Ann vs. Jason

By Jason

Ryan and Laura came by about a week ago and we gave them our world-famous, patented tour of the Bay Area.  By which I mean we took the opportunity to go a few places we’ve never been before.

On Saturday we went to San Francisco.  We didn’t have a lot of specific plans, just a list of a few things we’d like to do.  We ended up wandering through Chinatown and eating at a Thai restaurant there.

Next we walked up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, which has great views of the bay, the bridges, and downtown.  It’s really worth going to, the neighborhood around the tower is built up and down the hillsides with a few parks put in place where the grade is too steep for cars.

From there we decided to walk down to the waterfront and see if we could catch a ferry or take a quick tour of the bay.   This was also definitely worth it, though Fisherman’s wharf is a bit too crowded and touristy.  The boat went out past the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, with a corny prerecorded “Captain Nemo” narrator.  It’s funny, but he didn’t sound Indian to me.

We took a cable car back up the hill toward Chinatown.  Cable cars are really fascinating, they’re pulled by cables running under the street and have to be turned around by had at the bottom the the hill.

Finally we took a brief walk down Valencia Street in The Mission.  There are some interesting shops and restaurants there, but it’s not really a major destination in and of itself.  We met up with Ahan and Julie for dinner at an Indian restaurant.  Everyone was fascinated by the Bollywood music videos projected on the wall.

You can see more photos on my Flickr page.

I’ll write about our next trip, to Portola Redwoods State Park, a little later.

Last week we took a quick trip up to San Bruno Mountain State Park near San Francisco. We really just wanted to get out of the house a bit, do a little walking, and see some sites.

This wasn’t really our first excursion. We drove out to Sacramento last Wednesday (our first full day in California) so Ann could get her nursing license for the state but were thwarted in our attempts to do any siteseeing. We tried driving up Mount Diablo but the cold, rainy weather and fog at the top of the mountain cut that trip short.

Although it was still pretty chilly, San Bruno Mountain was a great idea because it’s not too far away, it’s very accessible (you can drive right to the top), and it has great views of San Francisco in every direction. Below are a bunch of photos from the trip, you can click on each one to see a larger version at Flickr. You can also go directly to the whole photo set.

Here’s Ann with San Francisco in the distance:

Can you tell it was windy?

Ann’s waiting at the car while I walk up the last few yards to the summit. That’s South San Francisco and the bay in the background.

Here’s the view of the San Francisco skyline from the top of the mountain:

Ann was not enthusiastic about encountering a mountain lion:

The flora round the Bay Area is really interesting. Here on the mountain you see trees and confiers like you would expect at a higher altitude…

But the turn around and things are looking a bit more tropical:

Even in January there were flowers growing on the hillsides.

This was near a small camping area. I emailed the park service to see if we can get reservations to camp there some time. The next few pictures, with probably the best views, were just a short walk from the camp.

You can probably guess why I’d like to camp there. Even though it’s surrounded by the city and suburbs, watching a sunset and seeing the city lit up at night would be great.

-Jason