Visit to San Francisco reveals there’s always more to discover
There’s nothing like a last-minute change of plans to get your traveler heart racing.
The initial last stop of this train trip was northern California to see my grandparents. But while on the way to the Bay Area from Denver, we learned that my grandpa had COVID-19 (He’s fine now.).
I’ll admit my initial reaction was to think of ways to safely quarantine in their home so my sister and I would still be able to see them, which is silly, I know. Ultimately we all decided that our visit would have to wait for another time.
But that left us with a slight problem. We had booked our tickets home departing from the San Francisco International Airport but that was it. When we’re with our grandparents, we simply get in the car when they tell us to and let them lead the way.
Now on our way to San Francisco with nothing booked, we got to work right there on the train, saying goodbye to Denver as we began looking for hostels. Maybe it’s because we’ve booked numerous trips before, maybe it’s because there’s so much to do in the city, but we were able to get everything sorted in a short amount of time, leaving us with plenty of time to enjoy the views from Denver to Northern California.
For all the thousands of miles I’ve seen of this country via Amtrak, I stand by my statement that riding the California Zephyr from Denver to Northern California is as gorgeous as it gets. On this 32-and-a-half hour route, you pass through the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, plus lots of lush fields and forests.
While on the rails, car attendants pointed out the 121-mile-long Truckee River; Donner Pass, where members of the Donner Party met their untimely end; Soda Springs Mountain Resort, the longest continuously operating ski resort in California; and other highlights.
Though it was sad to pass our original final stop without getting off and seeing our grandparents, we were looking forward to seeing what San Francisco had in store once we arrived at our hostel, Hi San Francisco Downtown (312 Mason St.).
With just enough time left in the day for dinner, we chose vegetarian burritos from Marcela’s Taqueria (595 Geary St.), a true hole in the wall that only sat eight people. The customers were steady throughout our time there, telling us it was a neighborhood favorite.
Fueled by breakfast from Honey Honey Cafe and Crepery (599 Post St.), we spent a good part of our first full day in the city on two walking tours we booked through our hostel.
On the first, Social Movements of San Francisco, our tour guide David walked our small group around the city, with the idea in mind that “social movements can be meaningfully interpreted as the pursuit of locational/spatial security for that interest group.”
Because it is on a bay, David told us, commerce brought people from all backgrounds to the city. The most well-known social justice movement out of the city is that of queer rights, though David also highlighted the work of the Black Panthers and, years later, the Black Lives Matter movement, noting when former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality.
The tour also covered the Occupy Wall Street movement; Glide Memorial Church, which offers a variety of services to the low-income and houseless persons living in the neighborhood; and the Summer of Love in 1967.
We then stuck with David for his California Gold Rush walking tour, which found us walking 10 blocks, each one featuring something important from each decade of the city’s “Gold Rush Century” from 1800 to 1900.
The heart of the issue, David said, was who owned the West: The Native peoples who already called the land home or the European immigrants who thought they could simply show up and claim it as their own.
As we walked, we heard stories of the Spanish-American War, the Pony Express and Chinese migration that led to forced labor on what would become the transcontinental railroad between San Francisco and Iowa. We later passed the Chinese Railroad Workers History Center (653 Kearny St.) but it had closed for the day by that time.
Though I’d visited San Francisco with my family when I was younger, these tours made me realize how little I knew about the city itself. We always went to tourist-y places, like Pier 39, Alcatraz Island and the Legion of Honor Art Museum, but after hearing David’s stories, I came to really appreciate the city’s rich history.
After saying goodbye to David, we walked to the Roxie Theater (3117 16th St.) to see “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a devastating film about the murder of a Palestinian girl and her family by the Israel Defense Forces.
We walked around the Mission District after that, partially to clear our heads and partially to wander into local shops that lined Valencia Street, like Open Editions (786 Valencia St.) and Therapy (545 Valencia St.), both of which sold great gifts, art supplies and trinkets that you don’t really need but can’t help but buy.
Then, we walked back toward the hostel, grabbing dinner from Shalimar (532 Jones St.), a Pakistani restaurant, along the way. This no-frills space served huge portions of aromatic curries, and we realized that the best dishes come from the restaurants that have the least flash.
The next day, we grabbed a quick bite from Cafe Encore (488 Post St.), the meeting point for our guided tour to Muir Woods National Monument. Visiting Muir Woods was something we’d talked about with our grandpa in the past, but we never made it happen, so we figured it would help fill time on our impromptu trip to San Francisco.
Our tour guide, whose name I didn’t catch, drove us through the city and past the famously curvy Lombard Street before making a stop for photos at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, which I never tire of seeing when I’m visiting the Bay Area.
Once on the road to the Muir Woods, the tour guide shared about the fight to save the old growth coast redwoods, many of which are more than 600 years old. A brochure I picked up noted that the tallest tree in Muir Woods stands at more than 258 feet, while the tallest in Redwood National Park reaches 379 feet.
In short, I was ready to be in awe.
With about an hour to wander on our own, Ashley and I started along the Redwood Creek Trail, which features three loop options depending on how long you want to go and how much time you have. Without quickening our pace too much, Ashley and I were able to get to the farthest loop, marked as a 2-mile loop, and back with plenty of time to spare.
Though there was beauty truly everywhere you looked, we especially liked Cathedral Grove, a designated quiet area of the park with signs reminding visitors to keep their voices down. Here, the forest seemed to come alive that much more, with the sounds of the wind through the trees, birdsong and the Redwood Creek amplified in the silence.
After a stop at the gift shop for postcards, we went back to the van then continued on with the tour to Sausalito, where we had a planned stop for lunch.
Known for its houseboats, Sausalito made for a charming pit stop. At our tour guide’s suggestion, we bought ice cream from Lappert’s Ice Cream (689 Bridgeway) and walked around, enjoying window shopping and pretty views of the bay as we ate.
Once back in San Francisco, we walked, or, more accurately, trekked uphill to Coit Tower (1 Telegraph Hill Blvd.). The building is named for Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who left money to the city “for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city that (she had) always loved.”
Inside Coit Tower you’ll find murals depicting what life was like in California during the Great Depression, from life in the city to out in the farms and fields. These murals were painted in 1934 by artists involved in the Public Works of Art Project, a precursor to the Works Progress Administration, as the city’s parks and recreation website notes.
Along with the murals, visitors can also buy a ticket up to the observation deck to see the city and the bay, but we thought the view from the base of the tower was pretty on its own.
From there, it was back to the Mission District, where we bought vegan and vegetarian arepas from Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen (401 Valencia St.). With that, Ashley and I were pretty sure we had an arepa in each of the three cities we visited on this train trip, a streak we were happy to continue.
We stopped into the Drawing Room (599 Valencia St.), a studio and gallery, to see the current show “Sanctuary” and were impressed with the variety of art on display.
As per a postcard about the show: “The San Francisco Bay Area is home to many ‘Sanctuary Cities’ and has historically been a refuge for many marginalized communities; however, our current political state has fractured the meaning of what sanctuary is and should be.”
After resting our feet in Mission Dolores Park, we ended the night at Dog Eared Books (901 Valencia St.), which had a ton of variety despite its small size.
The next morning, our last day in San Francisco, we grabbed tofu scrambles from Cafe La Tazita (470 Post St.) for breakfast before walking to the Painted Ladies, a row of Victorian and Edwardian houses painted to make their architectural accents pop.
It was a silly stop, but for how many times we had visited San Francisco in the past, we had never been, so we figured “Why not?”
From there, we went on a bit of a self-guided tour of the Castro, one of the first gay neighborhoods in the country. As we walked, we took in sidewalk plaques that made up the Rainbow Honor Walk.
Among some of the honorees were Glenn Burke, the “first openly gay major league baseball player whose raised hand, after a home run, led to the invention of the high five” and playwright Tennessee Williams. I had picked up a collection of Williams’ short stories at Pilsen Community Books in Chicago, so it was a nice surprise to see him on the honor walk.
Unsurprisingly, we found ourselves at yet another bookstore, Fabulosa Books (489 Castro St), which focuses its inventory on LGBTQ+ titles, though as it happens, I found quite a few French language books there, which will help in my self-studying of the language.
Before heading to the airport, Ashley and I wanted to end our trip on a sweet note, so we stopped by Dandelion Chocolate (740 Valencia St.) for a slice of their vegan carrot cake, which features 70% Maya Mountain, Belize chocolate cream-cheese frosting, sesame shortbread, sesame caramel and the same Maya Mountain chocolate glaze.
Dandelion Chocolate prides itself on being a “bean-to-bar” chocolate maker and makes single-origin dark chocolate from just two ingredients: cocoa beans and organic sugar. I wasn’t sure what I’d think of dark chocolate and carrot cake together, but I was pleasantly surprised that the rich chocolate didn’t overpower the more subtle, lightly spiced cake.
Would we have rather spent the weekend with our grandparents as originally planned? Of course. But being made to spend more time in a city we thought we were familiar with was a good reminder that no matter how much you think you know, there is always more to discover.