Last weekend, scratch that, 3 weekends ago, I went out to SF to visit my brother, who is living there for several months as part of his Best Government Job Evah, and my mother and aunt. My cousin Makeda lives in SF now too, and my mom was on her spring break, so it was an ideal time to get together. I had a lot of fun and was glad to see SF, although (as I've articulated to a number of you) my trip home was
so insanely hellish that I wish never to think of it again. Dulles International Airport, I have now spent more time with you than ... well, than I really ever wish to again.
Anyway! Some pix.
This is my mom, me, my aunt, and my cousin at the office of my cousin's elementary school in Santa Clara, where she's a first-year 3rd grade teacher. The school is ... super Californian, i.e., it seems to be very concerned with, you know, emotional development and teaching kids about themselves and other people, and extremely not into things like grades, or a set curriculum. I confess that, while somewhat in touch with my liberal side, I tend to be a little more, um, old-school when it comes to stuff like this.
Then we went to In 'N Out. Delicious!
After that, we went into SF and went to Chinatown, natch. Here's me and mom, and another of your typical tourist-Chinatown street.
One of SF's famous cable cars. Jarrett explained to us the next day how trolleys, cable cars, and street cars differ -- SF has streetcars which run off electricity pulled from cables running above the street, but which have tires and no set tracks. It also has several actual trolleys that similarly pull electricity from the overhead cable, but ALSO run on actual trolley tracks (this is what a SEPTA trolley does). Apparently the term trolley can mean different things in different places. However, SF's is, I think, the last/the only US place with an actual cable car still in use. With cable cars, there's a cable running under the street itself that's always moving. The car is on tracks above it, and the conductor literally grabs the moving cable (uh with part of the car, obvs) and the car is hauled along as the cable moves. To stop, he just presses the button to let go.
After this, we walked from Chinatown to the Fisherman's Wharf, and everybody was cranky because apparently people who don't walk as much as NYers get cranky about walking as much as NYers. Oops. I
told them it was a long walk ...
At Fisherman's Wharf is the famous Ghirardelli factory. I am saddened to tell you that this trip, right then, was when I finally admitted after 25 years that my mother does not know how to pronounce Ghirardelli, and thus I have been pronouncing it wrong this whole time too. And I do mean this whole time; I remember knowing what Ghirardelli and Godiva were at a pretty young age since my mom was sort of a chocolate snob (she was always like "oh,
Hershey, I'd rather eat
chalk" and I'm like "did they even have chocolate in hong kong when you were growing up?"). Anyway I feel like I only hear the word pronounced aloud like once every year, and for some reason for the last 8 or so I've just been ... ignoring the gathering evidence that both my mom and myself were making fools of ourselves. Oh well. It's delicious either way.
The next day we went down to Monterey Bay, which is a few hours south of SF, on the coast. I'm not posting too many pix bc ... that's boring and takes forever, but here are a few.
This is of the wharf near the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is pretty famous (though not exactly inexpensive).
The aquarium itself was really good, though. They had pretty wide-ranging, well-designed, and informative exhibits, many of which were also startlingly beautiful. Consider these strangely luminous, orange-streaked jellyfish:
Or the gorgeous way the sunlight filters through this kelp forest. The kelp forest was very large and had a huge variety of fish. My camera is a point-and-shoot and couldn't adequately capture how a school of fish would dart by in a streak of silver light. It was every cliche you'd expect -- tranquil, beautiful, etc -- but cliches are cliches for a reason, I guess.
We drove farther down the Monterey coast. This is the beginning of Big Sur, an area sixty miles long down the coast, characterized by its plunging cliffs and colorful hills. It reminded me of the heath/moor on the coast of Ireland.
The next day, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (back up in SF, going across the bay) ...
... towards Muir Beach, where there were many happy doggies running in the surf, and Muir Woods. We only got to stay in Muir Woods for 45 minutes (on the dot, because there is absolutely no parking there and my brother ended up staying the car and essentially just driving around the mountain while he waited for us), but it was pretty cool. I'd love to go back and hike some of the paths; in 45 minutes, you can basically only go down the 30-min tourist loop (esp if you are dragging a mom and aunt).
The trees, they iz big. The people, they iz little.
Lastly, we went to Sausalito, a 'quaint' (read: once local, now touristy) town next to the water across the bay from SF. We had a delicious dinner and I had a lovely beer. Mmm.
This is a pic of SF from Sausalito. It ... didn't come out well. Sorry.
Anyway, it was fun, but I really want to go back and make a proper coastal trip of it with my two HS friends this summer when we're in LA for my other friend Karen's wedding. We're not sure it will work out, but I hope so!
OK that's all. To come, hopefully soon: some NY pictures!
Then we went to In 'N Out. Delicious!
After that, we went into SF and went to Chinatown, natch. Here's me and mom, and another of your typical tourist-Chinatown street.
One of SF's famous cable cars. Jarrett explained to us the next day how trolleys, cable cars, and street cars differ -- SF has streetcars which run off electricity pulled from cables running above the street, but which have tires and no set tracks. It also has several actual trolleys that similarly pull electricity from the overhead cable, but ALSO run on actual trolley tracks (this is what a SEPTA trolley does). Apparently the term trolley can mean different things in different places. However, SF's is, I think, the last/the only US place with an actual cable car still in use. With cable cars, there's a cable running under the street itself that's always moving. The car is on tracks above it, and the conductor literally grabs the moving cable (uh with part of the car, obvs) and the car is hauled along as the cable moves. To stop, he just presses the button to let go.
After this, we walked from Chinatown to the Fisherman's Wharf, and everybody was cranky because apparently people who don't walk as much as NYers get cranky about walking as much as NYers. Oops. I told them it was a long walk ...
At Fisherman's Wharf is the famous Ghirardelli factory. I am saddened to tell you that this trip, right then, was when I finally admitted after 25 years that my mother does not know how to pronounce Ghirardelli, and thus I have been pronouncing it wrong this whole time too. And I do mean this whole time; I remember knowing what Ghirardelli and Godiva were at a pretty young age since my mom was sort of a chocolate snob (she was always like "oh, Hershey, I'd rather eat chalk" and I'm like "did they even have chocolate in hong kong when you were growing up?"). Anyway I feel like I only hear the word pronounced aloud like once every year, and for some reason for the last 8 or so I've just been ... ignoring the gathering evidence that both my mom and myself were making fools of ourselves. Oh well. It's delicious either way.
The next day we went down to Monterey Bay, which is a few hours south of SF, on the coast. I'm not posting too many pix bc ... that's boring and takes forever, but here are a few.
This is of the wharf near the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is pretty famous (though not exactly inexpensive).
The aquarium itself was really good, though. They had pretty wide-ranging, well-designed, and informative exhibits, many of which were also startlingly beautiful. Consider these strangely luminous, orange-streaked jellyfish:
Or the gorgeous way the sunlight filters through this kelp forest. The kelp forest was very large and had a huge variety of fish. My camera is a point-and-shoot and couldn't adequately capture how a school of fish would dart by in a streak of silver light. It was every cliche you'd expect -- tranquil, beautiful, etc -- but cliches are cliches for a reason, I guess.
We drove farther down the Monterey coast. This is the beginning of Big Sur, an area sixty miles long down the coast, characterized by its plunging cliffs and colorful hills. It reminded me of the heath/moor on the coast of Ireland.
The next day, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (back up in SF, going across the bay) ...
... towards Muir Beach, where there were many happy doggies running in the surf, and Muir Woods. We only got to stay in Muir Woods for 45 minutes (on the dot, because there is absolutely no parking there and my brother ended up staying the car and essentially just driving around the mountain while he waited for us), but it was pretty cool. I'd love to go back and hike some of the paths; in 45 minutes, you can basically only go down the 30-min tourist loop (esp if you are dragging a mom and aunt).
The trees, they iz big. The people, they iz little.
Lastly, we went to Sausalito, a 'quaint' (read: once local, now touristy) town next to the water across the bay from SF. We had a delicious dinner and I had a lovely beer. Mmm.
This is a pic of SF from Sausalito. It ... didn't come out well. Sorry.
Anyway, it was fun, but I really want to go back and make a proper coastal trip of it with my two HS friends this summer when we're in LA for my other friend Karen's wedding. We're not sure it will work out, but I hope so!
OK that's all. To come, hopefully soon: some NY pictures!
2 comments:
great post and great pics!! it looks kinda cold in SF...you're all bundled up! i love the big sur/coastline pics. i want to move there!
can i come next time?
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