San Francisco

Thursday, February 18, 2016
San Francisco, California, United States
We left Regina on Thursday, February 11. Over the next three days, we stayed in Billings, Montana, Salt Lake City, Utah, Fernley, Nevada (just outside Reno), and finally arrived in San Francisco on Sunday, February 14. The highways from Regina to Glendive were snow and ice-packed, and we had heavy fog preventing any view of our surroundings in Salt Lake City, but otherwise the roads were good. On day one, we had some excitement when the U-Haul truck ahead of us pulling a station wagon suddenly begin to fishtail all over both directions of the highway. We backed off and the oncoming traffic took cover behind a guardrail. It took him a good half mile and a pair of soiled underwear before he got control. We were sure the whole rig was going to spin off the highway.

We thought we had left the snow completely behind until about 2 hours outside of Reno, but there was more in the Reno/Lake Taho area . We had our coldest temperatures in Salt Lake City (below 0), and finally hit 18°C at Fernley, Nevada and then 28° just outside San Francisco.

I have to say ... again ... I love my car. My 2010 Prius, our ride for this trip, is comfortable, handles well, and doesn't skip a beat at the 80 mph speed limits. 3.5 days on the road. 2500 km. Gas = $77. :)

The lowlight of our trip was the traffic just outside San Francisco. We were 15 miles outside the city when we hit gridlock on the freeway. What should have taken 30 min at most took a full 2 hours. Argh, frustrating! It was Presidents Day long weekend, so that likely had something to do with it.

We finally made it to our hotel at 5:30 pm on Feb 14. We're staying at the San Remo Hotel (named after a town in Italy) in North Beach (Little Italy), close to Fisherman's Wharf. It's an historic inn that was built in 1906 after the earthquake . It reminds us of some of the places we stayed in Portugal. "The hotel ambiance is Old World: quiet rooms without phones or TVs, Victorian heirloom furnishings and hallways lined with historic photos. Guests share bath facilities, reminiscent of European pensione-style lodging." Some rooms, including ours, have old-style sinks in the rooms. We had our Valentine's Day supper in the restaurant on the main floor, Fior D'Italia. Founded in San Francisco in 1886 and America's oldest Italian restaurant, it moved into the San Remo building in 2005. Our food was tasty. Roger ordered the "Suffering Bastard" cocktail to commemorate his day. ;-D
 
Sleeping in on our first day here was awesome, except for the crazy guy in the street below our window at 6:30 a.m., repeatedly yelling "Shut the f*** up, you stupid crow!!" to a crow cawing in the street. Couldn't help but laugh, as we have had our share of "rooster crows" on our travels. Other than the expected street noise, the hotel is pretty charming. Everyone is wandering the hallways in the morning in their jammies, grabbing a coffee or heading to the bathrooms/showers . Everything is clean and the staff are friendly. And the location can't be beat. I was thrilled to befriend a little Yorkie dog named Jippy, belonging to one of the hotel staff. He just hangs in the hallways greeting guests, and relishes all of the attention. Our room is across the narrow hall from the office, and our room is often used by the manager, so Jippy just came in and hung with us. Made my day. Unfortunately, Jippy didn't have another shift while we were there, so we didn't see him again. :(
 
We had perfect warm weather on Mon and Tues, so spent our days wandering Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, Union Square and Chinatown. We always enjoy watching and listening to the sea lions at Pier 39. We read that they started coming after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The plentiful food supply from the bay and the protection from predators makes the pier an ideal living situation for them. We took a cable car up the steep hill to Union Square (which is the uptown shopping area and near our next hotel), then walked back down thru Chinatown . We spent an afternoon in Chinatown, wandering and and seeing foreshadowed in the business names and sites some of the places & things we'll be seeing in China - Terracotta Warrior statues, The Great Wall Restaurant, Shanghai World, The Bund, and Hong Kong Restaurant to name a few.

On Wednesday, we took the ferry to the small town of Sausalito, on the other side of the inlet (also accessible by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge). It was named by Spanish explorers in the 18th century after the "little willow" trees (Saucelito) found growing along its streams. The buildings are all built on the side of the hills, giving it a Mediterranean vibe. We spent the afternoon wandering, then took the ferry back just as it started to rain. It was fun to see the sea lions playing and feeding in the bay alongside the ferry. We also passed by Angel Island where, from 1910 to 1940, about 1 million Asian immigrants entering the US were processed, some spending years on the island waiting for entry to the US. You can still see the barracks where they lived. It's sometimes referred to as "The Ellis Island of the West".

We had a wicked thunderstorm on Wed night, but it's bright and sunny again today. We will be checking out of San Remo and into our new hotel by Union Square. We're excited for Roger's sister Darlene & brother-in-law Roger's arrival today. This destination was actually booked by them first, and we are just tag-alongs but with the advantage of coming a few days early. We will spend Friday together in San Francisco before we head to a resort at Clear Lake (Nice, CA) with them for a week.

Comments

Lorraine
2016-02-18

You've had a great week! Glad you survived the U-haul incident. A boat trailer fishtailed on black ice in front of Carol a few years ago & landed on top of her car. She ended up in hospital for a while. I'm sure Roger enjoyed every slurp of his "suffering bastard" cocktail LOL I presume he was driving at the time? Never heard of Angel Island before - interesting! I think I might like to spend a week in SF sometime ;o)

Ed & Joan
2016-02-18

Hi Anna and Roger! We enjoy reading about your travels. Your descriptions of places you visited in San Fran brought back memories of our trip there two years ago. Have fun! Be safe!

Ed and Joan

2025-02-11

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