"Memories of San Francisco" a San Francisco Travel Page by anna123

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Above is a photo taken from Pier 39 of the famous Coit Tower and Transamerica Tower.

In my past travels, I have only known San Francisco as a stop-over city. In 1984, my family and I were enroute to Houston from Manila and stopped over SF. In 1988, we were moving to Toronto from Manila and once again, stopped over to SF. In 1995, we were this time visiting Manila from Toronto and used SF as yet another stopover. In 1999, I even stopped over SF on my trip to Las Vegas from Vancouver. Yes, stopover city was what I knew of San Francisco...all this time I never went outside of its airport, never knew the beauty of the city. That is, until November 13, 2000.

I only spent a total amount of 5 hours in this beautiful city. Definitely not enough time to explore all the sights and landmarks. David, Anchella and I made a roadtrip to this city by the bay and coming from Gilroy, CA, travel time (which includes rush-hour traffic) was about 1 1/2 hours. I really wanted to stay longer but I was the unfortunate victim of the flu that day (as well as an ailment that brought me straight to the St. Louise Regional Hospital later that night) and so we had to prematurely head back to Gilroy as I was getting sicker by the minute. Doh!! :( Therefore, my memories of this beautiful city was limited to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. I only see Alcatraz, the Coit Tower, the Transamerica Tower and the Pacific Bell Stadium from afar and I didn't even get to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Never got to see Lombard Street or Union Square or North Beach either. I was planning this trip for over a month, checking out all the VT San Francisco pages and all other SF pages on the Internet, but oh pathetic me. Oh well. So here's a word of advice to all travelers: DO NOT GET SICK (ESPECIALLY THE COLDS OR FLU) BEFORE YOUR TRIP. IT WILL JUST GET WORSE! :(

On a much more positive note, the time I did spend in this place was great. I loved the scenery of the bay from Fisherman's Wharf. The smell of the Pacific Ocean at 9:00 am and the fog was just memorable. And yes, while Pier 39 is very much a tourist trap with all its over-priced souvenir shops, it's a cool place to see sea lions and see Alcatraz. :)

Yes my time there was too short but I promised myself I will return there someday. A roadtrip from Vancouver is currently in the works. :)

For more pictures, please see my travelogue entitled "Memories of San Francisco".