This past long weekend in San Francisco was interesting for Nick and I. We were expecting to love the city and maybe we were expecting too much. We’ve seen a lot of places and for me especially, some of them really stick with me, some of them I fall deeply in love with, while others, sort of fall by the wayside, happy to have seen them but glad to be home. San Francisco unfortunately fell into that second category for me.
I had been down to the city early in high school, so probably about 12 years ago. Nick had also been as a kid but didn’t remember much. I think the whole trip started and ended badly as well because of the issues at SFO airport (which I won’t be returning to.) It was such a struggle, having to fly around in the air for longer than our actual flight had taken from Portland to San Fran before they could have us land. Then the signage in that airport is not good but we managed to take the tram to the BART train station to get into the city. A very costly trip in to downtown on the BART let us out right next to our hotel in Union Square. We weren’t fans of the BART system, very dirty, so run down and whoever designed it made serious design errors. Who puts fabric seats on a mass transit system in a light blue that isn’t vinyl or leather or something that will hold up? It was torn, pulling at the seams, stained… it was terrible.
Anyways, we got to our hotel, which we liked for the most part and enjoyed the location. We grabbed a late lunch in our neighborhood and then headed back to the hotel to rest a bit and change for our evening. We then headed out to ChinaTown which was only about a 10 minute walk from where we stayed and enjoyed a cool evening wandering around the streets and finally stopping at a Chinese restaurant in the area for dinner. Then we meandered back as the light was dimming toward Union Square.
Our second day there, Sunday, we wanted to see all the touristy things. So we decided to walk down to Fisherman’s Wharf (which wasn’t bad except for the Lombard Hill). We decided to stop by the Lombard curvy street that’s famous to San Francisco as Nick had never seen it before. Then we meandered down through Fisherman’s Wharf, had lunch down on the wharf (a very overpriced touristy lunch), then headed over to the Ghiradelli plaza, which Nick had never been to either. We shared a dark chocolate Ghiradelli sundae and looked around at how they make the chocolate there. We then decided to take the old streetcar back to our hotel and really enjoyed the ride back on the 1859 streetcar. We spent the afternoon resting in our hotel, I ran out to do a bit of shopping at nearby Zara and Madewell (which I don’t have here in Portland) and then headed to an early dinner.
After we ate, Nick had wanted to take an evening photo of the Golden Gate Bridge from a specific vantage point. So after a transportation debacle, we finally made it to Baker Beach. It wasn’t the exact place that Nick wanted to be (you can read about that here) and the weather was pretty hazy, so he took some photos and we grabbed a cab and headed back to our hotel.
The next morning we headed to the airport and were greeted with no signage and a hefty delay. Safe to say, our weekend was enjoyable but our impressions of the city were very different than we had hoped. I love old buildings and I love the aura they put off, and for all the beautiful old buildings in San Francisco, they were all just falling apart and looked terrible. The city was dirty and grungy and it made us realize how lucky we are in Portland to live in such a clean and beautiful old city. I also really missed the green that Portland has so much of, even downtown. I felt like San Francisco was lacking with trees in the city area and I really missed that.
After so much traveling and so much more to come, Nick and I have definitely found that there are not that many places in the world we would want to live and that we fall in love with. We are really lucky to have a place to call home that we love and a few other cities in the world that feel like home to us as well. Overall, I’m really glad that Nick and I got to see San Francisco together and I’m sure we’ll see it again in the future sometime, but it’s not a city I’ll be rushing back to. To step off that plane and breathe in the clean Oregon air, it made me really glad to be home.
All photos copyright Nick Nieto
Kadance says
Casey,
I have to agree with you on almost everything you wrote about in this blog.
My mom was born and raised in S.F. I was born there and lived there for about the first two years of my life. Then living n Napa (only about an hours drive) we would visit the city often, especially since my Grandma lives there.
I have done all the touristy things, and it can be enjoyable, but I agree that it is a filthy city. I am pretty disgusted every time I visit, and can’t wait to leave!
I also had a revelation when I was down there last. I flew out of Oakland (which is a better experience than SFO) and as I was looking down at the Bay Area I thought, “It’s so un pleasant to look at”. Then when I landed in Portland I was like “Oh my goodness, look at all the TREES!” Such a vast difference.
I too am so glad to live in beautiful Oregon!
Grace says
I read this post with interest as I am from San Francisco (actually born in Oakland, but lived in the City for years). I was rather disappointed with the post though, not because you didn’t like SF (which is a matter of taste), but because of your described itinerary, which was very heavy on the “tourist” sites (rarely if ever visited by locals, especially Fisherman’s Wharf). There’s nothing wrong with touristy sites, but if that’s all you visit you don’t get a full impression of the place.
I was also a little bemused by the tree comment. First of all, SF has a very different climate than Portland so obviously the vegetation is going to be different (notice how the countryside is not green there either?). It’s a bit like complaining Portland doesn’t have any palm trees. Second SF actually has a very large number of parks (including one of the largest city parks in the US, Golden Gate Park): you just didn’t visit them. (Plus almost all of your pictures show trees in the background, which makes your comments a little humorous.)
I like Portland a lot too (and its downtown area is much cleaner: many parts of SF are clean, but downtown/Chinatown are not among them), and of course there’s nothing wrong with disliking SF. I guess I just thought that since you are a travel blogger you would take a more nuanced/exploratory approach.
Casey Martin says
Thanks for your comment. These are just my views of the city. I’ve been there a few times now, and this is how I felt and what my thoughts were on it. I know many people love San Fran, it’s just not for me I guess. I’ve traveled a lot of places, and San Francisco just isn’t my style. I also only had 2 days in the city that trip and it was my husband’s first time, so yes, we did mostly tourist things and stayed in the main areas. Sometime when I have more time there, I’d love to explore other areas, this just wasn’t the trip for it. But thanks for the comment.