IMPRESSIONS OF SAN FRANCISCO
I leave San Francisco with two impressions. The first came from riding for 6 hours on the $59 Big Bus tour of San Francisco, a tourist attraction that was eye opening and exhilerating. It convinced me that I want to come back to San Francisco for a month if I can find a house exchange or an inexpensive Airbnb. I just want to let the city soak in. All I got was an appetizer for all the ways in which San Francisco is such a lively place. People who live here must find living here very attractive.
The other impression was of the tourist side of San Francisco which I found to be overated. I visited Chinatown on my first day here after a night on the Coast Starlight Amtrak train and walking around until exhausted storing my luggage. I revived somewhat after a great Chinese meal of minced pork and eggplant but then had to lug my luggage seven long blocks straight up to my Airbnb. Both treks colored my view both of Chinatown and being still here at 85, but I still had fun poking around and taking photographs and decided that in spite of the heavy tourist emphasis, Chinatown was a real place, a lively ethnic neighborhood for the people who lived there.
It was the two most famous tourist attractions that disappointed me and which I would avoid if I came to stay for a month.
The first was Fisherman‘s Wharf. I have no idea what it‘s attraction was 50 years ago, but today it is an artificial Disneyworld corporate creation of folksy glitzy dazzle around conventional overpriced chain stores and restaurants.
The second disappointing attraction was the fabled San Franciscos cable car which to me were clunky, grinding tourist attractions with a huge line before you could get on and then a bumpy ride up pretty ordinary streets, unlike the Big Bus ride through the most interesting parts of San Francisco. My cable car had a stand up comic as conductor who felt he was hilarious as he described what we were passing (short glimpses down streets to the bay), but who made up for it by neglecting to charge me for the $8 ride. I abandoned the cable car at the highest point, Lombard street, “the crookedest street in San Francisco,” where hundreds of tourist milled around (including me) with a view out over San Francisco which would have been more exciting if it hadn‘t been so windy and cold and we didn‘t have to wait so long for the cable car down (where a sober conductor charged me $8). Lombard Street was hidden by bushes.
But I don‘t need to do those again if I come for a month. On my third trip on the Big Bus, once sitting on the left in front to take photographs, once on the right, the third time just to get there, I stopped at the De Young Art Museum. Here I got to see, and photograph, the Alice Neel painting exhibit of the ordinary people who lived in her neighborhood of Spanish Harlem. I will now play the paintings on my iPad at home in Swannanoa where I can drink coffee as I look at them and my back won‘t hurt from so much slow shuffling around. Then I whirled through the rest of the museum, which was interesting, and then had a tasty and expensive sandwich in the very nice outdoor cafe. This is a part of San Francisco that will draw me back, a city rich with culture and ethnic variety.
A city bus, 1/2 price for seniors, dropped me at Union Square where I had, for $6, the best Hot Dog I‘ve eaten in my life, wrapped in bacon and drizzled with fried onions and peppers and loaded with catsup, mustard and mayonnaise, a messy delight. Union Square was being prepared for an outdoor free movie later in the evening. The museum, the Hot Dog, the musicians and Union Square bustle is why I‘ll be back for a month if I can.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 