A short trip to a big city

I’m sort of stuck in Northern California for a few months, not able to go too far away from home for medical reasons. So, I’m planning to take a lot of short trips, where I can get back home quickly if I need to. I decided to cross off one entry on my enormous (and growing) bucket list, Alcatraz. Not to check in (our president wants to reopen in for business), but to do a tour. Just something I’ve always wanted to do, but we never managed to get there all the years Jan and I lived in the South Bay. It was not high on my wife’s list. A cold,windy island with old crumbling, ugly buildings. 

I love the City, or at least I used to – Jan and I spent a lot of time here over the years, visiting our friend who ran hotels in the area. I have a lot of good memories of times spent just wandering around in the different areas, going to great restaurants and bars, watching our friends’ new hotel going up across from Oracle Park. We even watched a Billy Joel concert..from the roof across the street. The sound was pretty good and we had much better food and wine than what is offered in the stadium. Unfortunately, we also got to watch the city lose a lot of it’s charm over time. Not what I want to get into on this post.

For this little trip, I was planning on spending just two nights at a nice hotel, visiting the “Rock”, and wandering a bit doing some city photography. And then getting the hell out quickly before the traffic became bumper-to-bumper for 100 miles. It worked out pretty well.

The drive to the Hilton in the Financial District was quite easy, given that I hate driving in San Francisco. Google directions were perfect, and I was lucky to hit a time when the city traffic was fairly light. No idiots on scooters or bikes cutting across the intersection, and no Waymo cars doing strange things in traffic ( I did see a couple). My room at the Hilton had incredible views:

The night time view was great as well – people who live near big hotels should put their shades down at night.

After checking in, I headed out to explore, planning to walk to Pier 33 where the ferry leaves for Alcatraz, and then wander over to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a perfect summer day in San Francisco – about 62F, with winds about 150MPH. It was not a good day for wearing a hat.

But it was still fun wandering around, something I have not done for years. It’s such a great city for photography – so many odd buildings (and people). Fisherman’s Wharf is really awful (my opinion) – crowded with ticky-tack shops, but the views of the winds-swept bay are great, and then there is the giant sea lion colony  – smells really bad, but fun to watch and listen to all the barking sea lions.

On the way back (walking very slowly) to the hotel, I looked up and realized I was next to the Trans America building, the pyramid. And they have a really nice redwood tree park next to the building. A nice place to take some pictures looking up. I’m not quite sure why this was in the park. It’s a strange city.

I finished day 1 having a great burger and a martini at the hotel bar, watching the NBA finals.The Nuggets and Warriors are out, so I don’t really care who wins.  A good start to my short trip. I’ll leave my Alcatraz adventure to the next post.