April 26-29 2002

Mark Twain said that he never spent a colder winter than a summer day in San Francisico and I could relate to that as soon as I stepped off the plane from New York. It was a beautiful spring day, sunny and 70F, at JFK but I could see that the light jacket I had brought with me in case of showers was going to be totally inadequate to cope with the Pacific coast climate. We were staying at Fisherman's Wharf and the wind blew straight off the water and right through me, even when I was standing in the hotel lobby. First stop was to one of the many cheap clothing stores opposite the wharf to get a fleece so that we could begin to explore SF.

Suitably attired we explored Fisherman's Wharf, pausing to read the menus outside the many seafood restaurants. It was only early afternoon otherwise we would have been tempted to try the crabs right away. I took some photos of herons perched on trawlers and we walked towards the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory that is now a tourist attraction of shops and restaurants but where you can still buy the famous chocolates. From there we walked along the promenade and saw the members of the swimming and rowing club in their red swim caps making circuits of the marina. As the year round water temperature is only 52F they must be truly hardy as a lap takes 15-20 minutes or so. Some even swim outside the protective walls accompanied by a rowing boat and sometimes by the seals that live in the bay.

Steven was keen to see the Golden Gate Bridge and he wasn't disappointed. We found ourselves that evening eating shellfish, viewing the bridge and watching the sun go down, very romantic.

Next morning we set off for a cruise out into San Francisco Bay, under the bridge, past Alcatraz and back to port accompanied by families of sealions. We love boats and this was a great tour, the wind on the water was ferocious and I was glad of the fleece I had picked up the day before. I don't know how the dinghies and yachts managed to sail out there but they bobbed around the rugged Marin headlands, while pelicans swooped around.

Suffering from a bout of nostalgia we lunched on Belgian frites and mayonnaise washed down with a Hoegaarden in a cafe run by an "echte Belg", these were the real thing and better than we had sampled in Brussels in January. Afterwards we queued for a hour or so to catch the cablecar to Nob Hill, from where we walked downhill (sideways, like crabs when it got too steep) through the Financial District to the Ferry Building where we caught another cablecar back to the hotel.

For our last night we moved to the Renaissance hotel in Nob Hill and you can see the photo of the fantastic view from our window above. The hotel is situated at the corner where two cablecar lines meet and it is a very soothing to here the rumble of the cars and the jangle of the bells, at least from seven floors up.

We spent the last day walking through Chinatown and the Italian district, ending up once again on the water at Pier 41. Without realising it was there we stumbled on "the sealion sanctuary", actually berths on a small marina where the sealions had found shelter after the last earthquake and which they had never left. They are now protected from disturbance by boats and provide a free attraction for the tourists. A little further along and we had a great view of the blessing of the fleet as a flotilla of boats sailed past led by the SF fireboat.

Next time we come to the area, and there will be a next time I'm sure, we plan to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and head off to explore Marin County and to take the time to visit the wineries in Sonoma and the Napa valley. Combined with a couple of days in SF it sounds like the perfect vacation