We started the day with a visit to San Francisco’s Civic Centre located just a short walk from our hotel. This large square is home to numerous imposing buildings including the Asian Art Museum, War Memorial Opera House and the City Hall.
We’d come to visit the City Hall which welcomes visitors daily and offers free guided tours each Friday. Our visit didn’t coincide with a guided tour but after passing through security style screening in the entrance foyer we were then able to explore large sections of this historic old building designed in the beaux arts style.
The San Francisco City Hall opened in 1899 and boasts the tallest dome in the U.S. which is 42 feet higher than the dome in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. The magnificent rotunda with its grand staircase has featured in numerous films including Dirty Harry, A View to Kill and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was the site of Marilyn Monroe’s wedding, saw demonstrations and speeches during the Civil Rights movement and survived the 1989 earthquake.
The floor of the rotunda features an intricate design made out of Tennessee pink marble. The ceremonial rotunda is where many weddings take place with one in progress during our visit. I can’t think of anywhere more beautiful than to have photographs taken on its sweeping staircase.
We walked up the staircase to the top of the building so that we could take in the stunning views from the upper balconies. We then returned to the ground floor using the historic lifts with their polished wooden floors inlaid with brass featuring the official monogram of San Francisco surrounded by laurel leaves.
On leaving the building we caught a bus to Japan Town which lies to the west of the centre comprising six blocks between Fillmore and Laguna Streets. We viewed the Peace Pagoda which was constructed in the 1960’s and presented to San Francisco by its Japanese sister city of Osaka.
We then strolled through the red Tori Gate which traditionally marked the entrance to sacred spaces. Surrounding the area are Japanese restaurants, a supermarket, community centre and with the cherry blossom starting to bloom it felt for a moment as if we had been transported to Japan.
From Japan Town it was a 15 minute walk across to Alamo Park, a residential suburb featuring the famous Painted Ladies. These pastel coloured Victorian houses stand on the slope of Steiner Street reflecting the area’s history.
The houses each have several balconies, overhanging eaves and large porches and were built following the Californian Gold Rush and its resulting economic boom. We found that the best views of these houses was from the top of the grassy bank in the park across the road. It’s an attractive small park with a coffee kiosk and good city views.
Leaving there, we caught Bus 5 to the western entrance of Golden Gate Park. This large park is home to some of San Francisco’s most visited attractions. The park is free to visit however some of its attractions have admission fees. The park is vast stretching over three miles with a free shuttle bus operating daily to move between areas although we didn’t use this ourselves as we preferred to walk. From manicured lawns to grassy meadows it’s the perfect place for a stroll and a picnic.
The Conservatory of Flowers is an elaborate Victorian glass house with a central dome housing a collection of rare and exotic plants. Standard adult admission $13 (£10.30) weekdays and $15 weekends.
From there we enjoyed a walk through the park to the California Academy of Sciences. Standard admission $41.25 (£33) and included in our CityPASS, which cost $84 (£67.20) and includes admission to three attractions and a harbour cruise.
The Academy of Sciences is home to a 90ft high rainforest dome which is the largest worldwide transporting visitors to some of the most bio diverse places on earth. The four storey dome is accessed by a winding slope and is teeming with life from free flying birds to exotic butterflies, trees, shrubs and flowering plants.
From the rainforest canopy we took a lift down to the flooded forest where we walked through a glass tunnel to view hundreds of tropical freshwater fish.
Next we explored the ‘Life on a Dynamic Planet’ gallery where we stepped inside the earthquake simulator which is a walk through model resembling an old Victorian dining room during an earthquake. The San Andreas fault line crosses San Francisco between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates.
The building also contains an aquarium, natural history museum and the Morrison planetarium, creating lots of interest for all the family.
Located close to the Academy of Sciences is the Japanese Tea Garden, standard admission $14 (£11.20). As it was springtime the cherry blossom trees and azaleas were starting to bloom throughout the garden and we adored strolling around viewing pagodas, an arched drum bridge, stepping stone paths, koi ponds and native Japanese plants.
We found a table on the balcony of the traditional tea house and enjoyed bowls of miso soup before leaving the garden which was such a serene and tranquil place to spend an hour or two.
Finding our way out of the park by another exit we caught a bus to the National Historic Site of Fort Point. During the Civil War era the fortress defended San Francisco Bay from the Gold Rush to the Second World War. It’s now a free to visit monument where visitors can explore the powder magazine, kitchen, officers’ quarters and soldiers’ barracks.
Fort Point is one of the best places to view the Golden Gate Bridge and we called into the Bridge Pavilion Welcome Centre which displays historical exhibits and also contains a gift shop. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937 and at that time was both the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world. Its design set a precedent for suspension bridges around the world.
We decided to follow the Crissy Field Trail which starts near the bridge and is accessed by a steep path down to bay level. From there, the path was wide and reasonably flat along this two mile rugged stretch of coastline.
A short distance inland from the end of the trail lies the Palace of Fine Arts situated in the Marina district. The Greco-Roman rotunda and colonnades can be viewed free of charge and are absolutely beautiful. The Palace was constructed for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition and contains an indoor theatre.
Our feet were getting tired as we’d covered a lot of ground during the day but there was still something else that we wanted to see and as it was so unusual we didn’t want to miss it. A further 15 minutes walk around the marina led us to the Wave Organ a huge musical instrument that’s located by the ocean. This acoustic sculpture was constructed in 1986 and amplifies the sounds of the waves in the bay.
Irregular terraced seating house over 20 pipes that extend down into the water at varying levels. When the waves roll in, the pipes resound with ‘liquid’ music that ebbs and flows with the movement of the tides.
After such an action packed day we walked along to Hyde Pier where we boarded a cable car all the way to its terminus at Powell Street. On this occasion we were fortunate to be able to find outward facing seats to take in the views whilst riding up and down the city’s steep hills. The perfect way to end a day of city sightseeing.
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