Day 4 - San Francisco and a lot of stairs

3rd August 2019

After a very comfortable night’s sleep and amazing showers all round, we made our way to Pat’s Cafe, one block from our hotel. A really nice cafe run by Pat, who I think is about 200 years old, and her merry group of lovely looking Mexican men. Great coffee, and eggs for the boys, whilst I had a pancake with peanut butter chocolate pieces in. Yummy.

We walked back to the hotel, and collected our bags for the day and walked to Coit Tower. It is only a fifteen minute walk from us, but uphill (it is a tower on a hill after all).

The Coit Tower, I think, is maybe somewhere that wouldn’t be on the top of the list of things you must do when in San Francisco, and we missed it off out itinerary last visit. Hence visiting today. It looks a little like a flask from the distance. We reached the top of Telegraph Hill and queued for a ticket, and within half an hour we were in the lift going to the top.

Coit Tower, a fluted, reinforced concrete column, rises 212 feet above Telegraph Hill. Contrary to popular belief, it was never intended to resemble a fire-hose nozzle. It cost $125,000 to build and it was completed in 1933.

Coit Tower was built solely as a monument to the legacy of Lillie Hitchcock Coit who left a $125,000 bequest to San Francisco to be spent “for the purpose of adding beauty to the city which I have always loved”. Well ahead of her times, Lillie often dressed as a man to gamble in North Beach saloons, smoked cigars, publicly ice-skated in shortened skirts, and was even discovered by her husband on a men’s camping trip. Today she is best known for her lifelong passion for firefighting. After becoming a mascot to the Knickerbocker Hose Company #5 in 1863, she rarely missed a blaze. Coit Tower is the tangible result of her flamboyant love affair with the city.

The area that visitors queue in to wait for the lift is decorated with large murals depicting the various trades of the people of San Francisco and are lovely to look at whilst waiting in line.

Up in the art deco lift, and we stepped out into a small enclosed area, with windows, and the most amazing views across the bay and downtown. The tower is not too high, but the hill it’s on is, so the views are pretty good!

After half an hour of willing the fog to clear so we could see Golden Gate, we admitted defeat and made our way down the tower and along to the bus stop. We caught bus 30 to Powell (the main hub for MUNI - the SF railway). The bus was FULL of Chinese people - it was packed and we were literally the only non-Chinese on it. We passed through China Town, and the area was heaving. Shoppers, church goers, families - all milling around. We pushed our way through to get off, and then caught an ‘N’ train in the direction of Ocean Beach to meet a guide named Greg. Greg was going to take us on a tour around a different area, and his tour was called ‘The Hidden Stairways of San Francisco’. We met him, and the rest of our group on the steps of St Anne’s Church, which was on the west of SF.

Greg was originally from Ireland, and moved to SF 25 years ago, and after working in radio for all that time, he took redundancy and set up this walking tour. Such a nice chap.

He took us first to the tiled staircase - the Hidden Garden Steps.

Interestingly, the way this part of SF is set out is quite clever. From the beach in the west, the streets are called ‘avenues’ and run from 48th Avenue on the west coast to 2nd Avenue (there is no 1st) to the east which finish at the corner of Golden Gate Park. Running from North to South, the roads are in alphabetical order - Anza Street in the North, down to Yorba Street in the South (no Z). If the stairs run across the street, they make up part of the street. So if 16th crosses Kirkham and Judah, and the steps are the link between the two roads, then they are also on a map as 16th - which makes it very confusing for drivers!

Most of the stairs are made up of 5-6 flights and are grey concrete, However, the residents of 16th between Kirkham and Lawton decided that their steps were always blighted with graffiti and wanted to do something to combat this. So two of the residents, who were artists, came up with the idea to cover the riser with mosaics. To raise money for the project they asked residents to contribute, and in return they would get an inscription in the tiles. The stairs were completed in 2013. They really are lovely and depict all kinds of nature, mainly that found in California.

At the top of these steps we walked through the neighbourhood and Greg pointed out the many succulents that grow in the area - SF is built mainly on sand, which along with the humidity makes it ideal for these plants to grow.

We came to a second set of tiled steps - the 16th avenue steps. This is the same premise - and finished in 2005. These ones are much better known and were therefore quite busy, but we managed to fight our way through.

They start at the top with the sun, then the moon, and as the steps go down the pictures change from forest, to river. Really beautiful.

We continued walking up until we reached the highest point - Golden Gate Heights Park. You could really see a long way - apart from the fog.

Let’s talk about that blooming fog. Known as Karl The Fog. It is foggy in SF ALL THE TIME! It is caused when the cold wind off the Pacific Ocean hits the heat of inland California. As the hot inland air rises, the cool ocean breeze of the Pacific replaces it, creating the fog effect. This flow of air to the low-pressure zone over Northern California's Central Valley pulls the fog through the Golden Gate passage and into San Francisco Bay, where it gets kind of trapped.

And the fog clears, and then two minutes later it is back!

As we left this area, Greg said he knew of a house for sale that we could go into, as he knows the seller. The house was on the market for USD 1.1 million. One bedroom. We went in; the house was tiny. The kitchen and bathroom were also tiny and had not been touched since the 1930s. Then there was a living room, bathroom and loft room. Guess you pay for the views!

We left here and walked down (phew) some steps and walked south to an area called Forest Hill. Forest Hill was (and still partly is) a home owners association - meaning that the owners decide the rules, including who can and can’t live there. It was built in 1912. It is now partly maintained by the City, meaning it’s rule banning African Americans has now been abolished. The houses were STUNNING. This is real millionaires’ territory here.

The area even smelled amazing.

All the time we were climbing up more staircases and along new streets, we never would have known these roads existed if it hadn’t been for the tour.

Lots of walking and three and a half hours of learning all about this part of SF - Golden Gate Heights, Forest Hill and the Sunset District. Greg was a truly excellent guide.

Just time for a coffee and doughnut before taking the N line back to Powell, a little shop for some provisions, and back on the bus for a little relaxing in the hotel.

For dinner we went to Luisa’s - a local Italian restaurant. Luisa came and sat with us whilst we ordered - she is 90 years old and still making her own gnocchi! She’s been up since 6am. What a character! So a lovely meal to reward us for a jam packed day. Packing up in the morning and off we go to Santa Rosa.

Bye bye SF !

PS - we haven’t seen ‘The bridge’ at all. Completely covered in fog - but tomorrow we will cross it by car.