My Travel Memoirs From San Francisco, California
Hotel: Crown Plaza San Francisco at Union Square
Visited: Union Square, San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, Sausalito, Muir Woods, Santa Cruz Boardwalk
Airline: Continental Airlines (Philadelphia to San Francisco and return)
Date: Mid-August 2003
This is about my trip to San Francisco, California. I would like to share my San Francisco experience with my website visitors.
Thanks to Travelocity.com for making this trip possible!
We flew on Continental Airlines from the Philadelphia, PA, airport to Cleveland, Ohio, where we would change airplanes for our final destination, San Francisco, CA. We arrived in Cleveland, Ohio about 12 hours after the Blackout of 2003. Cleveland had recently regained power. The bathrooms were not in order from sewage backup because of the blackout. We waited two hours at the gate for a new plane to come get us because the plane we were supposed to take had a software malfunction. We boarded the plane and took off for a 4 hour flight to San Francisco, California.
When you arrive at the San Francisco airport, you land right over the bay, and it looks as though you are going to land in the water, but right as you think you will hit the water, the wheels catch land and your safe! We took the airtrain to the car rental lot where we got a Ford Aerostar rental car and went on our way to explore the San Francisco area.
We drove to the Crown Plaza at Union Square in San Francisco to register for our room, then immediately decided to drive to Santa Cruz to see Papa Doo Run Run play in concert. They have the sound of the Beach Boys. We took route 1 to get there which runs along the coastline. To the left of the road were farms that grew strawberries and such. To the right was the beautiful Pacific Ocean. The cliffs there are soo gorgeous. The cliffs go right into the water and the beaches aren't exactly flat. The sand was the color of my skin, and soft as a baby's butt.
We stopped at one pull-off on Route 1 and stepped down to a beach area. There were no shells on the beaches, but instead there were many pebbles of different size. The water was too cold to stay in long, but the air and temperature was perfect, that of a late spring day. Not too hot, but not too cold. We continued our trip and arrived in Santa Cruz which was about an hour south of San Francisco. Santa Cruz is a little Mexican/Spanish town that sits on the Pacific Ocean.
The Santa Cruz boardwalk wasn't exactly large as compared to the ones on the East Coast. It housed the Giant Dipper which is one of the only remaining sea-side wooden rollercoaster and is known as a historic landmark. The boardwalk also has a few more smaller rides, food, games and a couple of stores to shop in. The concert mostly had a crowd of middle-aged people. The teenagers and children strolled the boardwalk or hung out on the beach. The buildings of Santa Cruz were interesting. They were Spanish/Mexican styled, and very colorful and lively. A very uplifting place to visit! After Santa Cruz, we decided to head back along route one to San Francisco. On the way back, we stopped at the beach again in Pescadero State Beach. We waited to watch the sunset and took many pictures. Every picture turned out to be perfect. That's just how it was, with the sun setting and the way the light hit everything and reflected off the ocean.
After watching the Pacific sunset, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the day ahead of us. We returned to the Crowne Plaza of San Francisco at Union Square. I have to say, I have no regrets staying at the Crown Plaza Hotel and it was one of the most luxurious hotels I've been to in my life. No complaints!! The Crown Plaza Hotel is located at Union Square which is one of San Francisco's centers of commerce and culture.
The next morning, we woke up early because of jet lag. We headed off to the Muir Woods in Mill Valley, CA which was right outside of San Francisco and located 12 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked the boardwalk trails in amazement at the huge trunks of the trees that towered over us. I had never ever even imagined that a tree could be soo large in width and height!! They were older than Columbus discovering America, in fact, they started growing around 200 or 300 A.D.!
The Muir Woods was a good spot to stop off at. It was beautiful and set low in the valley. The gift shop there was splendid as well, offering a wide variety of carved sculptures from redwood trees, chimes, baby redwood trees, seeds, t-shirts, food and more! I did learn a lot from this Historic Park. I learned that these redwood trees can only grow from soil that is rich in minerals. Soil that has been affected by fire or flood. In this case, the Muir Woods flourished off of fire burned soil. All the nutrients in the ashes make the trees grow.
After visiting the Muir woods, we headed over to Sausalito to check out the area and to do some shopping! There were so many little, unique shops. Most of them had hand crafted or home-made stuff. There were also a lot of galleries to see. We also stopped in a neat store on a dock that sold stuff for boat captains.
We also went for a walk on the docks to take a look at the sail boats. It was beautiful seeing all of this!
We then went back to the San Francisco Crown Plaza hotel for a rest up, shower and quick swim. Very relaxing. We then went back to Sausalito to grab a drink on the bay. We went to grab a drink. We went to Horizons which was very nice. The back part of the restaurant was on a patio over the bay. It overlooked Alcatraz, the prison. This prison is on an island in the San Francisco Bay. No one could ever escape because the water was so cold. If someone tried to swim away and escape, they would freeze while trying to do it. The waters come down from Alaska, and with that comes the coldness, so you could imagine how could the water is there. The restaurant also overlooked the golden gate bridge.
We next drove over to Tiburon to eat. We had a very good dinner on a restaurant that overlooked the San Francisco bay too. We drove around to look at the houses in Tiburon. These houses are million dollar homes, and they are that expensive because of the view of the area. Almost all of Tiburon overlooks the bay area, which is the most gorgeous site. Even though these homes aren't that big, I am sure they are just as luxurious inside as the sights are outside.
We then went back to the Crowne Plaza Hotel to rest up for the next day. The people in the lobby were so nice. They were always interested in what we had done that day, what we thought about everything, what we were going to do and so on. They always had something nice to say about what we were doing or have done. It was nice to have someone interested in who we were and what we were doing there, since we didn't know anyone. The next day, we woke up and headed off to the Golden Gate Bridge Park. This park was so green and open. Very nice place to relax. We also stopped to overlook the Golden Gate Bridge.
The city of San Francisco was very interesting. There were many different people of all different types. The whole city was built on hills and cliffs. This is amazing to me, because I am used to flat cities like Philadelphia, New York and Washington D.C. It was crazy, especially the world's most crooked street: Lombard Street.
We went to the Fisherman's Wharf. This was a popular hotspot located on the San Francisco Bay. It was loaded with shops for shopping, and museums. This area was really crowded though I will have to say. There was an aquarium that branched off of the main shopping pier. There was also the Medieval Dungeon, the Wax Museum and the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum. The museum was unbelievable and I could not believe half the stuff I saw there! I won't give away the surprise, but I highly recommend visiting this. The wax museum was scary because the people looked so real. You would turn a corner and jump cause one was standing right there looking at you. Off the pier you can see a lot of sea lions bathing in the sun. This is a sight to see. I mean A LOT of sea lions all piled together! We then went to the historic Cliff House restaurant for our final meal in California. The Cliff House restaurant sits on a cliff overlooking the the Pacific.
The Cliff House was under renovation but still serving meals.. I had a house salad, which was the best meal I have ever had. The salad had different kinds of fruits like pineapple, orange, grapefruit, crabmeat, and more! It was heavenly delicious! While we were eating, we watched a just-married couple and their wedding party take pictures on the beach below the Cliff House. How romantic!!
After eating dinner at the Cliff House, we drove down Rt. 1 again, then back to the San Francisco airport in time to drop off our rental car and board our Continental Airlines flight for the "redeye" trip home.
- Kayla -
Thanks to Travelocity.com for making this trip possible!
