The last time I traveled to beautiful San Francisco was before the COVID-19 pandemic. All the popular areas in downtown were bustling then; Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square. This time around - August 2023 - it's sayonara to large crowds, businesses, and konichiwa to the homeless and smash and grab crimes.
Monday, August 14th, Han and I flew to SFO (San Francisco International Airport), deplaned and took a while to retrieve my checked carry-on. Unbeknownst to me, the cheapest tickets do not allow carry on bags in the cabin, so I was forced to check in my carry-on in JWA (John Wayne Airport). This delay almost made us miss our minibus tour of the city at 2 p.m. From the airport we took the Airtrain to the Bart, and exited a station near the Love Tour pick up spot and Ubered the rest of the way there just in time for departure by the Fisherman's Wharf. The Love Tour was aboard a 70's VW hippy bus with stops at the Golden Gate Bridge, neighborhoods such as Mission, Castro, North Beach, Chinatown, and a drive down Lombard street, while our guide/driver told us about the city's history and culture.
The following morning we boarded the ferry on Pier 33 to Alcatraz Island. En route, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the city, the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay bridges, plus some dude in track pants who completed a dozen consecutive flash kick backflips to the applause of Alcatraz visitors on the top open air floor of the ferry. I had to do extensive research to find the name of this variation of backflip.
While on the island, we bought souvenirs, a couple of which are pictured here, and a biography of one of the reformed inmates I'm reading now. The inmate's name was Jim Quillen. He was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942 at the age of 22 after his escape from San Quentin and capture. Surprisingly, he was not a violent criminal. He had served 2 years of his 3 year sentence at San Quentin for multiple stupid robberies, many at gunpoint, and became an officially categorized "incongerrible" (unreformable) inmate because of his escape. He never explained why he acted as such a dumbass for not finishing the last year of his 3 year sentence. I mean, how imbecilic can one be? But what's most surprising is one prison escape on a rap sheet that was otherwise relatively benign landed him in the most infamous maximum security prison with the likes of Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, James Whitey Bulger and the who's who of society's most violent scumbags and psychopaths.
Day 3, or maybe a part of day 2 we hit Chinatown in what appeared to be the only place we could find boba milkteas. Of the 3 places over a couple of days we visited, none compared to Omomo in Irvine, not even Yi Fang there to the Yi Fang in Irvine.
The rest of the trip was to Union Square, the most delicious Gelato twice, a couple of okay restaurants and this funny haircut sign - click to enlarge:
