Tag: San Francisco California

Alcatraz Part Deux – Day 87

Alcatraz Part Deux

Day 87 – June 26, 2003 – Thursday

Still in San Francisco. We helped Ryan with his work overload today. 94-degrees today. It’s NEVER this hot in San Francisco!

Ryan and I took another tour of Alcatraz today. I took 150 photos, so we now have a very comprehensive “virtual tour” of Alcatraz.

Alcatraz is a 22-acre island in San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz is best known as a federal maximum-security prison, but the Island has a long and interesting history. Scientists tell us that 10,000 years ago, the small sandstone peak that would later be called Alcatraz rose above ocean waters flooding the valley that became San Francisco Bay. 3,000 years ago, Indians paddled their reed canoes to Alcatraz hunting for birds’ eggs and perhaps fishing from its shores. In 1847, California purchased Alcatraz from the Mexican government.

The United States began fortifying Alcatraz in 1853, and Alcatraz Island served as a military fortification in the 1850s and as an incarceration facility for war prisoners during the Spanish-American War. In 1934, Alcatraz became a federal maximum-security prison, and it became infamous for Mafia criminals and high-risk convicts. Famous Alcatraz residents have included Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and Robert “Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud. Alcatraz Island is located just a mile from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, but there is no evidence that anyone ever escaped across the icy bay. In fact, Alcatraz was the only prison in the federal prison system that touted hot showers, a luxury designed to keep prisoners from acclimating to cold water.

Alcatraz is known as “The Rock.” Inmates had great views of the beautiful San Francisco skyline, and that made life even more unpleasant there.

The prison closed in 1963 due to the extremely high costs of operating the facility. Since that time, people have been trying to get on the island rather than off.

In 1969, a group of Native Americans attempted to reclaim the land saying that an 1868 federal treaty allowed Native Americans to use all federal territory that the government wasn’t actively using. After almost two years of occupation, the government forced them off. The story of the occupation is covered in the Alcatraz Museum, and graffiti remains claiming “this is Native American land.”

In 1972, Alcatraz became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is now managed by the National Park Service. The first tourists visited the Island in 1973, and today, Alcatraz is the most popular tourist attraction in the Bay Area.

Click on each of the topics below to read about the history of Alcatraz:

  1. Alcatraz the Early Years
    2.Alcatraz the Fort
    3. Alcatraz the Prison
    4. The Native American Occupation
    5. Natural Alcatraz
    6. Alcatraz the Tourist Attraction

Click on each of the areas below to read about each of the major areas at Alcatraz:

  1. The Dock
    2.Guardhouse and Sally Port
    3. Post Exchange – Officers’ Club
    4. Military Chapel
    5. Barracks – Apartments
    6. Warden’s House
    7. Lighthouse
    8. Cellhouse

Alcatraz tickets are sold out for the next week or so. 4,200 people a day is the maximum that the ferries can hold. It looks like Alcatraz will be sold out all summer long. For tickets and tours, call Alcatraz Media at 800-410-8233.

Dinner by Ryan’s personal chef last night. Excellent once again.

I will finally leave San Francisco tomorrow. Heading north of Highway 101 along the coast all the way to the top of Washington. It looks like we will be in Alaska on or about the Fourth of July.

Granddaughter Madison had her first birthday today. She now walks like a pro, and she is saying “my ma ma,” “da,” and “Ora” (for Dora doll). Happy Birthday Maddie! Barbara flew back to Atlanta for the festivities.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:

San Francisco California — Alcatraz

Whats a GPS – Day 86

Whats a GPS?

Day 86 – June 25, 2003 – Wednesday

Still in San Francisco. We helped Ryan with his work overload today. Alcatraz tickets are pretty well sold out for the next 10 days, so we were not sure what Ryan will do with the hundreds and hundreds of people who call every day wanting tickets. The maximum capacity of the Alcatraz ferries is 4,200 a day, and it seems that two or three times that many want to go during the summertime.

Bozzie Jane handled our weekly radio show at 7:11 am this morning.

Ryan and I had lunch at Sausalito Gourmet Deli again. Love the Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich on a sourdough roll. We went down to Fisherman’s Wharf to take care of some business, and we drove around and saw a few sights. We met Victor and Nora on Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a beautiful day but unusually hot — got to 94 on the car thermometer.

We saw a shiny metal lady street performer at Fisherman’s Wharf.  A Low-Rider car did a million tricks for us near Fisherman’s Wharf.  We drove through the Civic Center area and took some photos of the capitol-like City Hall building. We drove through Japantown.

We took some cool photos of the Golden Gate Bridge as Ryan stuck his head up through the sunroof on the PT Cruiser and snapped photos as we went over the bridge.

Ryan took me for a ride in his new car — Nissan 350Z. Cool. Fast. Love the GPS system; I can see now what a huge help a GPS would have been to us on this trip.

We’ll finally leave San Francisco — probably Friday.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:

San Francisco California

It Must Be Magic – Day 85

It Must Be Magic

Day 85 – June 24, 2003 – Tuesday

Still in San Francisco. We helped Ryan with his work overload today.

It was The House of Magic! for dinner with the amazing Richard Tuck. Richard is a friend of Ryan’s. He owns a circus — see Day 75.

Richard’s HOME is named “It Must Be Magic!” The home features a complete magic theatre, a room with over 450 clocks, a collection of 900 wizard figurines, movie memorabilia from the golden age of Hollywood, a room filled with roller coasters and roller coaster memorabilia, a real roller coaster, and much, much more. Rooms include the Dickens Parlour, Wizard of Oz Room, Pinball Alley with a huge assortment of pinball machines and video games, a Soda Fountain, and a Movie Theatre with over 18,000 movies available.

100 circus people lived in Richard’s home for several months after he invested in the circus. It is one wild place!

When Richard Tuck and Tim Sauer moved into the house looking out over the San Francisco Bay, they never dreamed of what they would someday be creating. With a reputation from hosting friends and family for meals and movies for over a decade, they now had the property to expand their generosity to larger groups. And the construction began. And never stopped. For 13 years, construction crews and electricians have been adding new surprises. Although small looking from the street, the house just seems to continue on forever. You get disoriented and confused as walls melt into doorways, closets lead into whole new sections of the house, and illusion is the order of the day. When Frank Biafore joined the household in 1995, he brought another level of expertise to the growing merriment. Frank had studied architecture and design. By combining Frank’s design and construction experience and wild ideas with Richard’s magical touches and flair for the mysterious, the construction of some of the most memorable areas in the home was accelerated.

It Must Be Magic! is strictly a hobby — a part-time endeavor to share fun and joy with the world. The three men behind the scenes work full-time to support their generosity. Featured in numerous newspaper and magazine stories, It Must Be Magic! is one of those unadvertised special places that most of us never know about. Richard, Tim, and Frank live in the home; it is not open to the public.

We had dinner with Richard, Tim, Frank, two ladies who work with Richard, and the Advance Marketing Team from Circus Chimera. Richard took us on a guided tour of It Must Be Magic! Following the tour, the curtains parted, a screen lowered, and we enjoyed watching “Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone” as if we were watching the big screen at the theatre, but our couch seating was much more comfortable, and the fresh fruit served at intermission was much tastier than movie theatre candy and popcorn.

My photos do not even begin to capture the quality of the displays or the “magic” of the home. It was simply amazing.

The world needs more people like Richard Tuck!

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today: 

San Francisco California — It Must Be Magic!

 

San Francisco – Working for Our Son – Day 84

San Francisco – Working for Our Son

Day 84 – June 23, 2003 – Monday

Still in San Francisco. Working for Ryan today. Busy, busy day.

We met Ryan’s personal chef, Rebecca, today. She’s great! We enjoyed her meals for lunch and dinner. Boz and Ryan did pick up an Oreo Overload Ice Cream Pie from Cold Stone Creamery for dessert — excellent.

Between calls, I created a virtual tour of Alcatraz for Round America and for Ryan to use to promote his business. See www.roundamerica.com/trip/sfca/Alcatraz.htm and follow the links. I planned to go to Alcatraz one more time before leaving town to add a few photos that I feel we need to make it complete.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California
 

San Francisco 49-Mile Drive – Day 83

San Francisco 49-Mile Drive

Day 83 – June 22, 2003 – Sunday

San Francisco is an incredible city with extraordinary natural beauty. It is UNBELIEVABLE how many sights there are to see. There is no other area like this anywhere in the country in terms of opportunities for sightseeing, fun, and adventure. You could probably spend a year sightseeing and enjoying all that the Bay Area has to offer. Bozzie Jane and I both commented today that we saw far more of San Francisco in the last week than we saw in the year that we lived here. We understand better now why Ryan loves it so much here.

We passed through The Presidio and took a closer look at the massive construction project for George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic headquarters. We drove by the Monte Cristo Bed & Breakfast, an antique-themed B&B near The Presidio. We also saw a lovely residential area, Presidio Terrace.

We spent much of the day on the 49-Mile Drive, a scenic drive that traces the outline of the 49 square mile city and reaches some of the City’s most spectacular sights and viewing spots. We began at the Golden Gate Bridge, drove along the Pacific Ocean to the Cliff House and Seal Beach, on to the San Francisco Zoo, through south central San Francisco, Twin Peaks, and Telegraph Hill, on to Fisherman’s Wharf and Marina Green. We did not do the downtown portion of the drive, so we planned to go see and photograph those sites in the next few days.

Our first stop was the Seacliff area. Ryan took us by some beautiful homes, and we saw where Robin Williams lives. Baker Beach was next — a pretty beach on the Pacific Ocean with a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. China Beach was next, followed by Lincoln Park and the Lincoln Park Municipal Golf Course. We stopped at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and saw the Holocaust Memorial there. Next was Land’s End. We understand there is a primarily gay nude beach down a hiking trail at Land’s End, but the vote was 2-to-1 in the car against the hike. Three guesses which one of us was willing to hike a mile for your not everyday photo opp. The area of Land’s End that we visited has beautiful coastline views and is popular for outdoor weddings.

The drive passed through wooded Lincoln Park to the Sutro Baths, Seal Rocks, and the Cliff House. We met some very nice photographers, Colleen and Steve, near the Sutro Baths.

In 1881, Adolph Sutro bought most of the western headlands of San Francisco and made his home there. Fifteen years later, Sutro Baths opened at a cost of over $1,000,000. A classic Greek portal opened to a massive glass enclosure containing seven swimming pools at various temperatures. There were slides, trapezes, springboards, and a high dive. The pools held 1.7 million gallons of water and could be filled in one hour by high tides. There were 20,000 bathing suits and 40,000 towels to rent. The baths could accommodate 10,000 people at a time. It was a real showplace. San Franciscans streamed to the Baths on one of three railroad lines. There were three restaurants that could seat 1,000 people, and an amphitheater seating up to 3,700 people provided a variety of stage shows. There were natural history exhibits, galleries of sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and artifacts from Mexico, China, Asia, and the Middle East. The photos from the 1900’s are incredible; it was a huge, most impressive place. I guess the Sutro Baths might qualify as America’s first waterpark. But for all their glamour and excitement, the Baths were not commercially successful. Sutro’s grandson converted part of the baths into an ice-skating rink in 1937, and a new owner expanded the ice-skating facility in the early 1950’s. The revenue from ice skating was not sufficient to cover the costs of the enormous building, and the property was sold to apartment developers in 1964. A fire in 1966 reduced the Sutro Baths to concrete ruins. Fortunately, apartments were never built, and the property is now owned by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is managed by the National Park Service.

Next to the Sutro Baths is the Cliff House. The Cliff House has been a restaurant built on the rocky cliffs of the Pacific Ocean at the western edge of San Francisco. The first Cliff House was built in 1863 and enlarged in 1868. It was a very popular restaurant with prominent San Francisco families. Adolph Sutro bought it in 1881 along with the rest of the land in that area. On Christmas Day 1894, the Cliff House was destroyed by fire. (You have to wonder what San Francisco would look like today if the city’s buildings hadn’t been repeatedly destroyed by fires and earthquakes over the last 150 years!) Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House in grand style. It opened in 1896 and stood eight stories tall with spires and an observation deck 200 feet above the sea. It was elegant. Fortunately, the Cliff House survived the earthquake of 1906?but sadly succumbed to fire again just a year later. Sutro’s daughter, Emma, built a third Cliff House in 1909. It was a neoclassical design. The Sutro family sold the Cliff House in 1937, and it was remodeled several times. The National Park Service acquired it in 1977, and the building was undergoing renovations to return to its neoclassical design. We stopped in for a lunchtime snack.

From the Cliff House, we got some good photos of Seal Rocks and Ocean Beach. We drove along the edge of the Richmond District on the Great Highway along Ocean Beach, and we detoured to take a photo of the memorial to Playland at the Beach, a wonderful Coney Island-style amusement park that was the victim of a developer’s wrecking ball in recent years. Back on the Great Highway, we passed by the Dutch Windmill and Murphy Windmill (currently being restored). We saw some fabulous kite flying on Ocean Beach — four kiters with identical red-white-and-blue kites flying in formation right next to each other.

Across from the San Francisco Zoo, we spotted something that our research indicated had disappeared from San Francisco — the Doggie Diner statues. We spotted one of the heads mounted on a pole outside a small restaurant. We drove around Lake Merced and down Brotherhood Way where we spotted a Peace statue. We saw Harding Park and San Francisco State University, and then we drove through the Sunset District.

We drove from one end of Golden Gate Park to the other. The park is heavily wooded with a variety of areas. Golden Gate Park includes Dutch Windmill, Beach Chalet Visitor Center, Murphy Windmill, Golf Course, Buffalo Paddock, Riding Stables, Fly Casting Pools, Spreckels Lake, Lindley Meadow, Marz Meadow, Portals of the Past, Stow Lake, Japanese Tea Garden, Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, DeYoung Museum, California Academy of Sciences, National AIDS Memorial Grove, Conservatory of Flowers, Sharon Meadow, McLaren Lodge, and Kezar Stadium. From Golden Gate Park, we drove around, up, and over Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is THE place to go to see great panoramic views of the Bay Area. San Francisco has such a stunning skyline, and it is amazing how much is packed into such a relatively small area. It looks like a sea of concrete from Twin Peaks, yet almost every area is beautiful as you drive all around town.

The 49-Mile Drive then passes through the Castro District and then the Mission District. We stopped for a look at the Mission Dolores.

In the South Beach area, we saw where the San Francisco Giants play, the Bay Bridge, and the Embarcadero. At the Embarcadero, we saw the pier where the San Francisco Fire Department docks its fire ferries. We also saw the Ferry Building and a giant arrow in the ground sculpture.

At this point, we ended the 49-Mile Drive at the point where we would have wound through the downtown streets. We planned to do that part of the drive in the next few days. We went back to Pier 39 to visit the California Tourism Office.

We had dinner at Boudin’s Bakery on Fisherman’s Wharf. Boudin invented sourdough bread in San Francisco back in 1849. Ryan and I both had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. We ate the soup and then the bowl.

As we were finishing our meal, we saw something very upsetting. We saw a father poking his two small sons in the chest and hitting one of them in the face. Ryan and I wanted to go over and stop him, but Bozzie Jane asked us to stay out of it. We did take a photo of the child abuser. Based on the lettering on the back of his wife’s jacket, the man may be involved with the “AYSO” soccer program in North Irvine, California. We all decided that if we ever see anything like this happen again, we will do something; we’ll call 911 for sure. It really took the edge off a very relaxing day of sightseeing.

We headed for Ryan’s house and back to work on the tour business.

I broke my sunglasses today. Big problem. I planned to get them repaired or get some clip-on sunglasses tomorrow as there is no way to drive in the sun 12 hours a day seven days a week without tinted lenses.

There should be a special place for child abusers.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California — 49-Mile Drive — Sutro Baths — Cliff House — Ocean Beach — Golden Gate Park — Boudin’s Bakery
 

American Graffiti – Day 82

American Graffiti

Day 82 – June 21, 2003 – Saturday

We are still in San Francisco. We got off to a late start today as I became sick last night after Beach Blanket Babylon. Bozzie Jane answered Alcatraz and Hollywood calls for Ryan this morning. It’s never-ending; people call at all hours of the day and night.

San Francisco is an incredible city with extraordinary natural beauty. The city is packed into a relatively small area of just 47 square miles. There is no way to see it in just a few days, so we were fortunate to have been able to extend our stay here and to help Ryan with his business but include some sightseeing each day. We have seen all of the areas now, though I plan to go back to various spots to obtain additional photographs. There are many distinct areas in San Francisco — diverse communities that make the city what it is. The major areas are:

Fisherman’s Wharf. This is THE hot spot for tourists in San Francisco. The Wharf began back in the Gold Rush days when Chinese immigrants in “junks” fished offshore and provided shrimp, oysters, and salmon to feed the hordes of Gold Rushers. Italian fishermen came next, and they set up stands along the beach to sell crab, shrimp, oysters, and other seafood. Seafood restaurants bearing Italian names still dominate the seafood business along the Wharf, and the fishing boats still occupy some of the waterfront at the Wharf. But the popularity of the seafood, the views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and the location turned the Fisherman’s Wharf area in to an area filled with tourist attractions of all types — shopping, sightseeing, museums, amusement places of various types, and fine restaurants. Pier 39 is perhaps the best-known area for shops and restaurants along the waterfront. Ferries to Alcatraz leave from a pier on the Wharf. Pier 45 is the home of Musee Mecanique and its wonderful collection of vintage arcade games and toys, the Museum of the City of San Francisco, and the USS Pampanito submarine museum. Popular areas nearby are The Cannery, Ghirardelli Square, and Anchorage Center.

Marina District. The Marina District is an affluent area adjacent to a bayside marina. It’s an especially beautiful area. In addition to green space, the Marina District is home to the spectacular Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium, The Presidio, and Crissy Field. The Palace of Fine Arts is a stunning Grecco-Romanesque structure built in 1915 for the Panama Pacific International Exposition and restored in 1967. Part of the Palace of Fine Arts is the home of the Exploratorium, with over 650 hands-on exhibits for exploring and leaning about science, art, and technology. The Presidio was built as a military base, but it is now a 1,480 acre scenic preserve with miles of hiking trails, bike routes, beaches, and picnic sites. George Lucas was building a new headquarters for his company, Industrial Light & Magic, on the grounds of The Presidio.

Chinatown is fun to see, and the food is great. We entered Chinatown at the Dragon’s Gate at Bush and Grant Streets. This gate was a gift to San Francisco from the Republic of China in 1969. The characters above the gate translate to read: “Everything in the world is in just proportions.” San Francisco’s Chinatown is one of North America’s largest Chinese communities. It covers 18 square blocks centered along Grant and Stockton, bordered by Bush and Columbus. The streets are lined with restaurants, shops, and trading companies. Souvenirs, silk, jade, and antiques are all offered from numerous vendors. Ross Alley is located between Grant and Stockton and runs from Jackson to Washington. Ross Alley was once lined with opium dens and brothels, and it has been a backdrop in many movies, including “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Karate Kid II,” and “Big Trouble in Little China.” The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company is a fun stop. You can see how fortune cookies are made. Other attractions in Chinatown include the Chinese Cultural Center, Portsmouth Square, and Old St. Mary’s Church (built in 1852, it was one of the few buildings to escape the fire of 1906

Nob Hill and Russian Hill. At the top of California Street is Nob Hill. This is the site where San Francisco’s early millionaires built their mansions. Many of these mansions are now among San Francisco’s finest hotels, including the Fairmont, the Huntington, and the Mark Hopkins. Grace Cathedral is in Nob Hill as is the Cable Car Powerhouse and Museum, the working center of San Francisco’s cable car system. Russian Hill has steep streets and fabulous views. The San Francisco Art Institute is here as well as the very famous Lombard Street. Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, winds in a series of eight hairpin turns in a single block between Hyde and Leavenworth.

Haight-Ashbury District. This was the center of hippydom in the 60’s. The most famous landmarks in this area are the former homes of several counterculture icons. The home at 710 Ashbury was the home of the Grateful Dead back when the group was known as the Warlocks. Across the street was the Hell’s Angels House. Janis Joplin used to live at 122 Lyon Street. The Charles Manson family lived at 2400 Fulton. Northeast of The Haight is Alamo Square and a row of beautiful Victorian homes known as the Painted Ladies.

North Beach. North Beach is the Italian area of San Francisco, known for restaurants, bakeries, gelato parlors, espresso bars, coffee shops, and coffee roasteries. It is a very popular area for young professionals and folks looking for great Italian food and popular night spots. Popular sights to see in North Beach include Washington Square, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, and St. Francis of Assisi Church, dedicated as a shrine to San Francisco’s namesake, St. Francis. The City Lights Bookstore is a literary landmark. North Beach is also home to the Barbary Coast area with adult entertainment. Coit Tower, located atop Telegraph Hill, is one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. Coit Tower was named for Lillie Hitchcock Coit. When she died, she left funds to create a memorial to volunteer firemen in this city that burned to the grounds of a number of occasions before a paid fire department was finally established. The Coit Tower offers panoramic views of the city from the observation deck, and the lobby is filled with Depression area murals.

Union Square. Union Square is located in the heart of San Francisco. It is at Geary, Powell, Post, and Stockton Streets. Union Square was opened in 1850, and Mayor John Geary so named it because demonstrations were held there in support of Union troops before the Civil War began. The square block features grassy areas, granite plazas, and performance areas. Union Square is one of the city’s major shopping areas with fashionable shops, major retailers, and fine hotels. Adjoining streets are filled with restaurants, theatres, boutiques, galleries, and more. Maiden Lane is a historic two-block area between Stockton and Grant. During the Gold Rush era, it was an infamous red light district. It is now filled with upscale shops and cafes. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building at 140 Maiden Lane is the only building he designed in San Francisco. An 18-month $25 million improvement project was completed at Union Square in 2002.

Financial District & The Waterfront. The Financial District is located near the northeast edge of the city. This area has been the center for the city’s banking and financial community since the mid 1800’s. Embarcadero Center is nearby — a high-rise complex that extends for six blocks and offers all type of shops, restaurants, movie theatres, office towers, Hyatt hotels, and more. The distinctive Transamerica Pyramid Building is located in the financial district as are the Levi Strauss Visitor Center and the Wells Fargo History Museum. Levis has long been headquartered in San Francisco as has Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo Museum tells the history of how the company used stagecoaches to move precious metals and people across the country back in the 1800’s. The Embarcadero Waterfront area offers a walkway along the waterfront. The Ferry Building, built in 1899, was undergoing restoration to be used for restaurants and shops.

Civic Center. The classic architecture of the San Francisco Civic Center caused it to be declared a National Landmark in 1978. The City Hall is most impressive — looks like a state capitol building. The other sights to see in the Civic Center area are the Opera House, War Memorial Veterans Building, Herbst Theatre, the Performing Arts Museum and Library, the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, the Asian Art Museum, and San Francisco’s Main Library. The Hayes Valley neighborhood is just west of the Civic Center, and it offers galleries, art and design studios, shops, and bistros.

Castro. The Castro is a predominantly gay area. This area includes the Castro Theater (a great old movie palace), the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society Museum, and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans-Gender Center. Nearby is Twin Peaks, with panoramic views of the Bay area, and Mt. Davidson, the highest point in San Francisco at 938-feet.

Union Street and Pacific Heights. This area was originally known as Cow Hollow as it began as dairy meadows. Union Street features picturesque upscale shops, galleries, and restaurants in renovated 19th-Century Victorian buildings. Union Street is a popular night spot with many pubs and restaurants. Pacific Heights is home to many stately mansions of turn-of-the-century Victorian architecture. The movies “Pacific Heights” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” were filmed using Victorian homes in this area as was the TV series “Party of Five.” The Haas-Lilienthal House at 2007 Franklin Street is a landmark Queen Anne Victorian built in the 1880’s.

Mission District. Centered along 24th Street and Mission Street, the Mission District is primarily a Mexican and Latino area. There are a lot of cantinas and Mexican restaurants in the Mission District and large, colorful murals on building walls. The Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center explains the history and process of mural art. Mission Dolores was built in 1776.

South of Market. SOMA, the area South of Market, is home to the Moscone Convention Center, Pacific Bell Park (home of the San Francisco Giants), Zeum, Yerba Buena Gardens, Center for the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Metreon Center.

Japantown. This area is home to over 12,000 citizens of Japanese descent. Japan Center is a complex of Japanese shops, restaurants, and art galleries. The five-tiered Peace Pagoda is located in the plaza. The Japanese Cultural and Community Center houses an archive of Japanese American history.

Richmond and Sunset Districts. The Richmond and the Sunset Districts are two large, ethnically diverse residential areas. The Richmond is north of Golden Gate Park, and the Sunset is south of the park. The California Academy of Sciences, the University of California at San Francisco, Ocean Beach, Cliff House, Seal Rocks, Sutro Bath Ruins, Coastal Trail, Land’s End, China Beach, San Francisco Zoo, Lake Merced, Stern Grove, and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor are all in this area.

Dinner tonight was at Mel’s Drive-In. The movie “American Graffiti” was filmed at Mel’s. Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs opened the first Mel’s Drive-in back in 1947 in San Francisco. The restaurant’s incredible popularity allowed it to multiply into eleven Northern California locations, but after reigning for 20 years, the Mel’s era came to an end with the arrival of fast food outlets. Before the scheduled demolition of the first Mel’s, filmmaker George Lucas discovered it and decided to use it as the centerpiece for his classic film “American Graffiti.” Although the restaurant was still torn down, nostalgia prompted Mel Weiss’ son Steven to open a new Mel’s thirteen years later in 1985 with the help of partner Donald Wagstaff. Located at 2165 Lombard Street in San Francisco, the restaurant appeals to families wanting to share the tastes, sights, and sounds of the drive-in era and American Graffiti with their kids. See www.melsdrive-in.com. We enjoyed our dinner, and the cherry pie was extremely good. Our waiter, Frank, was really on the ball, and we met Erin, Tanya, Jen, Hayden, and Jack at the table next to us.

We saw a few sights on the way back to Ryan’s, and we hit Blockbuster to rent “American Graffiti.” What a great movie — one of the best of all time. It was even more fun to watch after having just been at Mel’s Drive-In.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California — Fishermans Wharf — Marina District — Chinatown — Nob Hill — Russian Hill — Haight-Ashbury District — North Beach — Union Square — Financial District — Civic Center — Castro — Union Street — Pacific Heights — Mission District — South of Market — Japantown — Richmond and Sunset Districts — Mel’s Drive-In
 

San Francisco Tour and Show – Day 81

San Francisco Tour and Show

Day 81 – June 20, 2003 – Friday

We continue to extend our stay with son Ryan in San Francisco. More phone help today. Ryan has hired a new helper to start on Monday. Alcatraz tours are sold out for the weekend!

32 years ago today, on June 20, 1971, Barbara Jane Gray Windsor and I flew from Dallas to Montego Bay, Jamaica on our honeymoon. It was a wonderful honeymoon provided by my parents. We have so many funny stories to tell from that trip! We’ll never forget the unmarked taxicab with a trunk full of bananas; the little guy who fixed the problem with the two single beds in our “honeymoon suite” by strapping the legs of the beds together to form one larger bed with a massive valley down the center; the 15-year-old Cadillac “limo” convertible with longhorns mounted on the hood that picked us up for horseback riding; the horseback ride that left Bozzie Jane bruised from ankle to ankle; the looks on people’s faces around the pool when they saw the young groom and his bride with bruised thighs and legs; and the glass-bottom boat that ran out of gas and drifted out into the ocean.

We went on the San Francisco Fire Engine Tour and Adventure today. It was one of the tours available from Ryan’s company — www.alcatraz.us. We rode around in a big, shiny red fire engine with bells clanging. The 1955 Mack Fire Engine has been beautifully restored. The tour went from the waterfront through the Presidio, across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and back again. We had seen all of these sights before, but never in a 1955 fire engine. Robert and Marilyn Katzman dressed us up in fireman coats and hats. Folks on the street certainly do enjoy seeing you pass by. The Katzmans are really nice people. Marilyn sings songs and tap dances, and she got all of us singing. We learned a lot about firefighting, and we got some good photos. It was a lot of fun. Robert and Marilyn live in a real, restored 107-year-old Victorian firehouse bought from the city when modern fire trucks became too large to fit through the doors. They have a Dalmation and their own fire pole. I forgot to ask if they know Richard Tuck. There are so many interesting people in the San Francisco area!

The Fire Engine Tour crosses the Golden Gate Bridge twice, and we crossed it a total of six times today. The bridge links San Francisco with Marin County, and it can be crossed by car, by bicycle, or on foot. The Golden Gate Bridge took more than four years to construct, and it cost $35 million. It is a visitor attraction recognized around the world. The conventional wisdom in the early 1930s was that it would be impossible to bridge the Golden Gate because of insurmountable difficulties. Joseph B. Strauss thought it could be done, and it was his dream to do it. Though Strauss lived for only a year beyond the completion of the bridge, his dream came true, and he built one of the world’s most impressive landmarks. The 1.7-mile long suspension bridge opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937, at twelve o’clock noon, ahead of schedule and under budget. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the opening from the White House. The Golden Gate Bridge’s 4,200-foot-long main suspension span was a world record for 27 years. The bridge’s two towers rise 746 feet making them 191 feet taller than the Washington Monument. The Golden Gate Bridge crosses Golden Gate Strait which is about 400 feet deep. The two main cables that support the floor of the bridge are 4,200 feet long. These cables are 36 1/2 inches in diameter, the largest bridge cables ever made. Each cable is 7,659 feet long and contains 27,572 parallel wires, enough to encircle the world more than three times at the equator. The design of the Golden Gate Bridge is considered to be Art Deco.

Dinner was again provided by Ryan’s personal chef, Karen.

Tonight, we saw the renowned San Francisco show, Beach Blanket Babylon. It is a wonderfully entertaining show — more entertaining than many of the Broadway shows we’ve seen. Beach Blanket Babylon is hard to define; I guess you’d call it a musical comedy. There was great rock/pop music throughout — often with lyric changes to make the songs funny.

Beach Blanket Babylon is the longest-running musical in the world; it began in 1974. The show is hilarious with various “skits” and routines of different types. Each of the performers is incredibly talented. Val Diamond would be regarded as the star of the show, and this was her 25th year with Beach Blanket Babylon. She is outrageously funny, and she has an incredible voice that enables her to sing a wide range of songs.

The show is a musical spoof of pop culture, and the show continually changes to make current events part of the show. For example, Martha Stewart, the Dixie Chicks, and the French were the targets of jokes that generated a lot of laughter tonight. There’s a skit about Hillary and Bill and Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky and the many other young Clinton women. President and Laura Bush, the Bush twins, Elvis, Snow White, Madonna, Eminem, Diana Ross, N’Sync, James Brown, Barbra Streisand, Puff Daddy, Jennifer Lopez, Tina Turner, Oprah, Whoopie Goldberg, John Travolta, Prince, Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder, Barry Bonds, Mayor Willie Brown, the Beatles, Britney Spears, PG&E, and the Village People were also included.

Big hats are a BIG part of the show. The crowd absolutely loved the show, and we certainly did. It was a full house. When you come to San Francisco, Beach Blanket Babylon should be a MUST DO! Great, great time. As different from “O” as you can get, but equally entertaining. See www.beachblanketbabylon.com. When you book your tickets, be sure to get seats on the area in front of the columns that support the balcony. Go with an open mind and prepared to laugh, and hoot and holler and have a big time.

We met some fun people tonight. Two couples from Greenville, South Carolina were really, really funny. And we sat next to four women (Maryann, Mary Ann, Theo, and Glenda) who have been vacationing together every year for 14 years.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California — San Francisco Fire Engine Tour — Golden Gate Bridge — Beach Blanket Babylon
 

Happy Anniversary – Day 80

Happy Anniversary

Day 80 – June 19, 2003 – Thursday

On June 19, 1971, in Dallas, Texas, Barbara Jane Gray and I were married. 32 years of wedded bliss today. We dated for almost two years before we were married. I am a really lucky guy.

We continued to extend our stay with son Ryan in San Francisco. Two of Ryan’s key employees had personal emergencies that kept them away from work. Meanwhile, the phones were ringing off the hook. So, we decided late last night that we needed to spend another few days as telephone tour reservation agents. Our job was to help answer the phones and whittle away at the seemingly never-ending list of 300+ calls that ring into voice mail while the lines are busy with other callers. A madhouse. Ryan was working on hiring and training two additional people! He has developed a surprising ability to remain cool under such massive stress. Bozzie and I don’t drink hardly at all, but we felt like we needed to take the wine-tasting tour every night after the stress of each of these phone days.

Boz was actually answering phones today. My duty was returning calls to Alcatraz inquiries left on voice mail, since that’s all I have been trained for. I’m an Alcatraz veteran now.

We weren’t sure when we would leave San Francisco. It would depend on when Ryan had helpers back in place. Tomorrow, we planned to go on a Fire Engine Tour, and we arranged to see the renowned San Francisco show, Beach Blanket Babylon. The plan was to work really hard in the morning and early afternoon and play late tomorrow afternoon and evening.

I enjoyed several emails today from people we have met along the way.

Ryan took us to the Buckeye Roadhouse in Mill Valley for anniversary dinner. Dinner was excellent, and we enjoyed the White Peach Blackberry Cobbler and the S’more Pie. Mike, the valet, was especially nice. At the gas station on the way home, we met Mike and Mike, Jr.

The thought for the day is to make every anniversary special.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:

San Francisco California — Buckeye Roadhouse

The Land You Used To Be – Day 79

The Land You Used To Be

Day 79 – June 18, 2003 – Wednesday

We extended our visit today with son Ryan in San Francisco. We spent the day helping Ryan with his exploding business. We were telephone tour reservation agents for the day. Our job was to handle the 350 calls that rang into voice mail while the lines were busy with other callers.

This is one wild deal. Ryan specializes in San Francisco and Hollywood, but he has recently expanded to Orlando and San Diego, and is expanding to handle tours in most major tourist destinations in the country within a year or two. He’ll need more phone lines.

If you want great tours in San Francisco, go to www.alcatraz.us. For Hollywood, it’s www.hollywoodtours.us. For Orlando, www.Orlando-Tours.com. For San Diego, www.sandiegotours.us. For everything nationwide, see www.unitedstatestours.us.

We did our weekly radio show at 7:11 am with Dan McGrath of EX-103 in Palm Springs, California.

I didn’t take a single photograph today, but I did add to the website what I feel are the best-quality photos from the last month. Click here to see the best of the new photos — page 3. Here are the best photos from the first two months of the trip — Page 1 and Page 2. The Trip Scorecard has been updated as well as our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip and the running rating of the pie we eat.

Thanks to Kevin Fricke for producing a map that shows our route. See the Itinerary page. The two loops around the country are shows. Click on each of the “routes” to see the routes we are traveling.

The PT Cruiser was repaired. We shipped 44 pounds of accumulated stuff back to Atlanta today.

We received the following poem from a great college friend, Jack D. Kennedy:

America, I Love…..

I confess
I get so nostalgic
For a way of life
That slowly disappeared
Today I hardly recognize our country
Who’d have thought
That it could happen here
Time was folks said grace
At family dinner
And every school day
Opened with a prayer
Now we’ve got
Political correctness
The ACLU in on a tear
Way back when
We all spoke the same language
Back when we kept lunatics
Away from our shores
When did we decide to start this new age
Where the old ways
Just don’t matter anymore
Once we were united
From sea to shining sea
With guidance from above
America, I love…..
The land you used to be

Jack D Kennedy

America is still a fabulous place, but I do agree with Jack’s sentiments that it’s a shame we have lost so much of what America used to be. This has been a strong theme we have felt again and again on this trip. We love the land America used to be.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California

Writing in San Francisco – Day 78

Writing in San Francisco

Day 78 – June 17, 2003 – Tuesday

We have extended our visit today with son Ryan in San Francisco.

The PT Cruiser went in the shop for brake repair. Ingrid at Midas helped us after Steve at the local Chrysler dealer could promise neither prompt nor courteous service.

Today marked the start of Week 12. 27,178 on the odometer. We racked up 18,113 miles over the first 11 weeks. 66 days on the road with 11 spent writing in Atlanta. So, we averaged right at 275 miles per travel day. 1,005 gallons of gas. The little white car got 20 miles per gallon, but the 4-cylinder PT Cruiser gets just 15 mpg. 23 states so far, though we’d hit several twice. 1,393 towns behind us and about 1,100 ahead. Over 8,000 photos have been taken. We passed only 13 cars in 77 days. We have eaten 73 pieces of pie so far. We have been to three doctors — one eye injury, one ear problem, and a gastrointestinal disorder. No flat tires so far, though the little white car did eat up one set of tires on the first loop. No significant car problems, though the little brake problem that is being repaired today could have been a big problem if Jiffy Lube hadn’t identified it for us. We met well over 1,000 people in the first 77 days. We have given out about 1,200 business cards.

We’re on our second case of beads.

I had visited 48 states prior to this trip. We will soon mark off Alaska and North Dakota — the only two I was missing. I was really looking forward to both Alaska and North Dakota, as was Bozzie Jane.

I spent the day writing. Boz worked on Ryan’s place; she has always been everyone’s interior decorator.

We went shopping for pie today, but all we could find was overpriced packaged pie at the nearby grocery store. We passed. We again enjoyed outstanding meals from Karen, young Ryan’s personal chef.

The Dude has had one of his biggest tour business days ever. He will generate more business this month than he did in all 12 months last year! His biggest problem is that he and his staff just can’t even handle the number of phone calls that come in. The phones ring continuously. We may help The Dude set up a Call Center to more efficiently handle what he has built. It is quite a business; we are really proud of him!

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California