A weekend in San Francisco - Part 3 (Final)

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.

A weekend in San Francisco - Part 2

After our tour of the Maritime Historical Park, we went to Ghiradelli Square and sampled some chocolate (always a treat!) and then walked to the Aquatic Park and watched the boats and the people for a while. We were so fortunate to have such clear and mild weather this time of year. It was cool enough to walk without becoming too uncomfortable, and warm enough that our light jackets and jeans were sufficient. And the sunshine! How did we get so lucky to have this much sunshine in San Francisco. I always think of it as being foggy. No matter where you looked, the view was spectacular.


We took the cable car back to Union Square and came across an event conducted by the Falun Gong. They had a lot of art work, depicting their purpose, on display, and they were having sort of a recital by some of the cutest little girls. They weren't a bit disconcerted by their huge audience, and watching them was thoroughly enjoyable.

One of the first times we had heard much of the Falun Gong was when we were traveling through Austria and we were stopped by the local police just before we arrived at St. Wolfgang . We didn't know what was going on at the time, but we saw a man in a yellow jacket, and it looked like he was having problems with the authorities. As it turned out, he was a member of Falun Gong, and the authorities were concerned about what might happen in St. Wolfgang if Falun Gong were allowed to protest during a visit by a high-ranking Chinese dignitary. After that time, of course, we heard and read more about Falun Gong and the injustices they have suffered.



The art work was highly stylized, but when I stop to think about it, I suppose most religious art work is stylized. What struck me, though, was that they depicted the victims as already reaching a state of bliss even while undergoing the torture that was the subject of the picture.



Having become old hands at riding the cable car, we set out Sunday morning for church. Except for this old lady who had a camera in her hands, snapping everything in sight, we could have been mistaken for locals! We could tell we're getting older, because we had to keep consulting our map (which is really ragged and torn now) to make sure what we thought we were supposed to do is what we really needed to do. We used to say that given 24 hours, we could pretty well memorize how to get around any town. That's still true, to a large degree; but, thank goodness, we've gained wisdom to equal our years and realize that we shouldn't always always trust our memories these days.

Church at Grace Cathedral was very interesting. This was the high liturgical setting (always impressive), and at the first of the service, the pastor called for all those who were to be baptised to process to the back of the church. There were, at our count, 20 baptisms, four of which were adult baptisms. Baptisms are always moving, and these baptisms were, as well. The church was very full. We don't know if this is typical for the 11:00 service or if there were so many just because this was a special Sunday. We were glad we went. The Anglican or Episcopal tradition, as a liturgical tradition, is similar to ours in the LCMS; but Anglican beliefs are much more liberal than LCMS. I enjoy the way they open their arms to everyone who comes to their doors, and this service - because it was so formal and so many people were there - made me wonder if this is what a church should be like. One doesn't know, but I do believe it's good to think about how others celebrate and live their Christianity.

To be continued (and concluded) in the next installment ...

On a side note, my Bernina is all well again. It's SOOO.... nice to have a Bernina shop here in Poway!

A weekend in San Francisco - Part 1

Because I needed to recharge my Delta miles before the end of December to retain my accumulated miles), we decided a month or so ago to use Delta for a weekend in San Francisco. I could have paid $50 and purchased a thousand miles, and that would have done it; but we thought it would be more fun to spend a little more money and have some pleasure from it.

We flew prop jet from SAN to LAX, and then from LAX to SFO, arriving Friday afternoon to a most beautiful San Francisco day. We've been there only by car years and years ago or as we were just flying through from one place to another. This was a ton of fun, and we would surely take another trip like this.

It was only the second time we've relied on public transportation to get us around, and because San Francisco's public transportation is amazingly complete, we were so glad we didn't bother to rent a car!

On Friday afternoon, we walked for a few hours while waiting for our room to be ready.


We weren't too many blocks from Grace Cathedral, with a lovely park across the street from it, but those few blocks were up and down hills and we welcomed a place to stop and let our leg muscles catch up with us. (We really gave our legs a workout this weekend! Although Lauren walks as a regular part of his daily life, I don't. I need to keep this up so I stay strong and ready to travel again.)

We enjoy visiting churches when we travel, and this one was open inviting us inside. Like all cathedrals, Grace Cathedral is huge. The stained glass windows are beautiful, but we got so caught up in looking at them and reading the inscriptions, I forgot to take pictures. We decided we would return for the 11:00 services on Sunday morning, and we were glad we did. More about that later.

Mel's Drive In (which really isn't a drive in) was attached to our hotel, The Opal, so we stopped there on our way back to check it out. We ended up having supper there on Friday evening. Mel's is made up like the old soda fountain restaurants which were popular during our high school years, and it was cute. The original Mel's, featured in the movie American Graffiti, is down near the water, and we passed it on one of our trips around town. We found another old-style diner, too, called Lori's, and we had lunch there one day. We thought the food at Lori's was better, but on our last day in town, we had hot apple pie at Mel's, and changed our minds! Yum, yum, delicious!

On Saturday, after studying the maps and asking questions about how to get around the city, we walked a few blocks over to California Street and caught a cable car to the downtown area. We'd never ridden a cable car before, so this was a first for us, and it was a lot of fun. We even had to transfer from one car to another to make the journey from our hotel to downtown.



Cable cars have no engines - they are totally dependent on cables that pull them along the tracks, and it was amazing how they could be pulled up some of those hills. They are steep!

At the end of the line, the cars either have to go backwards the way they came (if they are equipped to do so), or they have to be pushed and pulled to a round turn table so they can be turned around. It was fun to watch the turn-around operation.

We found that there were so many people out enjoying the good weather that the wait was sometimes 45 minutes to an hour. As we were riding up and down the hills during the day, cars passed people who were waiting because there was just no room for another person - not even one who was standing on the running boards holding the post. Lauren and I actually rode standing up on the outside once - I didn't think I'd ever be doing that, but I did, and I didn't fall off!


We are somewhat timid souls, trying new things in small steps. But after our successful trip down town to the shopping district (where we didn't shop), we decided that we were ready to take the cable car to the other end of the line, and we rode to the Hyde Street Pier at Fisherman's Wharf.

We were delighted to find that we could see the Golden Gate Bridge from there while we toured some historic old boats in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Our Golden Age cards, which we both remembered to bring, got us into the Park with no charge.


The Historical Park is really impressive. These boats are practically right out of Pirates of the Carribean! We spent a while being fully satisfied American taxpayers!


The Park has a number of (volunteer?) docents who enthusiastically explained how things worked and to give people a hands on experience of tying knots and other tasks they might be required to take care of had they been part of the crew.

To be continued....