San Francisco, Part Two- New Adventures

Now that visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum has been done, I can check a much more commonly seen Bucket List item off; walking the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The majestic bridge that connects the San Francisco Peninsula and Marin County is comprised of six lanes, the US 101 and California 1, made of steel, and only charges a toll to southbound vehicles these days unlike when pedestrians were charged from the time of its opening in 1937 until December 1970.  The bridge is named after the Golden Gate Strait, the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the ocean, not for its bold International Orange color, although the color serves multiple functions including safety, recently added anti-corrosion zinc for protection, and being eye catching by land, sea, or air.  Before meeting this next goal of mine, my travel companions wanted to make an on-the-way quick stop at Lands End, which I’d heard it’s tale before and it didn’t remember until later.

Lands End is a multi-terrain park with hiking trails, gorgeous coastal views, and a collection of historical stories around every curvy highway turnout.  As you park in the lot, three things dominate the surrounding views: the rocky shore meeting the Pacific with a geometrically quizzical layout of concrete ruins, behind us, windswept trees and wildflowers that guide you towards multiple trails, and to our side was the Lookout and Visitors Center.  We never ended up making our way down to the ruins but instead, took off to the trails for a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  On this side of the hilly cliffs, it is said that at low tide, battleships can be seen in the distant waters.  More reminders of the importance San Fran played for the military.  After a few snapshots, we made our way to the visitors center, which is made up of equal parts views, education, gift shop, and cafe.  Inside the center the truth of the ruins beneath us was revealed.  In its heyday, the seaside ruins were known as Sutro Baths, a massive indoor water park.  When it opened in 1896, the privately owned saltwater baths was the largest of its kind.  Named after the millionaire who designed it and the Cliff House just up the road, Adolph Sutro created the family owned amusement park with a museum and restaurants that could house up to 25,000 guests at a time.  After the Great Depression and other mostly unavoidable issues, the baths were turned into an ice skating rink.  The rink was not able to gain enough revenue to keep the place in business so in the 1960’s the plan was to demolish and make way for apartments but as the ranger in the center told me in a voice of suspicion, a fire of unknown origin completed the demo work in no time flat, leaving behind the haunting ruins we see today.  Stories like that fascinate me but this one had an air of Deja vu.  I had read an article on the baths not too long ago and made a mental note to add it to my bucket list.  Yet the short article didn’t mention the baths were also the center focus of a pioneer civil rights case the year after it opened, preventing amusement parks from discriminating against people of color.  The Dibble Act of 1897 was used in only a handful of cases after the Sutro Baths case and then quickly forgotten for 50 years. 

The Sutro Baths ruins

Postcard capturing the baths in their heyday.

View of the Golden Gate from the trails at Lands End.  Battleships appear at low tide.

A large original view of the Cliff House and surrounding amusement and transportation hubs.

San Francisco’s incomparable past continues to our next adventure, the Golden Gate Bridge.  While completing the end to end round trip I noticed the vast amount of languages spoken and levels of manners, seeing that people on bicycles were the rudest when it came to expecting “me first” treatment.  At this time northbound side is the only available non-motorized pathway to explore.  This makes the most sense for tourist as this offers unobstructed views of Alcatraz, the impressive and varied landscape that makes up the San Francisco Bay and City, and the quilt-like colors of the waters meeting each other from different depths and temperatures.  Every five feet was a new photo opportunity as even the smallest variation told a different story to the viewer.  I found myself enthralled by the era appropriate art deco angles of the steel, the structural simplicity of the suspension cables that are the visible metaphor for endurance, and the ebb and flow of the hardened roads and girders with the breeze of the sea air and salt induced oxidation leaving negative space in the metal under my elbows.  Unfortunately this adventure was not without a sad reminder.  The bridge is the grim site of over 1700 suicides since its opening in the late 1930’s.  Currently, a great effort is being made to keep this number from growing as they are installing a netted barrier that should be completed in 2021.  This will hopefully also put an end to the need for crisis phone numbers posted in multiple places including the parking lot, nightly rounds by law enforcement, and the closing of the bridge in the evenings to bipeds.  After completing the nearly three and a half mile circuit, we took a breather at the Welcome Center and caught up on a few more details about the bridge before seeking the next important adventure; lunch and coffee.

West of the bridge view.

Under the bridge.

There is not a lot of room on the 1.7 mile path but bicyclists think they own it all.

Cable closeup.

Alcatraz, The Bay and City.

A marvel from the past.

End credits.

This postcard is a replica of the souvenir tickets that were given out when they finally opened up that Golden Gate.  Each postcard is sequentially numbered as it was in the past. 

I doubt a desperate person would listen to a few signs but at least steps are being made to prevent further tragedy.

Fun Facts.

As recommended by my more city-versed friends, we bound for the Ferry Building Marketplace that once served as the go-to terminal for water transportation in the area, but as the Golden Gate Bridge opened and the increase of cars hit the road, the building took in fewer passengers and more tourists.  The Ferry Building offers many sit down restaurants including the Hog Island Oyster Company, where our lunch of chowder, oysters, and local Fort Bragg brewed beer was had while the line built up outside for the popular venue, and many food vendors such as several enticing chocolate and sweet shops, butchers, fishmongers, wine and oil shops, bakeries, and a fungus shop with a grow your own mushroom mini-farm.  Two places caught my eye, the Blue Bottle Coffee shop and the Imperial Tea Court.  The Tea Court was a replica Chinese tea shop with an apothecary wall of green, brown, and red dust-filled jars and the smell of dirt in your teeth when you breathe deep.  This is my Chanel No. 5.  The assistant behind the counter pulled bottle after bottle off the wall for me to inhale.  My friends looked on with intrigue as the man and I spoke the similar foreign language you would hear as a novice at a vineyard.  “Where is this tea from, what are the notes, is it a form of nightshade”, and he answered to the best of his knowledge.  I left with a light, anise-hinted green tea named “Dragon Whiskers” that I brewed in a cast iron kettle when I returned home much later.  It was even lighter than I expected so I may add a little Sencha to the next brew.

I kept hearing a weird rapid ticking sound.  Constantly flipping over, this sign gives times and information to those on their way out to the pier.

Prior to my tea sommelier session, we stopped at Blue Bottle for a special couple of coffee.  We’re on vacation so let the adventure continue.  As we approached the counter, my pals ordered easy drinks, a cold brew coffee and an iced latte.  I have had Blue Bottle coffee before and know that they take the brewing process and origins of their coffee very seriously.  With this in mind, I left the ordering up to the barista.  I asked what was good and what his recommendation was and his response was the Guatemalan coffee.  He informed me it was very rare and only available for a limited time… and ten dollars for a cup.  Adventures can get expensive but I took his recommendation, waited for my freshly brewed dark beauty, and took a sip, black, before sweetening.  The guava flavor was the most potent and longest lasting.  It only required the tiniest bit of raw sugar and creamer as it was a soft flavor throughout.  But even at ten dollars and beautifully flavored, it was still the first cup of coffee I’d had that day and we were pushing late afternoon already so it lasted long enough to walk the nearby independent bookstore and a few bites into a shared sweet treat with friends.

The three amigos made way to our hotel to relax and take in a light evening after two non-stop days.  A local beer for me and a cocktail for one of the girls, we all chatted up the next day’s agenda in the peaceful bar patio.  After a while, Little Boss and I were getting kind of hungry while our friend opted to head back to the room for R and R, so like teenagers sneaking out late at night, L.B. and I had one finally adventure together.  I had mentioned to her how Los Angeles is known for being so culturally diverse yet finding a traditional Japanese restaurant was the ultimate Hide and Seek game I’d been losing for years.  Just like that, she knew exactly where we were having dinner for two.  Mokutanya sounds like the island Moana is from but it is a traditional Japanese yakitori and ramen house.  I was stoked the second we walked in and they had us remove our shoes and shuffle down the porcelain tile walkway to our seats on the floor.  The option for Western style dining was available in a small section away from the tile path.  Each night a different special was offered and tonight’s was exotic meat specials.  The list had some unique offerings and L.B. and I glanced over the options with an agreed upon adventurer mindset of no repeats.  If we had had it before, it was out.  Bye bye buffalo.  See ya later, Alligator.  Too bad belly and bones.  We almost went for the silkworms and the snake but the reptile was pricey and we came for dinner, not cocktail style bugs.  To go with our decisions we got a fried rice ball, eggplant that was too spicy for me, potato cakes, chicken meatballs, and eel, which is my favorite dish when going for sushi.  Finally we ordered; Boar, Camel, and Kangaroo.  All good choices according to our waitress who laughed with us as we pointed out misspellings on the menu.  When everything arrived we were ready.  The boar was good but nothing special stood out about it, as I expected.  The kangaroo was tough like a stew meat cooked incorrectly but edible.  The camel was out of this world.  I don’t usually eat beef but this was equivalent to the tenderest steak I’d ever had and I’ve been raving about it since.

Chairs and tables available.  Shoes are left in a cubby nearby.

The booth behind us.  There is a hole under the table to place your feet down but I never did.  I loved the whole experience.

Eggplant and rice ball with dried seaweed.

From the bottom up, camel, kangaroo, chicken meatballs, boar, eel, and potato on the dish with the sauce.

With full bellies and giggles galore, we came back to our hotel and tried not to disturb our friend as she slept. Two full days of exploration, goal accomplishing, and memory making fun is behind us already.  Please join me for part three and the last of our adventures in San Francisco. 

San Francisco has art installations all over the city.  Just outside of the Ferry Building was a huge polar bear and this bow and arrow in front of the Oakland Bay Bridge reminds me of the Legend of Zelda hero, Link.