San Francisco, CA

Yesterday we saw San Francisco. It’s really a great city. The architecture reminds me a little of South America or Puerto Rico. The atmosphere is similar to Chicago. It is extremely hilly – driving the hills is like riding a roller coaster.

We left our hotel yesterday morning around 9:00 and drove south, through Sonoma County. It was beautiful. There were vineyards everywhere, and hills. I could see myself living there. It became more urban as we entered Marin County, and then we saw signs for the Golden Gate Bridge. Wow. We drove over it and it was amazing. It is such an icon.


We got to our hotel around 11:00 and checked in. We decided to stay right in the city so that we could spend a lot of time walking around and exploring. We stayed at a hotel called Parc 55, which Priceline found for us. Despite its claims that it’s a luxury hotel, its Internet access was down all night (that’s why I didn’t blog last night). Also, there was no included breakfast, and no pool. But its location was good.

By the time we got settled in, it was time for lunch. Our hotel was near Chinatown so we went there. We ate at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called “A-1 Chinese Restaurant.” It was excellent. Then we took a cab to Fisherman’s Wharf and lined up a 3-hour bus tour. We figured that since we have such little time here, we might as well get the overview. The tour guide seemed mostly interested in telling us how expensive it was to live in San Francisco. Coming from Boston, it’s old news. We were more interested in some history of the city. But we got the overview we were looking for.

After the tour, it was dinner time, so we had sandwiches at the Boudin, the place that invented sour dough bread. So of course, we had to try the bread, and it was delicious. After that, we took the street car, which is actually a cable car, back to our hotel. Jim got to ride on the outside. He was very, very happy. He was trying to figure out how they operated the whole time.


After that, we walked around the area of San Francisco where our hotel is located, and then we returned to the hotel.

Today we head to Los Angeles.