California – the final part!

San Francisco

I was very excited to be approaching San Francisco because, as anyone who has ever worked with me will know, when I am bored I like to play games and when we played that game asking where and when you would have liked to have lived in the past, I always said San Francisco in the late 1960s/early 1970s (a bit like Jenny in Forrest Gump).

Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying that I thought I might have an affinity with San Francisco.

And I liked it a lot, but I didn’t LOVE it the way I loved other bits of California. And I suspect it’s a bit like meeting a pen-friend who you’ve been reading about and corresponding with and you’ve got a romantic idea about them, but when you meet them you just like them loads and wot not, but you’re never going to totally fall in love, though you’ll definitely see each other again.

Like that.

Stunning skyline of San Fran

The hippie/vintage bits rocked, I loved the boat rides to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, the Crookedest Street was cool, the culture and music and books and art were funky, Chinatown was amazing, the trams were fun and all that….but, you know what it is with me…..it was too effing cold! When the sun did come out it was great, but places always look and feel better in the sun, I think.

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Chinatown

The Crookedest Street

It’s so cold that people in San Francisco were wearing REAL clothes like shoes and jeans and hoodies and tights in the daytime. For real! That doesn’t happen anywhere else in California!! I can’t live here in August! (Okay, I hear it is one of the coldest months 😉 ). And it’s windy. Advice for San Fran: don’t wear a mini-skirt. (Still, good excuse to go clothes shopping!)

But, there was an intriguing vibe to San Francisco, and to be honest, after the nature and beauty of some of the mountains, desert and coastline we’d driven trough it was a bit of a shock to the system and my sensibilities. So, I want to go back to San Francisco (sans enfant, I think) and experience it again and dig a little deeper and go off the tourist track, because I know there is a bit there for me to feel right at home.

Hope you enjoyed the California Roadtrip blog series! It was a trip of a lifetime 🙂 .

Don’t forget you can vote for my blog by going here and scrolling to no. 56 and voting for me in the Best of Howard County polls.

We’re off to New Orleans this weekend, so expect some Bourbon Street blog stuff coming your way shortly! 😉