jaunthie | Some San Francisco Thoughts

This trip was the first time I'd ever visited San Francisco as a destination in and of itself, as opposed to somewhere I was travelling for a wedding or other event. Overall I found I really liked the city, although being surrounded again by California drivers brought home to me what a higher percentage of truly AWFUL drivers there are in California. I'd thought I'd remembered, but I found I'd either forgotten, or retroactively decided that I must have been over-harsh in my original judgments. I can now confidently say that no, they really are as bad as I had originally thought. Yes, I'm sure the average driver in California is just as good (if not better) than the average driver anywhere, but oh BOY do they have an over-abundance of idiots!

Some other San Francisco thoughts:

It was odd to be back in summer again. I was expecting San Francisco's weather and temperature to be about the same as home, but it wasn't. I learned later that it was unusually warm - about 10 degrees above normal - but that September and October are San Francisco's summer. Good to know.

I loved the San Francisco architecture. The jumble of styles all crammed together is amazingly charming. I also loved the geography; all those hills really felt like home.

The public transportation networks (yes, plural) are amazing. The cable cars are iconic, of course, but the interlocking busing systems were even more impressive. The light rail system was also really impressive, particularly given the number of all-way stops in the city. The trains stop at the all-way stops just like the cars are supposed to, which rather boggled my mind the first time I saw it. And best of all, ALL of the public transit systems (cable cars, bus systems, rail) are available on a single pass. The only exception is the BART, which is understandable. Why can't we retrofit some cable cars on Seattle hills and integrate buses and light rail the way they have? After seeing San Francisco, I can't believe it's anything other than a lack of political will on my city's part. Certainly they have as many if not more of the same geographical and logistical problems as we do, but they made it work.

However, the grime level of downtown San Francisco was very surprising. The downtown core is GRUNGY, and the sidewalks in particular are just disgusting - easily as filthy as anything I ever saw in Milan or Manhattan. I was really surprised by that.

That being said, I really liked staying in the downtown core. It was easy to walk everywhere, there were tons of little shops and stands and bodegas and galleries, and lots and lots of people and things to see and admire. It really reminded me strongly of Manhattan.

In our rambles, we walked by the Ritz-Carlton, and I was amused to see that the doormen there still wear top hats and tails.

Chinatown was immense, and lots of it was really touristy, but there was definitely a core area that was Chinatown for Chinese, not Chinatown for tourists, which was good to see.

We really lucked out on the gallery shows. We managed to catch a big Chegall show, an Impressionists show (Renoir, Whistler, Manet, all four generations of Pisarros, Mary Cassatt, plus some non-Impressionists like Dali, Miro, and Picasso), several modern shows, and a ton of photography shows, including one that opened that day from one of Will's favorite photographers (Mona Kun) and one with rare prints from one of my favorites (Imogen Cunningham). It was fabulous to be able to just walk around, hit gallery after gallery, and wallow in art.

And then of course the reason we were there - visiting with Prince, MediaGirl, and their daughters AprilShowers and The Twinsies. We'd never met the girls or visited the family in their current house, so it was great to get that chance. They have a wonderful house, a great neighborhood, and three beautiful little girls who keep them very, very busy. It was fantastic to be able to spend time with all of them.