After Fresno, we had a lot of choices of a follow up hotel, as we were heading to San Francisco.
I checked a lot of places across the web for advice including the usual suspects. It became apparent that because most visitors don’t have access to a car in SF, the cost of hotels is high.
However, we have a car, so we aren’t restricted by other people’s limitations. Livermore looked like a good place to stay and I reckoned we could drive round the coast through Silicon Valley. The kids would get to see the home of Apple, Facebook and all the other companies that may influence their future.
This was badly wrong for two reasons.
- For you Brits, driving through Silicon Valley is just like driving through their UK equivalents Slough, Bracknell and Reading! Not exactly a dream journey huh.
- The traffic is bad.
Combine these two and we had the perfect way to waste 3 hours in San Francisco and I mean WASTE 3 HOURS. It was rather boring.
We stopped for a bite to eat and I asked in Olive Garden if anyone knew where Facebook were based. The lady at reception asked a few other staff and also a guy who was delivering stuff. One said “What, Facebook are based near here?”, the delivery guy said, “Er, I think they might be, but I have no idea where”
It looks like I may have been wrong because they are based in Menlo Park, but even so, it isn’t that far away.
We ended up in San Francisco by around midday and began the cross city journey to the Fisherman’s Wharf area.
After a while of driving into what looked like a port area, we switched off the navigation and played it by ear. This brought us to a car park on the edge of the water. We park and tried to find a parking meter, but there didn’t appear to be one. There were some vague instructions about not parking, but we realised this was overnight.
If we were stood in a big square, on one side we had mist rolling off the mountains, another the Golden Gate Bridge, shrouded in fog, a third side was Alcatraz and finally, the city. That was pretty cool.
A walk up to Fort Mason and we chanced on Off the Grid which is a “roaming mobile food extravaganza”. This was like a gourmet, funky food and drink festival and is highly recommended. I bought a pork burger and it was awesome. All of the vendors were using Square and other payment systems, which underlines another revolution taking place to replace cash in our pockets.
Once we had eaten and drank, and grabbed some free Gummi Bears, we headed through the park to Fisherman’s Wharf. Alias Disneyland San Francisco. Well, not really, but it is quite ‘touristy’.
You can see all manner of delights. Take a trip to Alcatraz – as long as you book well in advance.
You can see the Bourdin bakery and Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Or take a trip across the city in the famous cable cars.
One highlight has to be the Waxwork museum. Now I am not sure if it is just me or some of the waxworks do not closely resemble their twins?
For a start off, if that is supposed to be Bill Clinton, it looks like he died a few years ago and they wheeled out his corpse. Brad Pitt looks like Jeff Bridges and I couldn’t name ANY of the others.