In the Land of Giants

I was nervous. I always am when I go to a big city; I dislike them, or maybe it’s the idea of them. San Francisco was no different. Maybe it’s walking into the unknown; the unfamiliar. That may seem strange for someone that likes to travel about and see new places. But I am not accustomed to Big City life; how to get around on transit systems, places to eat, people and places to avoid. It’s just vastly different from my suburbia.

I would have preferred traveling through smaller towns, but Kellee has been prodding me into going to San Francisco for a while now. So to go north and bypass the SF was not going to happen. Besides that it seems like a shame to say that you’re from California and have never gone to San Francisco. If you’re from California you should want to visit SF, shouldn’t you?

We decided to stay in Fremont a town just outside of San Francisco. It was a quiet little place that reminded me a good deal of Rancho Cucamonga or Upland; so I was a little at ease. The hotel pricing was much cheaper than trying to stay in the city itself. That is unless you’re willing to gamble; my friend Ben will book his hotel room online the night before or the day of on PRICELINE.COM. I am not that daring. I tried last minute booking a couple times all ending in disaster (go to San Diego and try booking a room during Veterans Day weekend…not going to happen).

I was also a little nervous about taking the BART. I have ridden the Metro in Russia and Washington D.C. as well as in my own backyard (yes, you suburbanites, there is a metro in LA), so I should have felt comfortable with the situation. I suppose it was getting “home” that made me nervous, not so much getting to SF. I was worried that we would miss the train or that the bus/trolley system would shut down early and we would be stuck in some unknown part of town for the night. However, the BART system was easy to navigate even though we had to switch trains on the way back to Fremont.

When we got off the BART, exited the underground station and ascended to the street level, I was standing there in awe and wonder. Towering buildings always do that to me. My feet almost didn’t want to move. So I took a deep breath, suppressed my city phobias and began to move forward.

Our first stop was a couple blocks off the beaten path. It probably wasn’t the best area to take my family to, but in hindsight it was probably one of the best places we went to while there. The place was an old abandoned building. On the street level were bums looking for handouts, thieves checking out my backpack and so-called gang members walking around. But the building itself, oh the wonderfully created building itself! Its attraction is objects (dressers, refrigerators, lamps, bathtubs, etc.) hanging off the side of the building making it look like they were being thrown out of the windows. It was an awesome sight; mad props to the artist that thought that one up!

We then walked to the big tourist attraction in San Francisco; the cable cars. These, most natives will tell you, are pure tourism and that the transit system works much better. However, they are historical and they do a very good job of getting you to specific locations, specifically Fisherman’s Wharf and back to our BART station. Anyhow, there were hundreds (and I am not exaggerating) of people waiting to get on one of these trolleys. Now I have been a season pass holder at Disneyland in years past and one thing I’ve learned with lines that long; it’s sometimes better to just walk.

So we walked and walked up and up and up finally getting to Chinatown. Now here’s the thing about Chinatown and fisherman’s wharf and the like; when I first started planning my trip to SF everyone I talked to that had been there offered up the same advice, it went something along this route:

You’re going to SF? Oh I love the place! Make sure you go to Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf (insert popular tourist destination here).

Really? Ok, what should I do there, is there anything I should see?

Well, you should… you should… uhh…well, there’s a lot of little shops. You’ll spend the half your day there just shopping. Oh yeah and they have great food.

Now I am grateful that people took an interest, but shopping and towering over people in this area of town is not really my cup of tea. I want to see the town and check out the sights (main attractions and stuff off the-beaten-path), I want to sit in the cafe that Kerouac once frequented or see the house where the Grateful Dead lived.

So, anyhow, we went to Chinatown. The only thing of real value that we did there was go to the Fortune cookie shop. They make them from scratch right in front of you. Also interestingly enough I am told that fortune cookies started in San Francisco, which makes the whole experience a little cooler. The best part was that they charge you .50 cents to take a picture of the lady making cookies. We were in a line with other tourists to take our picture and also in the process of paying for a bag of cookies when it was our turn. We took the picture and the lady seemed to think we were going to try to get away without her due, so she yelled at us, ".50 cents!". She was very concerned, can't you tell?

We also ate lunch in Chinatown. Kellee thought it was the best Chinese food she has ever had. Unfortunately, I don’t think she ever ate at Chinatown kitchen in Chino or else those vile words would not have spewed from her mouth.

By this time, it was already late in the day and we had walked an extended period of time. In short we were worn out. Now on my little tourist map that I had from my little tourist book, the wharf did not look that far and I suggested that we should walk to it since it was possibly all downhill. Telling this to a pregnant woman with swollen feet who has just endured my out of the way routes up and down hills was not a good idea. Did I mention that we got lost in Chinatown looking for the Fortune cookie shop? So we went for option two- jumping on the trolley.

We found the waiting spot but it took a couple times to figure out how to get on the things. I thought they just stopped and waited for you, but this is not the case! You have to walk out into the street and hope that they see you enough to slow down or maybe then stop. After the third trolley passed by, I jumped out and waived one down. It was crowded, but I managed to find Kellee and Faith good seats while I hung on to the side. We also had our jumbo-sized Jeep stroller with us. This was not a good idea! There is not much room on the cable cars(or buses as I later found out) for these types of luxuries and it became more of a burden to us. Faith loved the it, and I must admit I did as well. This was my second favorite thing to do while in San Francisco, especially at night.

The trolley dropped us off at Fisherman’s Wharf, which was really blocks of tourist shopping. So we went to the tourist type of places, Ghirardelli Square, Cannery row, and Pier 39 all of which consisted of …you guessed it! Shopping and places to eat! If you haven’t guessed by now, Kellee and I aren’t really the touristy shopping type of people. Our idea of a souvenir is a .51 cent pressed penny. I wasn’t impressed with the place. That’s not to say that there were not some cool places to check out. We went to the Arcade Museum which had arcade games that were the precursor to the pinball machine, took a boat tour of the bay, watched the sea lions, rode the two-tiered merry-go round, checked out the street performers, and went into a gallery that had some amazing statues as well as some offbeat work by Dr. Seuss. Probably one of the best things we did while there was to get some coffee and sit on a grassy area overlooking the bay. I really wish we would have done more of that type of thing. Lounging around and enjoying the city the way it was meant to be enjoyed. I suppose what I mean is that SF does not strike me as a fast paced city. It’s a place to take in and savor; in that its anti-LA, which made me like the town even more.

Afterwards we walked around a little more, ate dinner and decided to call it a night. We hit the trolley, which by this time of night there was very little wait and plenty of room. Headed back on the BART and besides getting lost by taking the elevator to the wrong floor and ending up on some scary darkened horror-movie-type subway areas that reeked of urine, we got back to Fremont just fine.