Exploring San Francisco and surrounds

Thursday, July 31st, 2014 at 11:23am

While right now I am killing time at LAX, for the past six days I have been exploring San Francisco and some surrounding areas.

After arriving in San Francisco from Portland my first stop was the accommodation at Fort Mason, but I immediately headed to the nearby FedEx store to pickup the lens that I had rented. There was a short wait, but I then had the lens, it was interesting to see how it was double boxed, the inner box being used with the provided shipping label to return the lens.

There wasn’t much left in the day so I went in search of some dinner and some initial exploring to confirm that I could look out towards Alcatraz, see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance and was not far from the Waterfront area:

From the waterfront No more trains In the distance

The next day I woke up early and headed out immediately for some interesting light:

Curved Morning light Morning ride

After a quick breakfast I headed out properly, which was to start walking north until I got to the Golden Gate Bridge, crossed over and then continued on to Sausalito. Unfortunately I had developed some blisters, so I caught a ferry, tram and bus back to the accommodation where I spent the rest of the day giving my feet a rest.

Long span Not the original view Saturday traffic Longer than it looks

The next day turned out to to be the San Francisco Marathon which ran right by the acommodation. As I was still resting my feet, by the time I went out in the afternoon it was over and packing up was well underway. I headed east, towards Lombard Street and Coit Tower:

Apartments That street On the hill Rising above Connections Chrome

While planning this trip I was given a tip about booking the Alcatraz tour well in advance, the possibility of ending up with bad weather vastly outweighing actually having a booking.

Water Industries 23 Empty kitchen From the yard

After a couple of hours I seemed to have covered the entire island, so caught the ferry back and headed towards Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf:

Tram Various ages Backwards Entertainment Train loading

I had wanted to head out to Muir Woods and Marin Headlands but the buses weren’t going to work for me, so for the second half of my stay I hired a car (via a very good deal through the accommodation) so I could get out there. My first stop being Muir Woods followed by some views over the fog covering the city:

Curving up Vertical Tall Fog over the city

My visit to Marin Headlands was disrupted because areas were closed due to filming of what turned out to be Terminator Genisys. I also was there on the wrong day for access (go on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays from 12:30pm to 3:30pm) to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, so after some shots of the Golden Gate from this side I headed up to Twin Peaks and Sutro Tower.

City behind Closed Driving across Missing the tops Sutro

The following day I headed south down the coast, but first scouting views of the new Bay Bridge from Treasure Island for my return at sunset:

Deconstruction Towards downtown Eroded Tower West

For my final half day I headed over the Oakland and Alameda, getting a few dock related shots:

Port View Park Downtown behind Evergreen Hangar Driving across Red paint

This completes my first trip to the United States, unfortunately there were lots of places I didn’t get to plus more that have been added to the list…

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