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San Francisco - Union Square
San Francisco is a tourist's delight for those seeking a mixture of old and new. One of the best examples of that contrast is Union Square.
Built in 1847, the square was designated from the outset as a public plaza. A $25 million renovation, completed in 2002, has brought the area to its current high point.
Continue reading San Francisco - The West Coast Jewel
From its magnificent bayside vistas to the intimate cafes, San Francisco offers a visit par excellence.
Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge may be the city's two most well known attractions - and well deserving of their reputations - but the city at the lower edge of Northern California offers much more.
Rides on the famed cable cars may not be the fastest way to get around (they never go more than 10 miles per hour), but they are one of the most fun. Up and down the steep hills near Pier 39 and through Union Square, they provide a wonderful glance back at history while seeing the latest sights.
Continue reading San Francisco - The Science and Nature Experience
EXPLORATORIUM
Founded by Frank Oppenheimer, the brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer and himself a physicist, the Exploratorium contains over 650 exhibits that can't be properly described - they have to be experienced.
Almost all are interactive and hands-on. There's the Tactile Dome, where you make your way along a dark maze entirely by feeling the walls made of various textures. There's a small 'experiment' in which you can find out what a tornado is like by feeling it. But far from focusing only on touch, this unusual 'museum' excites all the senses and the mind.
Continue reading San Francisco - Haight Ashbury
Chinatown isn't San Francisco's only culturally distinct neighborhood. From an area uptown near the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets sprawls "The Haight". Several blocks of record shops, restaurants, antique stores and more, it still bears the look and feel of the mid-60s 'Hippie Revolution'.
Parts of The Haight have changed little since 1967 and the Summer of Love. The restaurant names have changed and there are now tours where once there was just wandering. But if you're looking for an original Jefferson Airplane or Grateful Dead album on vinyl, this is the place to come.
Continue reading San Francisco - Golden Gate Park
At over 1,000 acres Golden Gate Park is larger than Central Park in Manhattan. And, no less impressive too!
In one of the busiest cities anywhere, visitors can enjoy archery, basketball, biking, skating and a host of other activities. There are tennis courts, a golf course, even flycasting pools.
Or you can take a break from all the hustle and bustle and simply relax and enjoy viewing the many sculptures, bridges and flowers and let the dogs do all the running around.
Continue reading San Francisco - The Golden Gate Bridge
In 1937, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House. That simple action officially announced an event much of the world was already anticipating: the opening of The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. After four years of construction and a cost of millions of dollars and many lives, one of the world's greatest bridges had been born.
With a span of 4,200 feet (1280m), a record that stood for 27 years, and two 746 ft (227m) towers the six lane bridge crosses the Golden Gate strait in San Francisco Bay. The span record lasted until the completion of the Verrazano Narrows bridge connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island in 1964 and is still disputed owing to differences in the way measurements are made.
Continue reading San Francisco - Fisherman's Wharf
One of the most popular tourist destinations in San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf alone has enough to see and do to consume the entire vacation.
The area is one of the stopping points of the famous cable car rides and houses a Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39, the USS Pampanito Submarine Museum and gobs of other attractions.
Continue reading San Francisco - Chinatown
There are over six million people in the San Francisco area, with 750,000 in the Bay Area itself. Nestled within that vast sea of individuals is a conclave known around the world as Chinatown. Most large U.S. cities (and many outside) have a 'Chinatown'. But, including even New York, the most authentic is unquestionably that of San Francisco.
In an area near North Beach, bound roughly by Grant Avenue and Bush Street, Broadway and Larkin Street, lies a population of the ancestors of 19th century immigrants from China. They arrived literally by the boatload, seeking freedom and fortune during the post-1849 Gold Rush and the building of the Transcontinental Railroads.
Continue reading San Francisco - Cable Cars, Old and New
San Francisco is, intentionally no doubt, one of the most eccentric and mixed metropoli on the planet. The town is heavily populated with residents strongly opposed to anything commercial.
Yet, it is also home to corporate headquarters of one of the world's largest banks (Bank of America) and several other mega-companies. Nowhere is this split personality more evident than, in of all places, the city's popular Cable Car rides.
Continue reading San Francisco - Aquariums of San Francisco
Visitors to San Francisco have a choice of three major options when seeking an aquarium. Fortunately, there's no way to go wrong - all three are terrific.
Aquarium by the Bay
The Aquarium by the Bay, first opened in 1996, houses dozens of exhibits holding thousands of animals. There are hundreds of interesting species on display - everything from nearly invisible sea horses to all too visible sharks.
Continue reading San Francisco - Alcatraz
For a structure that served the purpose that made it famous for less than 30 years, Alcatraz is an enduring monument to a bygone era.
By the time it first came into use as a U.S. Federal Penitentiary in 1934 prohibition had already ended. (Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to outlaw the sale of alcoholic beverages was passed in January 1919, but repealed in December 1933.) Nonetheless, Alcatraz' most famous figure from that activity, Al Capone, took up 'residence' from 1934 to 1939, when he was released.
Arriving not long after Capone's release was another prisoner, almost as well known. Robert Stroud was transferred from Leavenworth in 1942. Nicknamed the 'Birdman of Alcatraz', he wrote several books both before and during his incarceration. (The nickname was popularized by a best-selling book and subsequent film.) Ironically, he kept no birds at Alcatraz.
Continue reading San Francisco - The Art Experience at The Legion of Honor
The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is an art experience inside and out. Housing a fine collection, the museum is located on a stellar site with breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay.
Re-opened in 1995 after a two-year, $35 million renovation, even the building itself is a work of art. Inside there are over 4,000 years of art, including paintings, sculptures and ceramics mostly of European style.
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