San Francisco!! We had just about one day here, maybe day and a half – and in unabashed tourist mode, Manasi had a list, and we were determined to check off everything on it!! We started by driving through the North Beach area to Telegraph Hill, admiring the gleaming buildings of downtown SF, including the TransAmerica Pyramid, the Salesforce buildings and the colorful streets of Chinatown. I had the perfect itinerary for a walking tour of San Francisco – thank you, Coleman Concierge ! – and first order of the day was to find a parking spot! Street parking is available, if you’re luck to find a spot – but there are several parking garages scattered in the vicinity of downtown area. Rates vary between $30 – $50 for 12 hours, or starting from $5/hour – but read the fine print – some garages don’t offer hourly rates! Best option for us, always, is Spot Hero – parking garage near our first destination, $18 for the day. Walked up to Telegraph Hill and then the steps to Coit Tower – the San Francisco uphill streets testing our ‘Nepal Flat’ trained legs!! The ‘No-Towers’ ban is still in place, so we walked around the base of Coit Tower – spectacular views of the Bay, and glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance!

From Coit Tower, it was the Greenwich steps down to the Embarcadero and the piers. It was such a lovely walk – hadn’t realized that we were walking though an actual neighborhood – with houses built on different levels, lush gardens in full bloom, even a cozy little ‘reading park’ tucked away on one side. Each house unique, with eye-catching architecture and landscaping – but imagine carrying up groceries up all these steps!! Our meandering walk took us right down to the pier where the cruises to Alcatraz leave. Now, at Chicago airport, Ajey had struck up conversation with a gentleman who grew up in San Francisco. And he convinced Ajey that the best, possibly only, place worth visiting was Alcatraz! And here we were, right by the departure – next cruise to leave in 30 minutes, tickets available, all set for Alcatraz – except for one thing. This was the absolute last thing on my list – why, you will ask? Well, it’s a prison, why tour a prison? No really, can you imagine the negative energy? Manasi had the most sensible argument though – it was almost 1pm, going on the cruise would mean not only skipping lunch, but giving up on the rest of our walking itinerary. So we kept going, deciding to come back later.

Next stop – Fishermen’s Wharf and Pier 39, to see the famous sea lions!! Pier 39 had totally festive atmosphere – starting with the colorful statues of sea-lions out by the aquarium! Tons of cool restaurants and intriguing little shops – including one that sold only little duckies – of course, we had to buy a cute little red duck with a guitar to add to Manasi’s Jeep dashboard collection! The old-fashioned carousel right in the middle completed the vibe!! We could have easily spent the whole day browsing here, trying the different delicacies on offer – settled for a quick fish and chips break, while admiring the colorful tulips in full bloom! The end of the pier was a beautiful spot to take pictures – the glorious California sun (although it was a tad chilly!), the serene ocean, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background – perfect!! And then the sea lions – just piled together on the docks – their barks mingling with the cries of the gulls! It was so much fun to watch their antics – lumbering along the ground, to absolute elegance in the water!! And then onto Fisherman’s Wharf to enjoy a delicious crab chowder in a sourdough bowl – another San Francisco must-try!!

Another totally touristy thing in San Francisco – ride on a tram! We checked this off the list by taking the tram one block to get us closer to Ghirardelli Square! Pegging us immediately as tourists, the driver even waived the fare when we didn’t have the right change! As we walked towards Ghirardelli Square, I was on the lookout for a street sign – Leavenworth Street! – which would take us to the section of Lombard Street known as ‘Crooked Street’. Now this was a bit of a haul – 3 blocks straight up a steep, steep hill – and after that effort, getting there was like, so we’re here, what next? Well, I guess we got our photo – but the famous 8 sharp switchbacks were kind of hard to see from the base of Russian Hill – it would have probably been much more fun to drive down! I’m sure the residents of the very posh houses lining Crooked Street are not too happy about the throngs of tourists here!! Ghirardelli Square and the Chocolate Experience was a short walk – thankfully downhill now – and although crowded, we were able to sit back and enjoy an irresistible chocolate fudge sundae!! Good thing we shared one between the three of us – that sundae was monstrously huge!!

Now all day long, we had been seeing – hold onto your hats here – DRIVERLESS taxis!! This truly had to be the most incredible sight of the day – and we had been waiting for an opportunity to try this cool transport!! Choices, choices – keep walking towards the Presidio and Golden Gate, or put our faith in these robot-driven taxis! Well one choice was ‘way-mo’ fun than the other – so here we go, downloaded the Waymo app, and ordered us a ride from the future! Incredible vehicles these – sleek Jaguar sedans, bristling with cameras and sensors – cruising the streets with absolute panache!! The taxi pulled up, an ‘Unlock’ notification popped up on the phone, and when the doors opened, we were welcomed inside by dulcet tones – and we were off! It was strange, very strange – we could see what the car was ‘seeing’ – traffic behind us, and oncoming, pedestrians, bicycles, even other Waymos on the display screen. The car drove itself with a very human-like flamboyance, making sweeping turns, changing lanes with dexterity, and with a final flourish, smoothly pulling over to the curb when we reached our destination. A thrilling, exhilarating ride for sure – grudging admiration from me for AI!!

Our friendly little Jaguar robot had dropped us off at the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center. We made our way to the bridge – some really interesting exhibits here, including a cross section of a ‘cable’ used in the bridge – and all kinds of statistics about the bridge. The winds were pretty high, whipping the bay below us into a frothy foam, and we could see a trail winding down to to a beach right under the bridge – but the coolest part, of course, is to actually walk on the bridge and experience its magnificence up-close! It was a perfect day, even with the wind – blue skies, scudding white clouds reflected in the blue waters of the bay and the graceful span of the Golden Gate Bridge – must have taken a million pictures!! I did get a touch of vertigo on the bridge – it’s high, so high – and have to admit, a little scary, with all the vehicles thundering away, and the slightest sway – maybe biking would have been better? Something for the next visit…

The Painted Ladies were next on the list – a little bit off our walking track. This time we decided to take SF’s public transport – a bus waiting right at the Visitor Center. You know, I use Google Maps so much when we travel, I mean, we all do, right? – but the public transport feature, especially when navigating a new city is priceless! So two buses later, we were a short walk away from Alamo Square Park – and the street either the beautiful Victorian houses, also known as Painted Ladies! These stately homes are a throwback to the 19th century, built in the distinctive Queen Anne style of architecture. To be honest, all the houses in this neighborhood were so, so beautiful – their old-world charm and colorful exteriors in perfect harmony with the spring blossoms! But these Seven Sisters are especially famous – having made their way into several movies and of course, the iconic title video from the series Full House! It was a little too chilly to enjoy the beautiful park, but it’s a truly lovely spot to spend the evening!

We’re at the very end of Manasi’s list – one last thing – Sunset at Golden Gate. Instead of braving the public transport again, we decided to get our car and then drive back to the bridge. No Waymo here – just an ordinary Uber to bring us back to our North Beach parking lot. There was a bit of debate about the best location for the sunset viewing – I thought it would be spectacular to see the sun setting into the sea behind the Golden Gate Bridge – but clearly the the sun would disappear behind the bluffs long before the actual sunset, so we went with Manasi’s location – to drive to the west of the bridge to Ocean Beach – sunset on one side, Bridge on the other. We never did get to Ocean Beach, but we accidentally made it to an even better location – Golden Gate Overlook! The wind had picked up by then, and it was getting to be teeth-chatteringly cold – but this was the absolute money shot of the trip – the Golden Gate Bridge perfectly framed between twin cypress trees!! A perfect ending to a perfect day in San Francisco!!

It had been a long, long day – and we had checked off everything on Manasi’s list!! So started with Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower, Greenwich Steps to the Embarcadero, Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, a little detour to Crooked Street, Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gate Bridge, Painted Ladies, and finally, Golden Gate Overlook! Whew – racked up close to 18,000 steps, and most of them uphill!! And of course, the unforgettable Waymo ride – which was truly the highlight of the day!! The California sunshine played hide-and-seek with us all day long, and for some reason, 60degF here felt way colder than the same temperature back home in Illinois – must be those chill Pacific winds!! Nevertheless, it did feel like we’re walking on sunshine all day long!!

Coming up next – California Dreamin’ – the rest of our Spring Break in sunny California!!