Peter, with so much to discover and enjoy, you might as well start planning the next visit to the area.
Les
Peter, with so much to discover and enjoy, you might as well start planning the next visit to the area.
Les
Places to visit depends on interest.
Grew up and once lived in San Francisco. During the 1990's it was Photography central in ways only a city like SF can be. This shaped and formed my many views, opinions, knowledge and wisdom about image making due to the sheer number of photographers, Artist and museums so easily available to folks who lives in SF. That said, much of the once thriving photo district is mostly gone today. What remains are museums like the DeYoung, Legion of Honor.
The commercialized version of the Exploratorium, Trying to be Monterey Bay Aquarium "Academy of Sciences", Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Cartoon Museum and more.
Chinatown remains a Ghetto of the poor and over population mixed with tourist trap gift shops and "Chinese food tuned for tourist". There are a number of very interesting stair ways in SF, good things to see and do in the Presidio (Disney museum, museum of torture, Japanese Intelligence museum, Chrissy field and more.. The presidio is parked by Golden Gate Bridge.
https://www.presidio.gov/visit
Essentially decided where to visit then move on from SF directly over the hill to Coastside to HWY: 1.
Know property crime in San Francisco is ranked number one in the Nation, then there are the homeless. Not going to sugar coat any reality of what SF has become, this is more or less a caution of what to expect and know before visiting SF. Traffic is can be and is often horrific and the streets are in horrid shape with next to zero parking. Do use the parking lots when possible as the parking NAZI's are totally unforgiving and the parking meters are bank busting in many ways.
View of SF from Twin Peaks.
MUCH better Chinese food is found in San Mateo south of San Francisco. I'll suggest if interested.
Part one...
Bernice
Start your drive to Monetary by going from SFO to 380W to 280N to Sharp Park road which takes your vehicle over to HWY 1, into Pacifica on Coastside. Traffic can be horrific during rush hour, DO check the various on-line real time traffic maps for how stuck you and your vehicle might be. This time laps Google maps overlay is from 2016, while old traffic has not improved and can be worst now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Bx0ygwBxo
The scenic drive of HWY 1 is legendary once past Pacifica. Stop by Devils Side trail, this once was the notorious section of HWY 1 that failed often due to being pinned between the Granite of Montara mountain and the sandstone of the Linda Mar-Pacifica side of the hill.
Once past Devils Side, enter the tiny town of Montara.
Montara is known for it's Lighthouse:
Beach:
There is a network of hiking trails between Linda Mar and Montara Mountain.
https://parks.smcgov.org/montara-mountain-trail
Rural way of life so removed from SF and the other side of the Hill.
Part two...
Bernice
Avoid Muir Woods like the plague. If you drive there you need a parking reservation months in advance. Otherwise you wait in a long line and take a slow shuttle to join the herds. There are no old growth redwoods left there like there are in Big Basin. A pretty spot for a cold rainy day perhaps, but there plenty of nearby options without the crowds, albeit requiring a bit of hiking. You can even find solitude directly across Redwood Creek from Muir Woods. Same with Marin Headlands. Everybody goes to the same few spots to oogle at the GG Bridge while cussing at one another for mere elbow room and double parking. There are wonderfully photogenic shoreline walks nearby with just a few people. A big word of caution, however. Car break-ins are now a plague in tourist areas in and around SF, mostly unattended parked cars, but increasingly including some violent encounters. Don't leave anything of value in a car. The big parking lots at Marin Headlands are also a frequent target. I've never personally had an incident because I drive a dirty dented truck. But a fellow who murdered three tourists up on Twin Peaks overlook in SF just to take their SUV got away to this side of the Bay. Then a couple weeks later the stolen vehicle was spotted at a gas station in my neighborhood, with a resultant car chase right down my street, right across my front lawn, and then a 3 hr armed standoff right there on my lawn before he finally surrendered. I saw the whole thing! - carefully through a window of course. But more incidents atop Twin Peaks have occurred since; and in years past it's where certain Chinatown gang wars got settled. The other very common crime in SF is purse snatching. But compared to many cities, the tourist areas of SF are otherwise relatively safe. Read the fine print on parking meters.
Makes me wonder why I live here 8-)
Know some local cops or read the police reports for ANY of these cities and you'll realize that only a tiny fraction of the crimes reach the news. No different in rural areas, maybe worse, depending. Common sense is valid everywhere. Most tourists don't even know SF has some truly rough neighborhoods because they never go there. There is even a bad section of Monterey; but it doesn't look like the postcards either.
Last edited by Drew Wiley; 24-Jul-2019 at 15:15.
If you are in the Monterey area do not overlook the Pinnacles which are an hour inland ( west gate). It is landscape that looks as if Dr. Seuss designed it. There are some very nice hiking trails. The only downside is that it will be very hot at this time.
Of course you need to go to Carmel to the Weston and Photography West galleries which work by all the luminaries.
Sam McDonald Park in San Mateo County has good redwoods, including a few old growth, and hardly anyone visits, but it's likely quite out of the way, unless the OP wants to take a very leisurely meander down Hwy 1: https://parks.smcgov.org/sam-mcdonald-park
There's also Purisima Creek Redwoods, also in San Mateo County, which is easier to get to from Half Moon Bay: https://www.openspace.org/preserves/...creek-redwoods
There are two parking areas, one that you get to via Hwy 1 (which I'd recommend, it's the "limited parking" option on the map) and the other that you get to via Skyline Blvd (Hwy 35): https://www.openspace.org/sites/defa...es/map_PCR.pdf
I think you mean the De Young museum in SF. The De Young and Legion of Honor constitute the Fine Arts Museums of SF, so one admission is good for both in one day if you have the time and stamina: https://www.famsf.org
At Stanford, where I work, it's the Cantor Museum and Anderson Collection next door. They're free, and open every day except Tuesday. https://museum.stanford.edu and https://anderson.stanford.edu
The golden spike is at the Cantor, if you're into railroad history.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drew_saunders/
“The golden spike is at the Cantor, if you're into railroad history.”
Because of Leland Stanford?
Leland Stanford was a Lawyer, Robber Baron and Railroad tycoon. Married to Jane. They had a son Leland Stanford Jr. who died at age 15. Both were so distraught over the death of their sone, in memory of their son, Stanford University is named after their son. It should be know that Stanford Uni was considered a nothing back when it began about 1885. During the WW-II effort their engineering department got about $50K for US military work which was tiny compared to MIT, Brown and similar East Coast Universities of that era. Fred Terman was determined to alter that and set about poaching technical and scientific talent from MIT, Brown and other notable East Coast universities. It was their partnership with the Varian brothers that made one of the first significant technology contributions to what became Silly Valley (Silicon Valley). There are others like Bill & Dave ....
Bernice
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