San Francisco- The Verdict...Are we leaving our hearts here?

Overall, we've really enjoyed ourselves in San Francisco. There are some absolutely great spaces, some beautiful views and fantastic neighbourhoods.

Things we really liked and highly recommend:

• Alcatraz. This has to be one of the best tours you can take anywhere. Add this to the bucket list

• Architecture- there is a great variety here with an amazing collection of Victorian homes and more modern designs all mixed in together to give the City a feeling of organic growth and a great mix of styles

• Ghiradelli Square- an absolutely fantastic adaptive re-use that combines great retail, restaurant and hospitality with a historic and iconic structure. Fabulous public space, great location. On top of that, great ice cream! Ours was similar to this  http://www.flickr.com/photos/viewoutoffocus/4908934960/

• Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach- the park is beautiful and contains so many uses and activities, located right in the City with great transit access. Ocean beach is a fabulous way to end a trip through the park. The only downside is the park is huge and takes a long time to traverse. Oh, and trees jump out of nowhere and hit redheads

• Shopping at Union Square- Shopping in San Francisco is absolutely incredible. There aren't many cities that rival the variety and quality of shopping in and around Union Square. 

• AT&T Park- one of the best, if not the best ballpark in baseball. Cold though. Great food! Great transit access and located in an up and coming yuppie neighbourhood. We didn't have a ton of time to explore, but there could be some more complementary uses around such as restaurants and bars. 

• Civic Centre- Beautiful public space but is avoided by many tourists as you need to go through the nasty "tenderloin" neighbourhood. 

• Belden Place- a great little hidden gem in the financial districts, 7 restaurants that spill out into the lane in the evenings.

• Palace of Fine Arts- this is such a fabulous public space and probably the most beautiful space in North America to get married.

The not so great:

• Hands down, Fishermans Wharf was the worst. It sucks. It is everything I hate about being a tourist- gimmicky gift shop after gimmicky gift shop, shitty chain restaurants. It has a few things going for it
1. Sea Lions
2. Location- you can't go wrong being on the water
3. Cable Cars- while the ride is cool, its become only a tourist attraction and most times requires a 40 minute wait from Ghiradelli Square. In the morning it isn't bad, but its insane to have to wait 40 minutes to utilize something that is a transit service. If the demand is that high they should add cars to the line

• Chinatown. I'm not sure if its because we're from Vancouver and exposed to it frequently, but again, just a gimmicky tourist spot. Maybe we didn't go deep enough into it, but we lost interest pretty quick. 
• Hills- there are too many, but this one was cool!

So, to answer the big question. Are we leaving our hearts in San Francisco?

In the end, we've really enjoyed it here, we're glad we came, but its just a like and not a love.

Giants/Cardinals Game

Not a bad game to attend, the 2010 World Series Champs vs. the 2011 World Series Champs!

AT&T Park is a fantastic venue...I wish it wasn't so damned foggy so we could appreciated the setting! Here's a photo from a non-foggy day

The stadium was built in 2000 with a total capacity of 41,915. Quite a rare occurrence these days, the stadium was built without the use of any public funds, the first MLB stadium to do this since Dodger Stadium in 1962. Its quite a chilly location, situated right on the Bay so the cold fog often rolls in at night to cool temperatures significantly.

The most prominent feature of the ballpark is the brick right field wall which was built to 24 ft in honour of Willie Mays who wore number 24. Located just behind right field is China Basin, a section of the San Francisco Bay dubbed McCovey Cove after former Giant first baseman Willie McCovey. In total, 60 home runs have splashed into the Cove, 35 of which were by Barry Bonds, 23 by opposing hitters. Fans take to the waters of the Cove in small boats and kayaks armed with fishing nets in hope of catching collecting a home run ball.

Behind the left field bleachers is the Coca Cola Fan Lot, featuring an 80 ft long Coke bottle with playground slides for kids that light up after a Giants home run. It even features a mini-stadium for the kids to play baseball in. Adjacent the coke bottle is the "Giant 1927 Old-Time Four-Fingered Baseball Glove" made of steel and fiberglass. There are even a few cable cars around the concourse of the stadium!

I've never seen a stadium with so many food options- most famously garlic fries, but also cheesesteaks, Mexican, Chinese, gourmet sausages, a crab shack, chowder and a fresh carved sandwiches stand, among other things. We opted for hot dogs and garlic fries.

Our seats. Lower level, just under the cover, in case it rained. 

Right field wall

McCovey Cove. When Barry Bonds was in his home run chase it looked like this...

From RF Corner

Kiddie field. the girl at the plate sucked.

Me in my Brian Wilson "Hair-itage" Fear the Beard shirt. 

Overall, AT&T Park is considered one of, if not the best ballpark in baseball. Hard to argue with. 

Military History Day

Today we continued into the NW corner of the City which is home to Fort Mason, the Marina District, the Palace of Fine Arts as well as the Presidio.

The day was very foggy. It was supposed to clear in the morning, but has basically lasted all day which made for some cool photos...and cool temperatures for us.

Fort Mason

Formerly known as the US Port of Embarkation for the US Army. It is a former post that served for 100 years, initially as a military port facility. During WWII, it handled almost all of the cargo for the Pacific campaign. Much like Alcatraz, this area began as a part of the construction in San Francisco to prepare defenses for the Civil War. In its hay-day as the major shipping port for Pacific operations, it handled 23.5 million tons of cargo and over 1.6 million passengers, representing two thirds of all Pacific troops and half of all army cargo.

Currently, the fort is a mix of parks and gardens with many of the buildings remaining in use. For Mason Centre, which represents the former port facility has been adapted into a centre for artists galleries, music schools, college campuses, restaurants and the like.

A view from the hill over some of the wharves

Wharf

View of the wharf from the Marina

Marina

The Marina is a great place to walk, not as nice as Coal Harbour, but still a nice place to walk. Too much parking that should be converted into parks. You should be able to see a nice backdrop here that includes the Golden Gate Bridge but you wouldn't even know its there!

Claire was wondering where the dock dog was. 

There was a very cool variety of homes, all with great views facing the water, some facing Alcatraz and others the Golden Gate. 

Boats

Foggy Golden Gate

Foggy Alcatraz. What a way to make that place creepier. 

High end, one-off automobiles. 

Palace of Fine Arts

This was originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition to display works of art. This is one of few structures remaining and the only one at its original site. It was rebuilt in 1965, as the original structure was only intended to last a year, it was made out of wood and plaster. After the exposition, most of the buildings were demolished, but this was so beloved that a preservation league was founded to keep the structure. It has been used for many things over the years including an art exhibit, military storage, tennis courts, warehouse, telephone book distribution centre, flag and tent storage depot and a headquarters for the Fire Department. Its pretty amazing that a wood and plaster structure intended to last a year survived for 50. In 1965 it was completely demolished and rebuilt in concrete with steel beams. In 1969 the exhibit hall of the palace become home to the Exploratorium, an interactive museum.

The palace was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who was inspired by Roman and Greek architecture in his design. He also was a pioneer in the push for landscape to be an extension of the architecture and it shows in the integration here.

 

Uncanny resemblance to me. Weird. 

Some incredible houses across the street

Presidio- Crissy Field and Fort Point

The Presidio has an incredible history that I won't even try to summarize. Read Here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_of_San_Francisco

Basically, it was first fortified by the Spanish in 1776 as their military centre for colonization. It passed to Mexico and they were too busy making salsa and the US took it in 1848. It was transferred to the National Park Service in 1994, ending 219 years of military use. Pretty cool. It is located adjacent the Golden Gate Bridge, with fantastic vistas over the Bay, the City, Alcatraz and of course the bridge.

We visited 2 areas of the massive 3 square mile area, Crissy Field and Fort Point.

Fort Point- built in 1861, it is a brick fort located under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was completed just ahead of the Civil War to defend the Bay. We couldn't see much of the Fort as it is undergoing renovation.

Crissy Field Centre today is an "urban environmental education centre" with programs for schools to learn about tidal marshes and other environmental exhibits. In the 20's and 30's, Crissy Field was a pioneering military aviation field to test transpacific and transcontinental flights. Basically, they had pilots insane enough to see how far they could fly before running out of fuel...many of them died, including Crissy who was one of the group leaders. He died on the first day. The hangars have been re-purposed to be used as a college classroom, a bike shop, a gym/yoga/rock climbing facility and other similar things.

The best part of this area is the views, so enjoy.

Lots of dog walkers using Crissy Field

Buildings adjacent Crissy Field

Former hangars at the end of the runway

The building in the picture was actually a mine assembly plant. From the 1920's to the end of WWII, the harbour was a maze of mines. Crazy!

Golden Gate and Fort Point

We rode the cablecar back to the hotel. I hung off the side like a boss. 

Off to the ballgame, apparently AT&T Park has the best food and biggest beer menu in baseball, so I'm preparing to test that to the limit. Tomorrow will be a more relaxed day, no more 10+ mile walks! We're staying in the Union Square area to do some shopping and checking out Chinatown.