San Francisco
This tourist guide is written to my fellow travelers on a tight budget. The accommodations and sightseeing stops are chosen to be easy on the wallet. (Well, easier, anyway. San Fran isn't your best choice if you have general wanderlust. Go somewhere else to save some coin, frankly.)
Mrs. MirrorOrchid and I flew to Denver and took the
California Zephyr Amtrak train from Denver to San Francisco, Cali., (Technically Emeryville, CA, but a shuttle gets you to San Fran)
I chose Wednesday, the third week of September.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are supposed to be the least crowded.
That week of September, I figured, might provide us with some fall colors.
We ran the risk of everyone else having the same idea and that fear was realized. The observation car was dominated al day by more savvy travelers who never left their chairs.
Luckily the view from our "Roomette" sleeper car was quite good and we enjoyed an hour each of wide window viewing during lunch and dinner in the dining car (included when you get a sleeper car room).
They also set up a reservation system to let everyone have a shot at the observation lounge so we got an extra hour before dinner that night. (maybe people complained about the "camping"?)
HINT: Stow your bag in your room quick as you can and proceed to the observation car right away. On our train it was behind the dining car, second level. Rooms are not locked (except form the inside). In the unlikely event of theft, make sure you don't take anything very valuable with you.
The train left late from Denver. It usually leaves around 8am.You'll see the Rockies if you end the trip at Green Rover Utah and that was the best part with the Aspens inserting yellow blazes through the evergreen pines.
I woke up at 3am which is normal in the Eastern time zone and we were pulling in to Salt Lake City. Sunrise happened in Wendover Nevada and was soon hidden by a mountain range, the effect of which gave me a second sunrise over that mountain range.
Look for the water chutes of Reno. Impressive man-made water channels that no long direct irrigation and drinking water but make for a memorable accent to the Sierra Nevadas soon after.
We stopped at Richmond California, two stops and ten minutes form the end of the line in Emeryville to fetch
our Turo rental car, (at 2am because our train was late! Any proper rental car agency other than those at the airport would have bene closed!) with which we arrived at the
Coral Reef Inn and Suites for the night. (San Francisco hotels were hella expensive Thursday night for some reason, costing more than weekend rates!) ($80/night instead of $250) We also stayed there for the last night because it is a short, $20
Lyft ride to Oakland airport. (Uber is partially owned by the Saudi Arabian dictatorial government so I do not use them)
We didn't get the chance to walk the block away from the Bay Beach to enjoy the view, our loss. The room was rather drab but both times it had a full kitchen with oven. The price for the room was very competitive and if you want to save money, cooking in your room will be a real boon. I chose Almeda as an area that Reddit said felt safe and I agree. I was unconcerned even late at night. Other hotels on Alameda may be a better for those with full mobility because they'll be walking distance to the Main street and
Seaplane ferry stations (the Main ferry
might be a bargain, but we didn't verify) that could take you to San Francisco's main ferry terminal, a sightseeing stop itself and a stone's throw from
Cupid's Span. Ferry schedules may be limited, such as commuter hours, so check before you rely on them. Mass transit takes you anywhere from there and buses run every fifteen minutes and that's not just wishful thinking like it is in many cities.
The South Shore Center shopping center with a grocery store and Trader Joes is across the street form Coral Reef Inn. It has a Walgreens where we were able to purchase a transponder to pay for the Oakland and Golden Gate Bridge Tolls. The 1-800 number on the brochure gave us a technician that helped us link a credit card with minimal fuss.
The Walgreens also offers the Clipper Card, a card that lets you pay for San Francisco MUNI busses, streetcars, cable cars, BART subway trains, and the AC Transit busses that pass a block away from Coral Reef Inn.
Ferries, Amtrak, and Caltrain trains cover other parts of the area. Clipper pays for almost everything (not Amtrak).
San Francisco parking is scarce and expensive, so we planned to use mass transit. The web site says after you ride enough times, your Clipper card will reach a cap and you will not be charged to ride more. We did not hit this cap and spent more money than we should have been charged. If you can figure out on their web site how to purchase a
1 or 3 day pass explicitly on the card, do it. These passes let you ride MUNI busses, streetcars, and for a little extra, the cable cars all day.
BART trains not included. Not sure if AC transit trains are included. You might be able to buy the passes on the bus itself for cash? I didn't execute this correctly at all.
The "O" bus goes from a bus stop two blocks from Coral Reef to San Francisco's Salesforce Transit center in the city. (stop by the
Botanical garden on fourth floor. We missed it, but you shouldn't!)
Multiple bus lines criss-cross the city from there. Wait times were minimal and the Clipper app on your phone can tell you how far away the next bus is. Two other buses pass close by the inn.
Ole's waffle house got good reviews. Catch the 20 or 21 AC Transit bus, or walk it if you're up for a morning constitutional. It is well reviewed, but we ended up going to the
South Shore Cafe at the far end of the South Shore Center I had pancakes made of a surprising number of plump blueberries with pancake connecting them. Very generous with the fruit.
If you happen to be passing through Tracy, CA on the way to Stockton, like I was,
Four Corners Restaurant makes very good home fries. No complaints about the chorizo omelette.
While at Walgreen's we had also bought a FasTrak transponder to pay for tolls over the Oakland bridge (going in to San Francisco is $9, leaving is free). We then went to Baker Beach because my wife picked it out for some reason though there are perhaps four beaches with views of the Golden Gate bridge. Took some pictures there and then toured the three sets of
mosaic stairs. Lincoln Park, 16th Street, and Grand View Park. The day got away from us and we decided to keep the car a second day.
We stayed at
Days Inn - Lombard Street. ($150/night with taxes and fees) Rooms ok. the garden apartment halls were dingy. The office only opens at 8am! Given we were on eastern time we weren't waiting around for the meager breakfast they offer.
Dinner was at the nearby Roma Antica. Good Caesar salad, the entrées did not impress. Skip this place.
We had better luck the next day at the Twisted Street Café with strong flavor my wife was impressed with. The breakfast sandwiches were commendable. The next door hotel provides bathrooms if needed and outdoor seating with a fire pit to enjoy.
Dinner that night was Wago Sushi. Good stuff, the highlight was their tempura, a light batter that was far less greasy than most tempura I'm used to.
We had a mocha milkshake, chocolate ice cream with coffee from Super Duper Burger a block away. Recommended, but ask for double coffee. Ours was subtle and I think it would have been better with a bigger hit of joe.
After breakfast we went over the Golden Gate to take pictures and take in the sights of he bridge from the northern vista overlook. You can get an arch in an arch shot from a view directly down the bridge's length form there., Almost all the pictures are side views. This let's you get a shot most don't see.
Hot dog vendors are making $5 dogs with peppers and mushrooms that made me sorry we hadn't gone there around noon. Similar vendors hawked the dogs down by the Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 41 and 39.
We came back from the north end and stopped at the Presidio to visit the Tunnel Tops, a terrace over the Marina Highway with a classic Golden Gate View, then checked in with the Yoda statue.
We toured murals from the streets of The Mission district from the comfort of our car. This is not a bad way to view the Clarion Alley, our favorite. Horace alley is drab by comparison. We then roamed the Mission at random spotting onesies murals here and there, better than the Horace Alley ones.
I returned the car the next day and took the BART subway from Richmond, CA to Montgomery Station in San Fran.
The 30 bus got me back to the Days Inn.
The last day, Peets coffee fed us some coffee and breakfast before we took the 28 MUNI bus to Golden Gate Park and walked to the Japanese Tea Garden. We were there when it opened. It's small and will set you back $19, but given my wife's mobility issues, it was a good choice for us that filled the morning.
If you go in September like we did, check to see if they are holding Garden Piano events. It looked like a superb choice, but we lacked the time to stop and listen. Parking is dicey and break-ins aren't unheard of. Consider sticking to mass transit.
Between Golden Gate Park and the 16th street mosaic stairs is a location of the crepe restaurant chain
Crepevine, We were going to hit lunch there but Mrs. MirrorOrchid's hip was not allowing the necessary walk to get there.
The 28 took us back, past the hotel to North Point and Hyde Streets. There we switched to the cable car which climbed Hyde Street to the top of Lombard street, crookedest road in the world (and if it isn't, it must be close!).
Back down the hill in the cable car we stopped at the Cable Car Museum. (Free of charge and well worth your time). Then we accidentally got a street-framed glimpse of the
Transamerica Pyramid.
Thetre's not much to eat around there, so we took the Powell / Mason cable car down to the Bay at Pier 45 where we had a seafood lunch my wife wanted. I stopped in the
Musée Mécanique. The web site doesn't do it justice. Stop in.
We walked over to Pier 39 to let the Mrs. do the shopping she wished. Street performers would have been worth a watch and listen if we'd had the time.
Great view of Alcatraz from the Piers.
I meant for us to bus most of the way to the Salesforce Transit Center and walk there, but, again, Mrs. MirrorOrchid's hip was shot. We took the "F" streetcar to Embarcadero BART station. Finding and walking to the elevator seemed challenging, so she braved the stairs down (one escalator up) and found out the elevator does not stop at the lower level, it stops only two floors down at the platform. So it was two flights. Not great, we may have been better off waiting the ten minutes for a transfer to the Salesforce Center.
The "O" bus (letter, not zero) from Salesforce Center takes you a block or two from Coral Reef Inn, but we took the BART to Fruitvale BART, a $10 Lyft ride away. (
the 20 or 21 bus gets you to Coral Reef if you have a Clipper pass)
I got us ample provisions that night from the Safeway grocery store in South Shore Center for the flight home from Oakland airport, a short Lyft ride away, to BWI Airport, Baltimore. You can get to the airport by BART but the short hop from the Coliseum BART Station to the Airport is a separate $10 charge. If you are staying in Alameda, grab a Lyft. Faster, and cheaper.
