
After church on Sunday, we had hamburgers at Lori's Diner, another 50's type cafe, and then we decided to try our muni passes on the buses.
San Francisco's transportation system is so easy to use, and we had no problems at all. With a population so large, a muni transportation system is a must. Even so, the freeways are still crowded, and the buses are packed much of the day on weekdays. It's hard to imagine what it would be like if everyone drove their own cars to get around.
We've been to the Golden Gate bridge a few times in the past, but we had time to kill on this trip, with no definite agenda for the weekend, so we read our maps and found the right buses to take us to the view point at the bridge.
I don't think I'll ever see this bridge that I don't remember when I, as navigator, got us on the wrong street near here when we were RV'ing through the city on a Sunday morning a few years ago. It's one of those memories that causes me to lose my breath when I think how much trouble we might have had if I had diverted us from our route on a busier morning.I found a place to sit while Lauren walked a little bit of the bridge. I snapped a picture of him (in the blue circle).
We rode the buses from end to end on Sunday, stopping here and there. On Monday, after we'd packed and were ready to go home, we checked our luggage with the hotel desk and took off on the buses again, just riding through the city.
There's a sign in the buses that the front seats are reserved for the elderly and disabled; and every time we boarded a bus, someone would offer me their seat. A couple of times, I refused because the offeree seemed to be at least my age, if not more. I'm guessing that it was my cane that made them want to relinquish the seat they needed as much as I might have needed it; but maybe it's because I don't think I look as old as I actually look. Maybe that's the way all of us older people think. Inside, we are still young and as agile as we were in our 40's (or younger), but our outside betrays us. On the other hand, though, I was surprised when people offered Lauren a seat, too. I think he still looks quite young - but maybe I'm fooled again. Maybe I see him through the eyes of my memories. Maybe he will always look young and virile to me. Having never been this old before, I can only speculate.
Some things we learned on this trip:
- Transportation:
Buy a multi-day pass for the transportation system. We didn't research the system well enough before we took our trip, and when we asked the hotel desk persons what to do, they recommended that we just board the cable car and purchase a one-day pass for $11.00. Any single ride on the cable cars is $5.00, so if you have to take two cars to your destination, it would cost $10.00. The one-day pass made sense.
Later found that we could have purchased a 3-day pass for $18, and that would have been much more economical. We ended up with the $11.00 one-day pass plus the $18.00 three-day pass (with one day left unused at the end of our stay), making our out-of-pocket $22 ($11 x 2) more than it would have been had we researched and understood the system before we traveled. Our lack of research cost us that $22. - Hotels:
It isn't necessary to pick the highest rated hotel. We selected a three-star hotel in San Francisco, and it was adequate. There is no need to spend more for a hotel on a trip where you don't expect to do much except sleep there. The purpose of the trip was to see San Francisco, not to see the hotel, and we were satisfied with our accommodations. We saved a little money here. - Planning (or not):
This probably goes along with what we learned using the transportation system. Research before we go. What's there to see? What are the highlights we want to catch while in this town? How do we get around? Exactly where is our hotel in the grand scheme of things?
At the same time, we should leave room for spontaneous sight-seeing, for checking to see what's around the corner. Because we were going to a place near to home, it seemed local to us and we didn't research enough.
We probably could have benefited by checking out the calendar of events for San Francisco, the list of top attractions that would be of interest to us, a guidebook (from the library, perhaps) to gather additional information about the location, and so forth. - Senior benefits:
Be sure to carry our Golden Age Passports (National Parks, etc) with us, along with any other discount-type card (such as AARP). We were able to save $5 each when we toured the Maritime Historical Park because we both had our Golden Age Passports with us. That was a good thing. - Experiment - try something new:
One of the reasons we like to travel is to do something we haven't done before. We realized more than ever on this trip that just getting there isn't enough. Staying in our hotel the entire weekend would have been like not going at all, obviously, so that meant we had to make sure we stayed on the go and saw things while we were there.
Just seeing things wouldn't have been enough, either, so we needed to explore other ways of seeing things than we've used in the past. Public transportation was our new thing this time. The first new transportation was the cable cars, and then we graduated to the buses.
Lauren's walking a bit on the Golden Gate Bridge was another new thing. He's never set foot on it before.
My walking up and down steep hills was a new thing for my fairly new condition of not being able to walk well. I figured the exercise alone, for me, was a bonus for taking this trip.
At every step of the way, we hope to examine what we're doing and asking ourselves if there is a new way to do this step than we've done before, and if the new way safe for us.
Travel, for me, is about experiences, and new experiences make my world a little larger. My gauge for a successful trip is that when I come home, I feel changed and more aware of my co-inhabitants on this earth. For me, it's a way to break old, nonuseful habits and ways of thinking and, hopefully, to become a better member of society. - Buy package deals:
We've purchased package deals a few times, and each time, I felt we saved money.
I put this San Francisco trip together beginning with Yahoo Fare Chaser. Fare Chaser first gave me a list of travel sites with deals (Orbitz was among them and the one I chose), and then after I made a selection based on air fare on my selected carrier (Delta), it gave me a list of hotels, including ratings. We could have added a car, but we decided not to.
We did a package deal a few years ago when Lauren and I went to Oklahoma City, and we got a great rate at the downtown Sheraton. (Note about the Sheraton: this was a good lesson to us that higher-rated hotels aren't always the best ones. This hotel, although it's a big brand and its rates were higher, nickled and dimed us for everything we did there, from Internet usage to parking. Ugh!) - Purchase tickets online:
I've really become a fan of online airline and travel reservations. I initially started out using Yahoo a few years ago on our second trip to the Philippines, and I've been buying online tickets ever since.
For this trip, after using Yahoo Fare Chaser to track down the best deals from several other sites, I ended up with Orbitz. Consequently, I used Fare Chaser and selected Orbitz for my trip to the Philippines in February and for our UK trip in April. Using Fare Chaser to get to Orbitz seems to get me a better deal than going directly to Orbitz.
Using Orbitz as my main travel site turns out to be a really handy way of keeping all (or most) of my trips in one spot where I can access them easily at any time.
Unfortunately, Southwest, the airline I take when I go to Nashville to visit my sister, isn't available except at Southwest.com. They don't let other agencies handle tickets for them. Maybe that's one way they control the cost of their fares. I wish Orbitz's My Trips allowed me to enter trips I didn't purchase through them. That would be a big benefit for that site.
Because of this trip, we have added New York City to our list of places to visit. After our success at getting around San Francisco, we think we're ready to try the Big Apple next fall. In the meantime, we'll start our research early. But first, we need to finish our research for our UK trip in the spring. We have a good start on that, but there's a lot more to do. I don't think we can do it all on public transportation, but we're going to give it a try for at least part of our trip. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We just need to be careful not to bite off more than we can chew. We like a little risk (a little unknown), but too many unknowns might confuse us -- at any age. At this age, we want to minimize risky adventures, but we don't want to entirely eliminate them.
1 comment:
It sounds and looks like the perfect fall excursion! I love the blue of the skies and I can almost feel the brisk cool air. We feel for San Francisco at this time as they work hard to clean their beautiful bay after the oil spill. BTW, you'll also be those young parents to me, with beautiful red/golden hair and handsome features who had and still seem to have boundless energy.
P.S. Imagine, a trip to New York City. Always thought it would be neat to be there at Christmas time.
Love to you both. Donna
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