San Francisco

What fun! We had a great week in San Francisco staying first with our friends Chris and El, then with Marian's cousin Jonathan and his wife Carol. The locations were very central for visiting the city. We had great visits to nearby neighbourhoods and attractions and also did a few day trips outside the city. Our weather was surprisingly good, given San Francisco's famously cold and foggy summers. Here are some pics...

The Transamercia Building was built in 1972 and was controversial at the time for being outside the then downtown core. It has become an icon of the city and after a recent renovation is looking fantastic. There is a great little museum on the ground floor about the construction and 1970's office decor (lots of dark wood veneer and orange furniture). Adjacent was a large display of original Eames furniture...

I didn't know autonomous cars worked yet. But they do! In San Francisco (and a few other cities) Waymo taxis are everywhere (about 400 ply the streets - by far the most common taxi in San Francisco). They are all white Jaguar iPace (electric) cars, with NO driver (they function like an Uber through an app). The sensors on the roof and corners are spinning all the time (lidar) and there are cameras as well. They navigate the city and manage pedestrians perfectly. They are not allowed on the freeways (yet)....

Alcatraz looking down from Nob Hill (near where we stayed with Chris and El). The cloud (fog) layer is normal...

The topography is very steep on many streets, which makes for very interesting street views with staggered buildings. The old timber Victorian and Edwardian houses are spectacular and all over the city (many escaped the 1906 earthquake and fire which destroyed a lot of the central city)....

We enjoyed walking around the Castro district. It is a gay stronghold with great character and a lively Main Street. This is a garage down a side street....

The Golden Gate Bridge is mostly in fog! It rushes in from the ocean when cold, moist air meets hotter air on the other side of the coastal hills. It is quite spectacular rolling into the bay over the bridge, or over the hills adjacent. Sometimes the bridge is clear, but most of the time the top of it is fog. Sometimes the whole thing is covered in a thick fog white-out....

We drove up to the Sonoma valley and had lunch at Francis Ford Coppola's winery. He's owned it for 50 years and it is a huge facility. There is a museum of his films which was really interesting...

Chinatown in San Francisco is huge and very interesting. It is also remarkably authentic, having a scale that sustains it well beyond (and despite) any tourist function...

The tramway museum is fantastic. It is the home of all cables and machinery which drive the San Francisco cable cars. There are four routes (in different directions from this building), and each is powered here. The video below shows the machines in motion (note the four cable lines)...

El took us on a excellent curated walking tour of buildings in the Downtown district. There are so many exceptional buildings of all ages. This one is from 1958 and is one of the first high rise modern buildings in the city. I thought it was brilliant, with a glass box floating underneath...

This is an example of many very fancy interiors from buildings constructed early in the 20th century...

Recently a very large transit centre was constructed and they built a park on the roof with a walking circuit around it. It is a bit like a botanic garden and is very well used - very impressive...

A post office from the 1930's is down near the Embarcadero (servicing the piers to the harbour). It is a fantastic Art Deco building. The interior has many large murals from 1948 depicting the history of San Francisco, particularly as it related to the working person. This one relates to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge...

Pier 39 is famous for the many sea lions that congregate there. No one is sure why. After a large earthquake, a lone male arrived in December 1989 and soon after there were hundreds. They've been there ever since. Their manners aren't very good - they keep trying to push each other off the rafts...

We went to a jazz bar near where we were staying and listened to the 'jam session' on Monday night. The players were fantastic....

Bison in Golden Gate Park...really....

The house band at a nearby bar where Chris often joins in on Tuesday nights. Chris and I played a few songs which was heaps of fun...

We visited Alcatraz - which we really enjoyed. So interesting, both inside the prison cells and outside walking around the island. There is a huge cormorant colony on the island which is pretty spectacular. This is the view back to the city...

Notice the bridge - without fog...

Three prisoners escaped in 1962. They were never found (it is uncertain whether they perished or survived). They used spoons to open up the air vent in the concrete (below the sink) and made pretend heads (in situ) to avoid alarm during the night (which worked). The hole opened to the services shaft which allowed them to shimmy up to the roof then down to the water. A Popular Mechanics magazine from the prison library gave them an idea on how to fashion an inflatable raft...

Notice how fog has now covered the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back to the city on our boat...

Coffee on a great day out with Jon and Carol, heading up to the north-east coast...

Lunch view with sea lion lounging on pier...

At the beach with Jon and Carol...

Muir Woods National Park is fantastic. The trees are so huge and attractive, with rough bark and great character. It's difficult to show the scale with photos...

On the way to Coppola's winery I noticed a huge blue roof off to the side of the highway and worked out it was a Frank Lloyd Wright building called the Marin County Civic Centre (government offices; courts and library). It was one of his last buildings. We later went back on a guided tour which was great....

We all went for a day out including a walk along the coastal cliffs near the bridge (south side). The views were fantastic...

Driving around the city there are very impressive buildings from different eras, particularly when you look up ...

We visited a very large exhibition of photos by Paul McCartney which weaved together the story of The Beatles in the important early years of 1963/4. I really enjoyed it...

San Francisco (Downtown) in 1846-7. I thought it was interesting that the size of the town looks similar to images around the same time of Brisbane and Melbourne. Although, with the gold rush of 1949, it grew very quickly (as did Melbourne after the 1851 gold rush)....