CALIFORNIA / OREGON RECAP

Pam and Scott with a redwood tree in "Avenue of the Giants" in nothern California

If you’ve been reading the posts as I’ve posted them, then consider this the epilogue. If you’re just now finding this blog and plan to read the entries below, consider this the prologue.

Winery in Napa Valley

We went to the west coast back in July. We flew from Dayton to Chicago to San Francisco, rented a car and drove north to Seattle, and almost three weeks after we left, we got on the plane in Seattle and our first layover was back in…San Francisco.

Here are some random notes and photos that didn’t really fit in the other posts.

Public artwork in downtown Seattle

Airplanes and Horoscopes : I’m not a big fan of flying, and the last time we’d flown was before 9/11, so taking off our shoes and opening up the carry-on with the laptop was new for us. While sitting in the Dayton airport waiting for the first leg of our trip, I was trying to distract myself by doing the crossword puzzle. Scott pointed out that my horoscope read “Get out of town with a favorite person. You both need time off to rejuvenate and refresh. Spending time outdoors replenishes your spirit.”

My ginger ale can on the flight to San Francisco. At least I hope it's ginger ale.

Local Pronunciation : Apparently we’ve been mispronouncing “Oregon” all of our lives. People who live there pronounce it “OreyGun.” I was corrected by Oregonians more than once. (And for those of you who live in the Dayton area, how do you pronounce the historic area downtown near 5th Street? Say it without thinking and you probably call it the "OreyGun" District.)

Also the river that runs through Portland is “Willamette” and rhymes with dammit, and the nice little park on the west side of Portland is “Couch” and rhymes with “pooch.”

View of the Columbia River at Bridal Veil Falls in Oregon, looking across to Washington.

Gasoline : Oregon is one of two states (that I know of) that don’t allow you to pump your own gas. The other state is New Jersey. Scott really prefers to pump his own gas, so when we visited the Columbia River Gorge area and crossed over to Washington to see Beacon Rock, we made sure to fill up the gas tank before returning to Oregon.

Does anyone know what time is it? I don't...the motel in Portland didn't have a clock.

Clocks : Maybe we’re just not that hip and maybe most travelers have cell phones or other devices that they use as alarm clocks. Two of the motels we stayed at (both in Oregon) didn’t have clocks in the room.

A few of the thousands of windmills we saw driving from
San Francisco to Yosemite.

GPS : When we reserved the rental car, there was an option to also rent a GPS unit. Since we were going to be gone for almost 3 weeks, it was cheaper to just buy a GPS unit, which I wanted anyway. We got it before we left on our trip, took it out for some test drives, and then programmed the locations of the motels we were staying in.

When we got off the plane in San Francisco and turned it on, it took about 15 minutes before it finally realized that we weren’t in Ohio anymore. I had expected this since other people have mentioned it. What I didn’t expect was that it was speaking in another language! Something screwy in the programming, or some baggage handler playing a joke?

Overall we were really glad to have the GPS, although I did still pack some state maps, which we used on occasion. The GPS had some trouble knowing exactly where we were when we were in downtown in San Francisco and when we were outside of Silver Falls she wanted us to turn on a road that was market “No Outlet.”

And as much as we loved Portland, I do wonder about the bridges. There are several bridges that cross the Willamette River which runs through downtown Portland, but there are only TWO bridges that cross the Columbia River which separates Oregon from Washington. When we were driving north to Seattle, there was an accident and traffic was backed up at one of the bridges. The GPS suggested an alternate route crossing the other bridge, but everyone else was doing that also, so that bridge was also backed up. I pulled out the state maps and the next closest bridges are 30 miles east or 30 miles northwest.

All in all it was a good trip, but it's always good to be home again.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA : JULY 2010 : ATTRACTIONS

The Painted Ladies with the San Francisco skyline behind them

Before we even left for our trip, I ordered the “Visitors Planning Guide,” and while the guide was free, I did have to pay for shipping to have it sent to me, and it was well worth the price. There was a lot of information in the guide and some very nice maps, also.

The double-decker, hop-on, hop-off tours are always a good bet, and they also give you an overview of the city so you can decide what you want to spend more time at. They also offer other packages, so it’s worth a look before you go. (There are some other companies that offer double-decker, hop-on, hop-off.)

Mission District Mural

Mission District Mural

Mission District : The Mission District is full of fabulous murals. With help from the Visitor’s Center, we found a bus route to take us there, then spent part of the afternoon wandering around and looking at the murals.

Chinatown

Chinatown : the oldest Chinatown and one of the largest Chinese communities in North America, it's a fun shopping and dining area.

Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park : The park stretches for three miles and is larger than Central Park in New York City. It has more than 1 million trees, nine lakes, gardens, two major museums and a herd of bison. Yes, bison, although they weren’t as interesting to look at as I thought they would be.

The De Young Fine Art Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, the Conservatory of Flowers and the Japanese Tea Garden are all located in the park, although we didn’t stop at any of them.

Scott enjoying the view at one of the Presidio Overlooks

The Presidio : This former military base is now an area with expansive parks and hilltop homes. Because we were on a tandem bike, we entered at Arguello Blvd., turned on Washington and then on Lincoln, stopping at 4 scenic overlooks. It was mostly downhill here. There are great views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge in the fog

Golden Gate Bridge : We biked across the 1.7 mile bridge. It was pretty windy but the views were spectacular, even with the fog. On a side note for graphic designers, the paint color on the bridge is PMS 173.

Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world.

At Lombard Street looking east, the Coit Tower is in the upper right.

Coit Tower : Since I like to go up towers and look at the views, this might be my favorite place in San Francisco.

The view of San Francisco from the Coit Tower

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Getting Around : If we hadn’t needed our rental car to drive to Pigeon Point and Yosemite before we got to San Francisco, we would have waited to get it when we left. It’s not easy getting around the city by car, and the parking is expensive and sometimes tricky on the hills. As it was, we had to pay for it to sit for the four days we were in San Francisco.

MUNI: There are many different modes of public transportation. The first four listed are operated by the MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Railway) system. There’s a lot of info, so you might want to do some research before your trip, so you don’t spend time figuring this out.

Turning the cable car around so it can head the other direction.

The cable cars run on a cable under the street and have one north/south route and one east/west route. There can sometimes be a long wait to get on the cable car, and the cost is $5 per ride.

The historic street cars run on rails and also have a trolley pole connected to an overhead wire.

Street cars have rubber tires and don’t run on a rail, but still have a trolley pole connected to an overhead wire.

The buses have rubber tires, don’t run on a rail and don’t have a trolley pole connected to an overhead wire.

The best bet is the MUNI passport. We got a 3-day pass for $20 that offered us unlimited rides on the historic street cars, street cars, buses and most importantly, the cable cars. We bought ours at the Visitor’s Center.

BART : The Bay Area Rapid Transit is more like a subway/elevated train. These go to areas outside of the city such as Berkley or the San Francisco airport.

There are also taxis and ferries.

Scott with the tandem bike

We rented a tandem bike (no way I could have kept up on my own bike) at Union Square then biked, uphill, to Golden Gate Park. Then we biked through the park, over to the Presido, then across the Golden Gate Bridge, which was exhilarating but also a little bit scary. We coasted down to Sausalito then took the ferry back to San Francisco and returned the bike.

If you’re not as adventurous as we are (OK, as Scott is), you can rent a bike at Fisherman’s Wharf, bike to and across the Golden Gate Bridge, coast down to Sausalito and then take a ferry back, and it’s about 8 miles mostly flat or downhill.

There are several companies that offer bike rental and have “Bike Across the Bridge” options.

Someone driving a GoCar down Lombard Street.

Go Cars : We didn’t do this, but it looked like a lot of fun. Rent a little “car” which uses GPS to navigate and also to narrate your tour.

Weather : Sure, everyone told us to wear layers and expect it to be cold in San Francisco, even in July. I even packed long johns, although I didn't really expect to wear them. Only I did. And I also bought a fleece jacket. On the 4th of July. So trust me, it can get pretty chilly in San Francisco, and other places that are along the coast in both northern California and also Oregon. I got a lot of use out of that fleece jacket!

To see more photos of San Francisco, go here: San Francisco photos on Flickr

Want to sleep and eat? Here's my post on lodging and dining in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA : JULY 2010 : LODGING + DINING

View from our hotel room looking north up Jones St. from O'Farrell St. You can see the line of people waiting to get in to Dottie's True Blue Cafe.

San Francisco Accommodations : We actually spent a lot of time trying to decide where to stay while we were in San Francisco. The Visitors Planning Guide (see San Fran attractions entry) showed the different neighborhoods and some of the highlights of each neighborhood. Once we narrowed down the neighborhoods we thought would work for us, we searched the websites comparing prices and amenities.

Some of the older hotels don’t have bathrooms in the room, instead there’s a shared bath in the hallway. We ended up at the Americas Best Value Inn & Suites at Union Square. The room was gorgeous, it had recently been renovated with hard wood floors (no gross carpet!), a king-sized bed, mini-fridge, microwave and yes, a private bathroom. The free wifi was a little iffy, although we were on the top floor, but we could usually get it in the lobby or in the hallway. We were in a corner room, so we had two windows with great views that looked onto different streets. Since the hotel wasn’t air conditioned, we were glad that we could open the windows and get a cross breeze. The street noise was a little loud.

And while the location was very close to Union Square, I wouldn’t feel safe walking around by myself at night as the pan handlers were very aggressive. Minutes after we checked in we heard a loud BANG out in the street and several minutes after that there were two dozen police officers in the area. I wasn’t worried, the noise didn’t sound like a gunshot, and I remembered that the date was July 3rd, so I figured it was just a firework, which was what the police must have decided also, as they didn’t stay long.

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San Francisco Dining : There are many different options for ethnic food, especially in Chinatown and the Mission District. We had Blondie's Pizza one night, and another night we got fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf.

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San Francisco Pies : Mission Pie is called that partly because it’s in the Mission District and they serve pies, although Scott thought that "Mission: Pie" would also be a good name. Along with fruit pies, they also serve savory pies.

Mmmm. Pies.

The other reason it's called Mission Pie is because they have a mission, they are guided by a commitment to environmental, social and economic justice. One example is serving Walnut Pie instead of Pecan Pie because walnuts are grown in California while pecans are grown in Georgia and must be shipped to California.

Looking for something fun to do? Here’s my post on attractions in San Francisco.