Tales of San Francisco: News & Views of the City & Getting Around by Walking !! part 4

After we got done with the Ferry Building and the Art Fair, we decided to head to Ghiradelli Square and Fisherman’s Wharf. It was starting to get warm (a bit of a change from the previous day when we did walk around with jackets) but since we decided to start at the top and walk down, we hopped a quick cab from the Hotel Griffin which is just down the street from One California and Boulevard Restaurants in case any foodies want to know what’s hot around there. (There are also 2 other restaurants next door to the hotel – including an awesome Mexican restaurant and smelled great the night before and an Asian place as well as the “in house” restaurant and bar).
Our cabbie was chatty, friendly and had lots of great recommendations and dropped us at Ghiradelli Square right next to the store and the ride cost us less than $10. Worth the $ because it saved us time. Snagging a hot chocolate to go, we walked through the near deserted Ghiradelli building — and I mean no stores. The place is pretty much vacant though they have an astonishingly great wine store there– which would be the reason to go there. We walked out after about 20 minutes of exploring and headed down the street but not before stopping to take some photos.

View of the Golden Gate from the shoreline near Fisherman’s Wharf.
Just by walking down a block or so we saw the tall ship and I had to snap a shot.

Get ready for a lot more photos because we decided after walking past a ton of touristy stores and repeat stores, that we had to just move on– though we did make a pit stop at The Gap for lighter weight clothing since we were both wearing sweaters and it was getting to short sleeve time in some parts of town while others were a bit breezy. ..
So we set off walking up Powell Street and it was both flat and upward climb. It was interesting since it was pretty much residential but also a few occasional storefronts for all sorts of businesses. That dog in the window was ‘really ‘ a doggy in the window as he licked the glass to say hi!
Finally we hit Lombard Street and that was on the map for the Coit Tower. Looking at the street it seemed do-able. (What was I thinking?). We started hiking and the intersections along the way provided welcome rest breaks as the incline increased to about 30 degrees and the views were spectactular

Here’s the marker that we saw quite a bit. It states that Lombard Street is part of the Barbary Coast Trail or walk. It’s really an interesting piece and while I stood there taking my shots of this, I realized that we still had quite a ways to go.

Here are a few more boats on the western bay going up Lombard Street.

Here’s a great Victorian house on Lombard that had an innovative paint/color scheme. It was delicious and it was really a beautiful house.

Coit Tower
Finally getting to the top of the hill which took about 30 minutes of serious walking– and I happen to be in shape, we faced another climb up the steps to the Coit Tower. Thankfully most of it was in shade but the parking lot was jammed as was the interior of the Tower.

So I started to snap photos of the panorama from the top of the steps from the Coit.

This is Alcatraz Island— and a great day to take a photo of it too.

This is a view of Angel Island and the Bay Bridge is to the right..
The homes in the area were really upscale and beautiful and I can’t imagine that they don’t have a great view most days– despite or because of the fog and mists. It would not bore me ever!!

The Bay Bridge going into downtown San Francisco and you can see some of the rooftops of the various urban structures — both residential and business off in the distance.
\While we stood around admiring the view and the homes in the area, we realized we were getting hungry and we had run out of water. So it was time to move on and head down to Washington Square — or anywhere– to find some food. We had a 3 PM ish coffee date with friends at Cafe Trieste in North Beach so I wanted to head in that direction on foot.

Twin Spired Church.
So as we rounded the Coit Tower and headed down the hill on the flip side, we were still getting close to Powell and this was church was what I shot in the welcome shadow of a house because it was about 90 degrees by this time at mid-day.
What inspired me in this shot was that the city is so compact and urban. There isn’t much of unused space– yet the interesting thing is that the monuments really don’t feel crowded. It’s the same at the Presidio, the Palace of Fine Arts and other parks.
More from Washington Square and shopping in North Beach. (yes… more shopping. A girl can shop!!)
Stevie Wilson