San Fran- Full House, Golden Gate Park, a potential lawsuit and a lot of freakin walkin!

After sitting on our butts for a few days of driving, we decided to reverse the trend. Today felt like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qA7owYnbMw&feature=related

So we walked...and we walked and walked and walked and walked.

We planned a few destinations for the day:

Civic Centre,
Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies,
1709 Broderick Street- home of the Tanner family,

Haight Ashbury,
and Golden Gate Park.

1) Civic Centre
This area contains many of the city's civic and cultural attractions including San Francisco City Hall and Plaza, the United Nations Plaza, the Public Library as well as museums and auditoriums. If you don't like planning & architecture, skip down and scroll through the pretty pictures.

The area has a fantastically congruous style of classical architecture that acts as the San Francisco nod to the City Beautiful movement of the late 1800s and to the early 1900s (pre 1920). The area is unfortunately missed by many tourists, as you must pass through the skid row neighbourhood of Tenderloin to reach the area. My prediction last night of Claire's gang involvement proved correct today.


Approaching from Market St, you're greeted with a great fountain that leads you into United Nations Square, also home to a farmers market which makes for a great use of space and brings enough activity to prevent it from being a homeless camp.

As you stroll through the plaza, you're drawn towards the entry of the hall, which is also home to a great public space complete with rows of palm trees and areas for the public to interact.

The City Beautiful movement was a reform in response to social blight in cities designed to deliver order and inspire civic pride. I think this space is absolutely fantastic, I love the classical style of architecture, with grand boulevards and civic spaces leading to major venues...consider me inspired.

2) Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies

After an unplanned detour caused by a 5 point intersection, we we're en route to Almo Square to see the city's famous Painted Ladies. We walked through a great little shopping district on Hayes Street complete with nice cafes and restaurants.

Back on track, so the city's painted ladies are pretty famous...I'm sure you've all seen this picture before.

Sorry about that photo...the girls just wouldn't get out of the way. I'm sure you can appreciate the architecture in the rear (bad choice of words) of the photo. Here's something a little more clear..

Because of the ornate architectural details of Victorian homes like these, most are painted elaborately to   give definition to their exquisite features. Think back to the Carson Mansion photos we showed yesterday as well. This row in San Francisco is quite famous as they face a park and have a wonderful backdrop of the skyline. While this shot has been featured in some 70 movies, tv shows and ads, it is most famously recognized as the setting for a Tanner family picnic in the opening credits of Full House. As Erin requested, we stood here and sang the theme song quite loudly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-NTa-2Gi1s&feature=related

 In 2010, the house on the corner was sold for $3,999,999 which is considerably more expensive than a comparable home in San Francisco. Real estate values are similar to that of Vancouver.

There also seems to be some behavioral issue with east side dogs in the neighbourhood...

3) 1709 Broderick St. 

So Claire dragged me from Alamo Square about a mile out of the way (each way) to see the actual house where some of the TV show was shot.

My impression- it looks every other house on the street, except there is a rope across their entry to keep people out.

Claire's impression- it brings back so many memories of 4-4:30 pm after school, watching Uncle Jesse, Stephanie and the gang, along with Kimmy Gibbler enjoying the spoils of San Francisco.

Hope you're all still OK after that excitement.

4) Haight Ashbury

This neighbourhood became famous as the centre of the San Francisco Renaissance (some poetry crap) and along with that came drugs and along with that came rock and roll and along with that came rowdy teenagers and college students during the summers. It exploded in 67 with The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin living in the area. This is probably one of the best hippie areas in North America.

The neighbourhood was interesting, lots of independent retailers- mostly pot shops,a bunch of tourists stores. It seems to have sold out a little. Must have been those developer bastards.

5) Golden Gate Park

The park is massive at 1,017 acres, 20% larger than New York's Central Park. Haight-Ashbury borders the eastern edge of the park...lots of hippies (code for homeless people) "living" in the area...we (Claire) were offered drugs by the first 3 people we saw in the park. The park is home to Kezer Stadium (former home of the 49ers and Raiders), Conservatory of Flowers, a music concourse, museums, japanese gardens, botanical gardens, lakes and waterfalls, a bison paddock (seriously), dutch windmills and an archery field. For more details see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Park

More on this potential lawsuit from the title- Claire is extremely displeased with the Ciyt of San Francisco, as she was walking down the path and a tree came out of nowhere and hit her in the head. She actually walked straight into a tree branch and exclaimed "where'd that come from". She's got a light bump on the head and a self-diagnosed serious concussion. I am not allowed to make any jokes about this.

The best of the "Lion King Trees" below:

We were disappointed that you had to bring your own gear (its scary to think about some guy walking around San Fran or taking transit to get here with a bunch of hunting gear) but it was probably for the best, as Claire was looking for payback after my latest round of walking into a tree jokes. 

The park exits out onto the coast highway and a fabulous beach. We spent about an hour here, just hanging out and watching people try to surf. 

That's all folks. Tune in tomorrow, it should be one hell of a post. We're doing a tour of Alcatraz, a bunch of waterfront activities- the Marina Distric, Fishermans Wharf, Presido, Telegraph Hill and Lomard St.