In the middle of June 2001, I traveled to San Francisco to attend the annual conference of the American Library Association. I went out on a Thursday and came back the following Wednesday. I spent all day and into the night in meetings each day, Friday through Monday. But I had saved Tuesday for my day to play, and I had a great time! Each picture noted on this page was taken that day.
ALA had arranged tours of several popular tourist attractions, and while I enjoy heading out and exploring on my own, I thought an organized tour would probably be a good idea. The tour I chose was to Muir Woods and Sausalito, and as things worked out, I still managed to strike out on my own.
We headed out from the city at 9:00 Tuesday morning, traveling over the Golden Gate Bridge, and then stopping on the other side of the bridge for some picture taking. This picture shows the bridge head on, looking down the roadway back towards San Francisco.
We then continued on to Muir Woods. On the bus, I struck up a conversation with another ALA attendee on the tour, and during the self-guided tour of Muir Woods, we exchanged cameras and took pictures of each other, so we could get some pictures of one another amid the incredible redwoods.
I thought the first picture he took turned out really well, and the second was even better! The trees are really remarkable. Apparently the redwoods in Muir Woods are only babies - not nearly as tall as the Giant Sequoias, and only 800 to 1,000 years old!
The Woods have several trails, and we managed to get several nice shots. None of the pictures managed to convey the scope of the trees, though -- the sheer size is just impossible to capture.
After Muir Woods we boarded the bus to Sausalito, a really neat small town, filled with shops and restaurants and all kinds of interesting artsy-craftsy kinds of places and people. Here's a picture of two ... "residents" ... I happened across in my exploring. They are Chinook the Cockatoo and Mate the Aussie Dog. Their human identified himself (via a business card) as a leprechaun, wizard, and pantomime, and was nice enough to take a picture of me & Chinook.
I continued my exploration of Sausalito, and the number of boats - mostly sailboats but also some very nice powerboats - was impressive. I found out that there are ferry boats between Sausalito and Golden Gate and Pier 39 (in SF), and so I opted to go that route, rather than taking the bus back downtown.
I took the ferry to Pier 39, and along the way I got another good picture of the Golden Gate bridge as well as a picture of a tall ship tied up to a pier in San Francisco Bay. I also took a picture of the city from the water as the ferry approached Pier 39. If you look carefully, you'll see a WWII submarine tied up to the pier on the right.
Pier 39 is another favorite of tourists - lots of shops and restaurants and plenty of things to do and see. I wandered around for a while, and made my way along the shore, then doubled back to see if I could catch the Powell Street cable car to downtown. Although the line was long, I only had to wait a half-an-hour or so before I could hop on. Since I was one of the last on, the seats were all taken, so I got to do what I wanted to do all along -- stand on the outside! I was the first one on the front right side as we made our way first up the streets and then down the streets. It was great!
Fortunately Powell Street was only a couple of blocks from my hotel, so when the cable car stopped at Sutter, I hopped of - looking out for traffic, of course! By this time it was almost 5:00, so I went back to the hotel for some dinner, and to start packing for my return trip the next day.
San Francisco is a neat town. This was my second visit, and I had a wonderful time. I hope to get back there again ... maybe in retirement?
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