Sac N San

It's time to leave our campground of giants and head further south before these trees get any bigger and we can't get out.

After getting settled into our next stop, we took a day and went to see Sacramento, the state capitol of California. It started out as a staging area for gold miners heading  to the California gold fields. As paddle wheel boats dropped off thousands of gold seekers, the town of Sacramento sprung up to fleece them ( I mean to provide necessary support for their ventures). 

Old Sacramento is a 28 acre town filled with historical buildings and museums relating to the gold rush era. Its one of the best authentic towns we've seen. Every building, right down to those in the alleys are original. Inside the buildings are the usual tourist trap stuff but there are also great museums with impressive artifacts. Cobble stone streets and wooden sidewalks add to the authenticity. 

Sacramento is the state capitol and so we walked a few blocks to see the capitol building. Its nice, but we figured for such a big state, it would be more impressive. 

The main reason we stopped where we are is to spend some time in San Francisco. We drove to the nearest light rail station and took the train into downtown San Fran. It was about a 20 block hike to get to the tourist areas. For some reason, the street cars went opposite to the direction we wanted to go so we just watched them go by. 

Once we hit the bay, we started hiking toward where the cool stuff is. That's the Bay bridge, much longer than the Golden gate. Parts of it collapsed in the 1989 earthquake. How'd you like to fall into the bay from it? 

Pier 39 is the iconic symbol of the Bay area. Its about 1/3 restaurants, 1/3 stores and 1/3 amusement park. Now this is authentic California!

Lots to do here with magicians, a 2 story merry-go-round and kids activities. Not to mention bars and jewelry stores. Way in the background you can see the Transamerica pyramid and the Coit tower on telegraph hill. Don't tell me you haven't heard of them before. 

How about Alcatraz Island? This is the view from the end of pier 39. 

With us out of the picture, the island looks much larger doesn't it? The prison was closed in the 1960's not because it was a brutal prison, they didn't really care about the conditions, it was closed because it cost $1000.00 per day per prisoner to operate. Everything including water had to be delivered each day. Now its a major tourist attraction. They turn away about 1000 tourists each day who want to go see the island, including us. Apparently you need to make a reservation, who knew.

The other thing Pier 39 is famous for are its sea lions. Each day hundreds bask in the sun on these floating docks. I guess its not sunny enough, there's only about a dozen lying there. 

Walking further down the bay brought us to Fishermans Wharf, probably the most famous fish place in the world. Its another wharf that used to be where the fishboats docked and you could buy fish right off their boats as well as at a huge fish market. Now, its just restaurants. If you notice the people in the front right, they are eating clam chowder in a sour dough bowl. That's the Bay areas famous culinary contribution to gastronomy. Every restaurant sells it for $8 to $13.  

We ate at Nicks Light House, one of the well known seafood restaurants on Fishermans Wharf. Neither of us had the chowder in a bread bowl; too much carbs. We both ordered seafood which came with sour dough bread on the side which we promptly devoured. So much for watching our carbs. 

After lunch we decided that the only way to see the major areas of San Francisco was to take a tour. The city is 7 miles wide and 7 miles long which doesn't seem like much until you start walking. Time goes by with lots still to see, so we're a riding.

This is a great way to see the city. The famous China town area borders the Little Italy area and the Russian area. Bet the only one you've heard about is China town, right? 

The earthquake of 1906 started a huge fire and destroyed most of the city. A whole block of buildings were blown up to stop the fire, saving some of the downtown, like this area. 

The city hall has been destroyed twice by earthquakes so in the last few years, the whole building has been put on shock absorbers. 

According to the tour guide, San Francisco has the most expensive homes in the U.S. These are typical of whole areas of the residential part of Haight Ashbury (remember the hippy days). They run about 5 million apiece; not bad huh. 

These homes are called "The Painted Ladies" because they are identical but painted in different colours. The last one sold for 8 million. That's what you'd pay for a Picasso, but then you couldn't live in it could you.

Most of San Francisco is connected by trolleys. Over the years they have bought old unused trolleys from most of the major U.S. cities and refurbished them. Almost every trolley is different with some dating back almost 100 years. Every trolley is like a work of art. Trolley watching is a great way to spend time. 

Now, what tour of San Francisco would be complete without a picture of the Golden Gate bridge. As you can see, it's not golden, but red. I guess gold paint is too expensive. Hope you've enjoyed our brief tour of this iconic American city.