woods National Monument, one of the main things on his list to see on this trip.
It was about an hour and a half from Cupertino to Muir Woods. It was another half an hour for us to find parking! All of the main lots were full when we arrived after noon, so we had to park along the road and walk to the entrance. The walk wasn't terrible, maybe a mile, but the narrow road was not equipped for pedestrians, only car traffic. So it was an occasionally tense mile.
Once we paid our admission and entered the forest, Myles remarked that he found the woods very familiar.
"Mom! Dad! It looks like Endor! The Forest Moon of Endor!"
Yes, son. Star Wars tourism---it's a thing.
I could not stop taking pictures of Muir Woods. It was stunning. The Park Service must work their tails off to make this section of Redwood Forest accessible to so many tourists and yet try to maintain the natural ecosystem.
Redwood trees are amazing, so different from other trees. The root system is shallow, and they depend on catching moisture from the mist and clouds that rise off the ocean and quickly blow across these higher areas.
And they are so resilient, surviving for a thousand years.
It wasn't uncommon to see a tree that had survived a forest fire, something that could happen even without human involvement. We saw several trees with scarred, blackened areas in the lower trunk, and yet a healthy tree still stood there.
For Brigid, this was the most memorable part of this forest. Twice she drew this, once in her own sketchbook during the trip and again a few weeks ago in her art class. It is her representation of a Redwood tree. The charred part at the bottom, followed by some exposed red wood, then the dark brown bark, and then the green needles high above.
Sometimes a redwood sustained so much damage in repeated or serious wildfires, it would break off at a weak point above the roots. However, if the roots were still healthy, it would send out shoots. At a few places in Muir Woods we could see a ring of younger trees around a broken trunk.
Redwoods are also so fragile, sending out millions of seeds in tiny cones, resulting in relatively few vulnerable sprouts.
And, without obvious symptoms or warning, a redwood can simply fall over dead. This one fell across the path on a windy December day in 2012.
I tried something fun at Muir Woods with my phone camera. I had clip-on lenses, so I played with fish-eye and wide angle lenses.
The fish-eye was okay. I need to find its purpose.
But I was pretty pleased with the wide-angle shots.
Wide-angle made for fun selfies. Or rather, groupies
It was still light when we left Muir woods. We were hoping to catch some beautiful views of the Golden Gate on our way back to the city.
We still had time to squeeze in one more touristy thing before supper. So we took the kids for a drive down Lombard Street, the famous crooked-est residential street in America. I couldn't believe the number of tourists standing in the intersections and on the road taking pictures.
Once again, we were faced with supper time with little plan. Randy had the vague idea of going to Fisherman's Wharf to find something, which I was not really on board with. All I could think we would find would be seafood and Applebee's, and I didn't fly all the way to San Francisco to eat at Applebee's. We saw Bistro Boudin, and I resigned myself to eating some substandard tourist fare. Oh, was I happily wrong.
The bread was fine, of course, but I had a rather creative watermelon and horseradish salad. Randy devoured his mushroom risotto. The wine list was more extensive and better than most places I've been lately. I remarked to the waitress that it was unusual that someplace like Boudin that does not get many repeat customers (and has a kids' menu to boot!) pay so much attention to creating delicious and memorable food. She was grateful for the compliment, noting that she had taken the great food there for granted. Boudin was a nice surprise.
The next day it was time to leave. I was tired, of course, but I was happy we made the decision to go. At the airport we ate lunch and sampled wines at San Francisco Uncorked. Finally, I was getting the wine tasting I used to do when I travelled to this area.
Brigid got started on her drawings from the trip. I really liked her persepective on the Golden Gate Bridge.
I don't know if we'll have the chance to do this again, but in case we don't, I think the kids especially had a brilliant time.
But we did go, and we all had a memorable time.
More after the jump
Going to San Francisco for a few days for us was not unlike our swing-throughs in Europe except 1) everything was in English; 2) we could rent a car and take ourselves around; and 3) because of 1) and 2) Randy could handle getting around without my help trying to translate signs and announcements. It was actually a little strange for me to get off the plane and not immediately take charge. Randy was also amused at this adjustment as he quickly guided us through the labyrinth of SFO to get a rental car.
We still had an afternoon ahead of us, enough time to walk around the city and find something to eat. I thought Chinatown might be of interest, to see how people from the country we now reside had settled here as an expat community. We had also read The Earth Dragon Awakes two or three years ago, and some of it takes place in Chinatown.
Chinatown was interesting, and all of us (except poor Brigid who has no memory of the place) remarked how much it reminded us of Kowloon, with the wide-open shops selling inexpensive souvenirs. There was some sign that not all the shoppers were Westerners, though, when we saw one shop with 熊出没/Boonie Bears toys.
I was hoping that the recent influx of immigrants from other parts of China would have maybe meant we could find some really good Chinese food in this neighborhood. I searched on my phone, and all the highly recommended places were quite a walk from where we were.
We did see a Catholic Church that served the Chinese community.
We continued to walk until we saw a cute restaurant on the corner called Zoetrope. Where had I heard this name before, I wondered. Oh yes, associated with the Coppola family of actors and directors.
It wasn't the Chinese food I was hoping for, but it would be the Italian food we'd enjoy that night. I was tentative, believing that it might be busy and outrageously expensive. However, they were able to seat us without a reservation, and we didn't spend hundreds of dollars. It reminded me a lot of eating on Mulberry Street as I used to many years ago, and I guess that was the point.
I really didn't have room for desert, but I couldn't resist ordering a cannoli. You know, "Leave the gun; take the cannoli."
The next day we had all the time we wanted. The weather seemed as though it would cooperate (as much as it can in that part of California) so instead of spending hours in the museums, we decided to drive north out of San Francisco and see some outdoor sites in Marin County.
We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge that morning, a heavy cloud obscuring the top. Oohs and ahhs from us.
The whole drive north was incredible. In previous travels, we have enjoyed incredible scenery, but often in other parts of the US and Middle Europe what we saw were variations on things we've seen before in our Mid-Western existence. Lovely hills in green, trees turning colors in the fall. A few times we've been lucky in that we've seen something truly unlike anything we had ever seen before, like the Karst landscape of Yangshuo, or the rocky cliffs on the Elbe River, or the tide flats on Cape Cod. Driving through Marin County was one of those experiences for us. The vegetation, the fast-moving mist that seemed to blow across the road and upwards, the occasional glimpses of ocean.
We arrived at the Bear Valley Visitor center, and, once again, I have to hand it to the National Park Service. The exhibit at the center provided quite a bit of information about Point Reyes, covering history, wildlife, and geology.
One reason for stopping at the center (other than to make a restroom stop) was that the active San Andrea Fault is a short walk from it. While the visible trace was now a narrow dusty strip, it was still enough for the kids. We stood over the San Andreas Fault!
To get there the Park Service has a short path that loops around and returns at the center. Along the way were several placards explaining earthquakes.
In the immediate aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, G.K. Gilbert and Alice Eastwood investigated the damage, seeking the epicenter. When they reached this part of the fault line, they found a fence on the farm that was here that had been split in two pieces, separated by 16 or so feet.
We continued on to Point Reyes Lighthouse, and the drive still took us past even more points of interest. There was Marine Radio Station KPH and AT&T's Ship-to-Shore voice communication towers.
And then we passed several of the historic cattle ranches and dairy farms in this unlikeliest of places.
Known to this day by their assigned alphabetical designators, these farms represent one hundred and fifty years of commercial agriculture in Northern California.
At long last we reached Point Reyes Lighthouse. Or rather the parking lot. We still needed to walk around the rocky cliffs to reach the actual lighthouse.
Again we were amazed at how gorgeous and exotic this place seemed. The mist-clouds blowing quickly over our heads, the fairy house trees, the dune cliffs far below us.
And then finally we reached the Lighthouse stairs. Looking down, we did not mind at all that the Lighthouse was not open that day. We would have to walk all that way down and then back up again.
What a lovely lonely life the lighthouse keeper surely had.
On the way back to San Francisco, we wanted to find supper, but our choices were limited in such a sparsely populated area. We had found in Inverness a sign for a Czech Restaurant. It was too curious not to pass up. Myles was delighted that they had goulash with bread dumplings.
It was just getting dark when we crossed back over the Golden Gate Bridge. Randy and I decided to try to squeeze more thing in our day, the one thing Brigid most wanted to do in San Francisco. We rode the Cable Car from Fisherman's Wharf, down to Union Square, and then back up the hill.
The next day Randy had his meeting. The kids and I could wait for him at a Starbucks that he passed all the time in his visits here. Oh, and we would drive past the Apple Campus in Cupertino, and would I like to see that?
I wish I could say I was too cool to attempt pictures of Apple, but I wasn't. My photos just were all blurry, so I have none to post. But I did think it was interesting that within a few minutes I witnessed the extrema of Apple commuters: one guy skateboarding in, and another in a beautiful white Maserati.
While at the Starbucks, I had a chance to try Powermat, the wireless phone charging system.
The kids wanted an explanation about how it worked, so we talked about magnetic fields and inductive coupling. The Powermat rings lit up when they were in the right spot, so Myles and Brigid both fiddled with axial and radial distance to see how close the ring had to line up with the power source to work.
The kids grew a little restless after our physics lesson. I then remembered something else I knew about Cupertino, that one of my favorite authors, Ron Hansen, was a permanent deacon at St. Joseph of Cupertino parish. A quick look at my phone's maps showed that we were only about a block away. I didn't think we would see him. I could hope, couldn't I? But what would I say if I did see him, "Hi, did you know you're awesome?"
We walked over to take a look around.
There was adoration in one of the side chapels, so we went in for a rosary-worth of time, and then walked around outside again. There was a shady meditation garden, the centerpiece of which was this statue of St. Joseph of Cupertino about to take flight himself adoring the Cross.
We returned to the Starbucks to wait a little longer, and buy food to carry with us for lunch. When Randy was done with his meeting he wanted to drive straight up to Muir Woods National Monument, one of the main things on his list to see on this trip.
It was about an hour and a half from Cupertino to Muir Woods. It was another half an hour for us to find parking! All of the main lots were full when we arrived after noon, so we had to park along the road and walk to the entrance. The walk wasn't terrible, maybe a mile, but the narrow road was not equipped for pedestrians, only car traffic. So it was an occasionally tense mile.
Once we paid our admission and entered the forest, Myles remarked that he found the woods very familiar.
"Mom! Dad! It looks like Endor! The Forest Moon of Endor!"
Yes, son. Star Wars tourism---it's a thing.
I could not stop taking pictures of Muir Woods. It was stunning. The Park Service must work their tails off to make this section of Redwood Forest accessible to so many tourists and yet try to maintain the natural ecosystem.
Redwood trees are amazing, so different from other trees. The root system is shallow, and they depend on catching moisture from the mist and clouds that rise off the ocean and quickly blow across these higher areas.
And they are so resilient, surviving for a thousand years.
It wasn't uncommon to see a tree that had survived a forest fire, something that could happen even without human involvement. We saw several trees with scarred, blackened areas in the lower trunk, and yet a healthy tree still stood there.
For Brigid, this was the most memorable part of this forest. Twice she drew this, once in her own sketchbook during the trip and again a few weeks ago in her art class. It is her representation of a Redwood tree. The charred part at the bottom, followed by some exposed red wood, then the dark brown bark, and then the green needles high above.
Sometimes a redwood sustained so much damage in repeated or serious wildfires, it would break off at a weak point above the roots. However, if the roots were still healthy, it would send out shoots. At a few places in Muir Woods we could see a ring of younger trees around a broken trunk.
Redwoods are also so fragile, sending out millions of seeds in tiny cones, resulting in relatively few vulnerable sprouts.
And, without obvious symptoms or warning, a redwood can simply fall over dead. This one fell across the path on a windy December day in 2012.
I tried something fun at Muir Woods with my phone camera. I had clip-on lenses, so I played with fish-eye and wide angle lenses.
The fish-eye was okay. I need to find its purpose.
But I was pretty pleased with the wide-angle shots.
Wide-angle made for fun selfies. Or rather, groupies
It was still light when we left Muir woods. We were hoping to catch some beautiful views of the Golden Gate on our way back to the city.
We still had time to squeeze in one more touristy thing before supper. So we took the kids for a drive down Lombard Street, the famous crooked-est residential street in America. I couldn't believe the number of tourists standing in the intersections and on the road taking pictures.
Once again, we were faced with supper time with little plan. Randy had the vague idea of going to Fisherman's Wharf to find something, which I was not really on board with. All I could think we would find would be seafood and Applebee's, and I didn't fly all the way to San Francisco to eat at Applebee's. We saw Bistro Boudin, and I resigned myself to eating some substandard tourist fare. Oh, was I happily wrong.
The bread was fine, of course, but I had a rather creative watermelon and horseradish salad. Randy devoured his mushroom risotto. The wine list was more extensive and better than most places I've been lately. I remarked to the waitress that it was unusual that someplace like Boudin that does not get many repeat customers (and has a kids' menu to boot!) pay so much attention to creating delicious and memorable food. She was grateful for the compliment, noting that she had taken the great food there for granted. Boudin was a nice surprise.
The next day it was time to leave. I was tired, of course, but I was happy we made the decision to go. At the airport we ate lunch and sampled wines at San Francisco Uncorked. Finally, I was getting the wine tasting I used to do when I travelled to this area.
Brigid got started on her drawings from the trip. I really liked her persepective on the Golden Gate Bridge.
I don't know if we'll have the chance to do this again, but in case we don't, I think the kids especially had a brilliant time.
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