Adventures in the USA: Rachel's Travel Diary

San Francisco instalment!

Last week I took a trip up to San Francisco from Monday to Friday. I was very lucky with the weather; it was gloriously sunny all week (so sunny that my nose got a little sunburnt) but simultaneously quite windy along the coast! I stayed with Xiaofan, a friend from university, near the Painted Ladies at Alamo Square which was a great base for the week but more importantly a great opportunity to catch up! I really enjoyed my time in SF and it amazed me how different LA and SF are – SF is very hilly, with some roads seeming to go endlessly upwards. Of course, LA does have hills as well, but most of the city is in the LA Basin with only expensive houses up in the hills. There are much older houses in SF as well, lots dating back to Victorian times with beautifully decorative frontages in all sorts of bright colours.The public transport is also much better, with buses, trams and cable cars, as well as the Bay Area Rapid Transit to get between the different cities around the Bay Area. I still racked up over 90,000 steps in the week though!

Winding back in time slightly further first though, last weekend, Chris and I took an overnight trip to Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino mountains. It was due to be very hot in LA that weekend (up to 36 degrees) so we escaped into the mountains where it was still sunny, but about 10 degrees cooler due to the elevation. It took us about 2.5 hours to get up there with the last section of the drive up through the mountains along the ‘Rim of the World Highway’ which snakes around the edge of a valley with several stunning viewpoints. It was a very relaxing weekend filled with good food, gentle hiking trails and board games in our cabin in the woods for the night.

Then I had one night back in our apartment before heading off to San Francisco. Thankfully I had booked an afternoon flight so I didn’t have to rush off straight away, but had time to unpack and repack my bags on the Monday morning. It was an easy flight up to SF, lasting only 1hr 20 but with a free soft drink and mini pretzels provided. When I arrived at Xiaofan’s place, we went for a walk around Alamo Square before going to an Indian restaurant for dinner – the first time I’ve had Indian food in the USA, but a very similar menu on offer to most Indian restaurants in the UK. We also went to a game arcade where we played air hockey, pinball and basket ball, and Xiaofan beat me at everything, then we headed back to his place for a movie. 

On Tuesday I had arranged to meet another university friend, Imogen, who has been studying at Berkley for the last two years and who I haven’t seen since she left! We met in Mission Dolores Park for coffee, a pastry and a good catch up on our news from the last two years. We also checked out a few vintage shops in the Mission before she headed off for her last exam and I made my way to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens (which happened to be free entry that day) and the Japanese Tea Gardens, both of which are located in Golden Gate Park. Then I headed back to Xiaofan’s before we drove out to see sunset by The Golden Gate Bridge.

On Wednesday I had booked a trip to Alcatraz. Before catching the ferry, I found a local bakery which specialised in sourdough toast and had toast with cinnamon sugar and butter for breakfast. Then at 11.30 I caught the ferry over to Alcatraz to explore the island and take an audio tour of the cell house. It was a fascinating to visit the island – I knew a little bit about it’s history as a federal prison, but I wasn’t aware that before that it was a military fortress and prison, and a few years after it closed there was a peaceful occupation by Native Americans for 19 months! They have preserved the political messages that were graffitied during the occupation so they can still be seen across the island. I also didn’t know that Al Capone was one of the residents during its days as a prison!

After finishing my tour, I caught the ferry back to Pier 33, then walked along the waterfront to Fisherman’s Wharf where I visited Boudin Sourdough Bakery for lunch – crab chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, yum! There’s also an arcade full of mechanical machines – old pinball machines, fortune tellers and mechanical music machines which now operate on quarters. In the evening Xiaofan and I went to a Cambridge Alumni event that was attended by the current head of the Computer Science Department as he happened to be in SF for a conference a few days previously. I’ve not been to many networking events since leaving Cambridge and it was interesting hearing from graduates who have relocated to the Bay Area and share things that confused and surprised us when first arriving in America. I’ll have to keep an eye out for other alumni events, both in LA and back in London.

On Thursday I headed back to the Golden Gate Bridge (after finding yet another bakery for breakfast). There is a Welcome Centre at the south side of the bridge and outdoor exhibits about the construction of the bridge. I spent around an hour looking at the exhibition (even though I already knew the principles of suspension bridge construction from my university studies and the Extended Project Qualification I did at school which focused on the similar Forth Road Bridge in Scotland). After reading all the information and taking many selfies with the bridge in the background, I walked across to the northern vista point and back again (a 3.8 mile round trip, stopping to take many more photos along the way). I then walked East through Presidio Park, through Crissy’s field and a neighbouring marshland area, before taking a detour past the Lucasfilm offices to get a photo of the Yoda Fountain. I then realised it was nearly 3pm and I hadn’t had lunch yet! I got a slice of pizza from a ‘hole in the wall’ restaurant and then went to Ghirardelli Square for a (not so) ‘mini’ ice-cream sundae with chocolate fudge sauce. Ghirardelli Square was the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company from 1893 to 1960s and it has since been redeveloped into a tiered shopping centre, with 3 separate Ghirardelli Chocolate shops inside! Seems a bit excessive to me but it does mean there aren’t any queues for ice cream and chocolate! I’d slightly exhausted myself from all the walking at this point, so we had a quiet evening watching Netflix and playing Monopoly Deal, but I felt very satisfied that I’d ticked off nearly everything on my ‘to see’ list for the city.

Friday morning I had set aside for going on the historic cable car. There are three different routes in the city and I took the Powell-Mason Line. There was quite a long queue at the turntable on Powell Street so I had to wait for a few cable cars to depart before I could get on one. The route we took was very hilly! We went over Nob Hill and then Russian Hill to get to Fisherman’s Wharf, and you can hang onto poles on the outside of the car at certain points along the route – as long as you listen to the operators and behave sensibly! When we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf, I went back to Boudin to buy a load of sourdough to bring back for Chris, went back to the arcade to use up the rest of my quarters and then walked round to Pier 39 which has been redeveloped with lots of restaurants and shops. Next to Pier 39 is a platform which many sea lions make their home from late summer through to late spring. I saw a sign that says typically there are between 300 and 700 sea lions at the pier, but in May 2024 they had a record 2100! I can only image the noise they must have made! After watching the sea lions for a bit, it was time to head back to Xiaofan’s as he’d kindly agreed to drive me to the airport . The flight home was a bit more turbulent so we didn’t get our snacks and drinks this time as the seatbelt sign stayed on for the whole flight, but I can’t complain really – I can’t remember the last time I had two consecutive flights that departed and landed on time!

I’m really glad I took this trip up to San Francisco – it was a shame that Chris wasn’t able to join me as he’s very busy at the work at the moment, but it did mean I could spend as long looking at the bridge and thinking about it’s construction as I liked! We’ve got a few more short trips lined up over the next few weeks as we’re packing in as much as we can before I head back home at the end of June – the time is flying by!

Signing off now from the across the pond,

Rachel