A few areas of interest:
Filmore Street - known for it's jazz music, and a collection of boutiques and coffee shops. My preference, of course, were the coffee shops - mostly because everything else was wayyy overpriced ($375 for a shirt??). I managed to wander onto this street (completely by accident - on my way to the Haight-Ashbury area) right around 6 PM, just when a jazz/arts/crafts festival was shutting down. I was sorry to miss out - it looked interesting enough. The remaining people, however, were fun to watch as I walked along the main drag. All sorts were there - hippies, gays, the more affluent types, even a few hobos. That evening, I waited at a bar until my 12:30 am pickup time where I met some interesting folks. Most notably a young person who was interning in the city for the summer and had perhaps the best perception of people that I have come across in quite some time. Very refreshing.
Golden Gate Park - Wow. This place fulfilled every single pre-conceived notion I had of San Fran. Hippies. Harmony. LSD. Even daisies. The best thing, though, I did not expect at all to happen. A friend of mine and I were driving around the park, and I saw a rough little trail that wound up into the trees. I asked him to stop, and we went and explored this little spur. After a few hundred feet, we were stopped by an incredible sight - thousands of little moths fluttering though the air and sitting among the leaves. The most striking element of this experience was the silence, while being surrounded by so much motion. Quite a peaceful moment there. Later, we wandered over to an open area and found a drumming circle complete with dancers. A few appeared to be...intoxicated. Young and old, and feelin' the love! Hippies?
Haight-Ashbury - Serious hippie-ville. (Wait, they're sort of everywhere in this city.) Tons of super-cool stores featuring secondhand clothes and unique articles made of hemp, velvet, wool and other interesting materials. These were fun, but again I enjoyed the coffee shops and people most.
Muir Woods - this is actually near San Rafael, a town about twenty minutes north of the city. Amazing. This was a forest of redwood trees among mountain peaks: two huge things combined to make you feel pretty small, and pretty lucky to be seeing such a marvel. We also seemed to arrive at the perfect time - late afternoon, when the sun was slanting in at the trees with a slightly softer light than high noon. I filled two gigs of camera memory here. Over 4oo fantastic pictures that were set up for me - no work to look for the really good shots. We also checked out Muir beach. My first Pacific experience, and pretty frikin' cold!
Of course, there were many many more places that I could go on and on about. These were among my favorites, though.
Overall, San Francisco is a great place to visit. Perfect (yes, I mean perfect) weather, interesting people, and lots of beautiful scenery. It has a sense of harmoniousness that you don't really find in many places, with higher energy nicely grounded by mountains and redwoods. And the smell; a very distinct pine and mint smell that is unforgettable. It fills your nostrils within a mile of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, and gives you a high that is certainly better than that offered by any glass of wine found in Napa Valley.
Fun times, and surely on my re-visit list.
For more pictures, click the links below.
Muir Woods and Beach
San Fran
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