San Francisco Staycation: S.S. O'Brien

A late post on the S.S. O'Brien. There were only a few people touring one of only two surviving "Victory" Ships from WWII when we visited the S.S. O'Brien on a Saturday afternoon. A volunteer cashier, himself looking like a veteran of WWII, gave us a map, a few touring highlights, and we were free to roam about the ship. It is not intended for the disabled, with steep ladders and tight stairs. We had just come from the bustling Fisherman's Wharf next door, and I had expected more foot traffic on this historic vessel, but it's possible WWII ships hold less interest than they once did.

That's a shame. The O'Brien was built in a remarkable 56 days, using steam ship designs from the 19th century. All "Victory" ships were built to serve as supply ships for the Allies and all were built exactly alike, with simple mechanics, so repairs and maintenance were standard and easy. The ship's hold is 3 stories high, built to carry jeeps, armored vehicles, and anything else the armed forces needed. The O'Brien serviced the Normandy beaches just after D-Day and saw service in the South Pacific. It's last long voyage was celebratory - journeying to the Normandy Beaches 50 years after D-Day, manned by veterans in their 70s.

Its engine room is 3 stories high and was the engine room depicted in the movie Titanic (though the shots were doubled, as the Titantic's engines were TWICE as big.) A younger volunteer talked about the mechanics, most of which passed over my head, but it was clear it was a massive and difficult operation. The heat in the engine room could reach 140 degrees F as I recall!

On deck, you are are also permitted to man the guns. Victory ships had just a few guns for protection, run by Navy sailors. The rest of the ship was run by Merchant Marines.

There are some homespun hsitory panels in the main deck, plus you can pretend you are a 1940s gal waiting for the Victory ship to come home.

San Francisco Staycation: Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf is SF is not only the home of Boudin sourdough, noisy sea lions and seafood restaurants, it also contains the "world's largest candy department store," aptly called It's Sugar. The jazzy music and scent of sucrose draws you in. Here you can sit next to a life size jelly bean.

You can buy sugary cereal that is more sugar than cereal. You can buy bag lunches entirely composed of candy, unhealthy and yummy. You can buy cheeky chocolate bars labeled by your birth order. (My middle sister seemed disappointed I had not gotten her a "middle child" bar.) You can buy 80s and 90s themed candy bags, in the shape of cassette tapes. It's like an edible museum of sugar! Do not miss it. (And if you do miss it, there's another branch of the store down the street.

Next door is a huge chocolate shop filled with assorted Ghiradelli delicacies and then everything else chocolateish. The sugar high continues. That I bought nothing is a miracle.

Fisherman's Wharf is also packed with souvenir shops. Steven resisted the call, but I went into a few. Usually these shops sells various doodads with your name on them. Keychains, jewelry, miniature cable cars, miniature baseball bats, etc. There is little that cannot have your name on it, unless your name is Betsy, and then it hardly ever appears. But it is always a game to check, and I did a lot of checking. And then in an "Only California" souvenir shop, I found a SF keychain with my name on it. The last and only Betsy keychain. I didn't need it, but it called to me and I bought it.

Once a solid working neighborhood, Fisherman's Wharf has now become a tourist hot spot. For all that, it is still authentic and eclectic. And if the season is right, you can still buy fish straight off the docks.

Check out the Visitor Center, which is actually a very decent (and free) museum that provides the colorful history of the area. I learned that out of work sailors slept under the boardwalk benches, and "shanghai'ing" was a thing. Drunk sailors were essentially kidnapped to work on boats, and then their pockets emptied on women and booze once they made landfall. Telegraph Hill was once an island, dotted with the tents of gold rushers.

Here also is a vintage In-n-Out Burger joint, should you tire of fish and chips.

San Francisco Staycation: Historic Streetcars

San Francisco is full of cable car souvenirs - snowglobes, keychains, pencil sharpeners, coasters, socks, puzzles, etc., etc. But in the many souvenir shops I subjected Steven to (mostly as he sat on a bench outside) I could not find one streetcar souvenir. That led me to the San Francisco Railway Museum, located wonderfully enough on the F Line. The F Line was my transit to and from work in the Financial District for five days. And every day, I boarded a different vintage streetcar. There are nearly sixty different types, according to my field guide (On Track: A Field Guide to San Francisco's Historice Streetcars and Cable Cars), which I only found at the said museum.

With the opening of a subway under Market Street, the above ground rail streetcars were "gravely threatened" with obsolecence. Civic activists rallied in the early 1980s to save the streetcar, holding streetcar festivals. In 1995, the F Line, which now runs from Fisherman's Wharf to The Castro, was back in business. Since then, the E line has also been added. Only in SF can you ride both a cable car AND a streetcar. And unlike a cable car, which costs three times as much to ride and is only half covered, the streetcar is part of the Muni system, a bargain $2.85 per ride, and fully covered, especially appreciated in SF's cold summers.

As the name implies, cable cars run on cables rotating beneath the street, which you can hear if you (safely) stand on the tracks. They were actually invented in SF in 1873. (See my separate post on the Cable Car museum for more fascinating details.) Streetcars came around about fifteen years later, with SF's first streetcar starting on Steuart Street (right where the SF Railway Museum is), in 1892. They run on steel rails like cable cars but connect via a trolley pole to overhead electric wire for power. After the 1906 earthquake, many cable cars were converted to electric streetcars, the streetcars were that good. In 1932, streetcar service peaked at 50 lines and 1,200 streetcars. Then in the late 1940's and '50's many streetcar lines were replaced with boring and polluting buses.

All the streetcars are vintage, the real deal. The oldest is the No. 578, built 1896. It's a bouncy single trucker that looks more like a cable car. This beauty did not fall on my route. Instead I rode streetcars built 1946-1948, used in SF, Kansas City, Boston, Philly, Los Angeles (yes, the city of cars), Newark, El Paso/Juarez (one of the few streetcars that crossed between the U.S. and Mexico), Washington, D.C., and Detroit. How do I know I rode all these? Because my guidebook had a checklist, and because there is a placard in each streetcar telling you all about the streetcar's origins.

San Francisco Staycation: Russian Hill exploration

I have been contemplating moving to San Francisco. This week is a trial run. Via SabbaticalHomes.com we found a lovely condo in Russian Hill to stay for a week. It has amazing views of the Bay and Coit tower. It even features a tiny garage. And it's on a bit of a steep hill (not a unique thing in SF), so you can get some exercise.

Today, Saturday, we settled in and went for a walk. If you head downhill, you are in North Beach, Hyde Pier, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf. A few cable cars run through this area, with thick lines of tourists waiting to ride.

We are also quite close to the "crookedest street in SF" (not quite true, but prettiest crookedest street in SF for sure), Lombard Street. We walked up Francisco Street at dusk for the magnificent views, then walked down that "crookedest" street. Cars line up at the top, often waiting 45 minutes, to take the curves down for one block, but the pedestrian sidewalk is just a straight shot down. The last car we saw going down was a large Hummer, hip hop blaring from the open windows. The homes on the famous street are beautiful, but living on a tourist attraction could lose its appeal quickly.

For a late lunch/snack we went to Cafe de Casa and enjoyed pour over coffee, a cheese bread sandwich with mozzarella and avocado, and an acai bowl. It is near Fisherman's Wharf but doesn't feel touristy, just relaxing.

For dinner we headed down Francisco and turned right on Mason to enjoy Ristorante Fior d'Italia, established 1886, and billed as the oldest Italian restaurant in America. (Though ChatGPT said there is some argument about this, as the restaurant had to be rebuilt and has changed ownerhsip.) But this homey Italian restaurant sits in the family run San Remo Hotel( operating since 1906) and has a come-as-you-are-and-bring-the-family vibe. I can also vouch for the ravioli filled with pumpkin and sprinkled with toasted pine nuts, and the mousse-like tiramusu. I expect we will have more Italian, as nearby North Beach is a traditional Italian neighborhood, chock a block full of the best Italian restaurants.

Move to SF? Tally so far: Pro's: Lively. Great Victorian architecture (except for Brutalist building across the street). Great people watching. Excellent food. Views to die for. Don't need to sign up for a gym if you go up and down a few hills every day. New mayor, Daniel Lurie, is making smart moves to clean up the place and bring in new businesses, especially of the AI variety. (I counted a dozen billboards advertising AI on the way into the city.)

Cons: Cold. 63 degrees in August with a wind chill. There is a reason no one is sitting on the beach at Hyde Pier with bikinis on. Instead, there is some guy laying on the beach layered up in a puffy jacket and boots (see picture for proof), and the swimmers are wearing wet suits. In August. Noisy. Hills so steep they put steps into the sidewalks. Cars honking. Noisy seagulls and parrots (but this, I forgive.) Parking is impossible.

Sonoma County wine tasting

Benjamin was visiting us from Texas and we had to take him wine tasting. It's required when you live so close to Sonoma and Napa counties. We had done a weekend in Napa before, a bigger, and dare I say, more exclusive area of wineries. This time we went to Sonoma, closer and more laid back. We elected to stop at the two oldest wineries, established 1857 and 1858. We started with the oldest *family* run winery, affectionately known as GunBun. Gundlach Bundschu Winery, established in 1858, is the oldest continuously family-owned winery in California and the second oldest winery overall in Sonoma County, after Buena Vista (which was our second stop). GunBun makes a great traditional white wine, Gewürztraminer, started from grapes brought over by Jacob Gundlach. Jacob had wanted to make his fortune during the Gold Rush, but by the time he arrived, he had missed the gold boat. So he turned to grapes. The estate has 320 acres. After a 5 wine tasting "flight" and the purchase of a bottle of the Gewurztraminer, we went down the road to the actual oldest winery, Buena Vista, established 1857.

Buena Vista is what a winery should look like. Stone cellars, wood beams, etc.

Our wine tasting took place in a replica 1920s speakeasy with mannequins dressed in furs and flapper dresses. I kinda liked it. I also appreciate the A/C. Here we were served our tasting "flight" by an earnest young man who listened closely as Benjamin talked about sports cars. Good wine here too. Many of these wines you can only purchase at the winery. This is not a scam to charge tourists more. It is simply cheaper for a winery to do it this way, and also bring in the tasters.

We ended our day with a highly recommended dinner at The Girl and the Fig in downtown Sonoma, which boasts turn of the century buildings and an old-fashioned town square.

Sunriver, OR: Ziplining down Mt. Bachelor

For many years I have attended a "campout" with friends from high school. We long ago gave up tents in the woods and now always stay in a nice Airbnb rental. Every five years ago, we stray from our usual digs in Suncadia, WA and venture further afield. This summer it was Sunriver, OR, which as it turns out, was the inspiration for Suncadia in Washington state. Unlike Suncadia, which is big on golfing, Sunriver has mountains nearby. Skiing in the winter, hiking, and dirt biking in the summer. And oh, zip lining.

Part of our group elected to climb Mt. Bachelor (a sweaty, steep climb, but with snow packs, see picture at lodge) and then zip line down it. We did stop for lunch at the top, then took the chair lift back down, where we rendevouz'd with our twenty-something zip line instructors. After a test run, we took the ski lift all the way back up Mt. Bachelor to zip line back down.

I've ziplined before, and Mt. Bachelor is a little different. On Whistler, you jump off a platform and go at the speed you go, and there is a lot of talk about the biology of the area. On Mt. Bachelor, they you give a hand pull after they strap you in and you can *regulate* your speed. Then there is the matter of stopping. You are in charge of that too. Large orange signs on the ground a hundred feet below tell you to SLOW down. If you don't brake properly, you are stopped rather jarringly by a series of springs. Then, red in the face, you are pulled back to the platform by the twenty something guides, who hold your very life in their hands. Bottom line on ziplining: Good to have done, don't need to do it again.