Have y’all ever been to San Francisco? I believe I’ve told you that it’s just about my favorite place to visit. In fact, I want to live there. I will, just as soon as my Google ads start to pay off for me (or when I win the lottery—which will probably happen sooner!).

We just got back from a trip to The City (don’t call it “Frisco,” or you will sound like a tourist). If you are like me, traveling to a strange city gets me apprehensive. San Francisco is about as strange as it gets, and that’s why I love it! Yet, I get all discombobulated trying to figure out what to do and how to get around. I thought I’d tell you what we have discovered, just in case you decide you want to go there. It’s actually extremely easy, because there is such good public transportation.

We booked our flight and hotel through Travelocity for this weekend trip. I was pretty well pleased with what we got for our money. Even though you can find everything you want to know about San Francisco on-line, I suggest browsing a bookstore to find a good travel book about The City. It’s handy to have as you wander the streets.

We’ve learned to plan on visiting many more sites than we could possibly visit, so that we have plenty of choices depending on our mood and the capricious weather. We booked reservations for a play ahead of time, and we didn’t get our first choice—or our second choice—because our trip was planned at the last minute. I suggest that if you want to see a play while you are there that you go on-line and call ahead. You definitely want to see a play while you are there. Trust me.

Pack lightly! Remember that you will be dragging that luggage with you. We didn’t remember that advice this time. Mr. Tucker kept saying, “I might need this shirt.” Or, “Add those pants.” And, “I might need those shoes.” I kept telling him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen. We took more than 90 pounds of luggage for a two day trip! Before we came home, I packed everything we hadn’t worn in one suitcase and everything we had used in the other. I’ll let you guess which suitcase was lighter (hint: I got to say, “I told you so!”). San Francisco is a shopper’s paradise. If you need an item of clothing that you didn’t carry, you can buy it! You were going to do so anyway.

When you arrive at SFO, you still have to get into town, and it’s a long way. You could take a taxi (which would be pretty darned expensive). You can rent a car, because they have some really sweet deals. One trip, we rented a decent car for $25 per day. The problem was that parking cost more than that per day! Driving in San Francisco can be a nerve-wracking experience, too. If you decide that you need wheels so that you can travel outside of The City, you can always come back to the airport and rent a car for a day (or rent a car in town and pay a bit higher fee).

The best bet is to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into town, a ride of about 30 minutes. We don’t have anything like that here in Denton, Texas, so navigating it at first made me very nervous. There was no reason for me to be concerned. You can find out more about train schedules and such at http://www.transit.511.org. From the airport (from domestic terminals) take the free AirTrain to the “Garage G/BART Station.” There are machines at the station from which you can buy the passes to ride BART into town. To get into San Francisco will cost about $5.00 per person (you can add money to the card later if you need to do so). We each got a $10 pass, so that we had round trip tickets. Do figure out ahead of time at which station you need to disembark. Then, just feed that pass into the machine at the gate, grab the ticket when it spits it back and hop aboard. You can see from our faces that it wasn’t a horrible experience.

Two things to remember about those BART stations:

1. Don’t take the elevators in the downtown stations! Some of the street people seem to think those are urinals.
2. Ignore that fellow standing by the machine where you get your passes who is trying to act very helpful by telling you how to get passes and offering to make change. He doesn’t work for the transit system, he’s a panhandler looking for a tip.

This time around in San Francisco we did a lot of walking. I’m getting too old for that! Next time, we plan to buy weekly passes for the Muni, so that we can get around town on the buses. I’ve never gotten to ride a cable car, but it costs about $5.00. I’ll probably do that one trip, but I’d rather use that money to buy a large mocha!

We explored an area that was new for us: The Embarcadero District. San Francisco has lots of different districts (including Union Square, Russian Hill, The Castro, Telegraph Hill, SoMa, the Mission District, North Beach, Chinatown, The Tenderloin and more). Each has its own distinct “flavor,” and I love them all. But, The Embarcadero won my heart this time around. I’ll tell you more about “why” later in the week.

Technorati Tags: San Francisco, travel, BART, Embarcadero

I can laugh about it now. But, when we walked into our room at the Mendocino Hotel, I was not amused! This was the extent of my “bathroom.”

The toilets and showers were down the hall!

People, people, people!

Do I look like the kind of person who would be OK with sharing bathrooms? If so, look harder! We did enough camping when I was a child that I prefer at least a four star hotel these days. After those vacations having to shower in skanky old KOA bathrooms, I won’t shower in a “public” bathroom without flip flops for my feet. I’m not exactly phobic about germs, but I don’t want someone else’s fungus. I also prefer to “do my business” in private, thank you.

“It is a minor glitch. The room is really quite charming, although tiny. No, no, it’s charming. The sink is pretty. It’s only a sink! At least you have that, Shelly. It is only for one night. A whole night? Can I “hold it” that long? Yes, you can, you’ve done it before.” This was the mantra I chanted while we stayed there. It wasn’t so bad. And, on the up side, I came home and discovered that I can make my closet into a bedroom that is as big as that hotel room!

I’m trying to see “only the good,” and I think I’m doing a fantastic job at it.

Look at the picture, and tell me the good that you see. It isn’t that hard to do. At least, it isn’t if we practice now and then. In fact, I credit this very exercise with helping me stay calm and in control when I saw I didn’t have a dadgum bathroom! OK, I didn’t stay totally calm, but it wasn’t a total rant.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that we had gotten to stay at The Hill House in Mendocino the night before. Its exterior was used as The Hill House of Cabot Cove in the television series called Murder, She Wrote. You can see that they kept one of the signs. That room was spacious AND had a bathroom!

I can tell that you don’t feel the least bit sorry for me.

If you’d like, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Soliloquy, Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. Try it. It’s good for you.

Technorati Tags: Mendocino Hotel, only the good, Hill House in Mendocino

San Francisco is a city that literally throbs. When you come from a small town it is almost sensory overload to visit here. Why do I love it so much? I’m not exactly sure. I’m claustrophobic, so you would think that this town teeming with people would drive me over the edge, but I thrive on it.

I was sitting in Union Square (across from Macy’s again) in the early hours of the morning. It was a misty, moisty morning, as it so often is in The City. Buses and cable cars rumbled past constantly. The air was split by the screams of sirens as the fire and rescue trucks rolled by. A kaleidoscope of humanity passed as I sat there. As street lights changed, they swarmed across the street like fire ants on a hill. Women in designer clothing and ridiculously high-heeled shoes strutted past me. I don’t see how they navigate the hills, but one woman in silver stiletto heels actually ran up the street! I wanted to stand up and cheer for her.

Serious looking men in crisp business suits strode past on their way to “bored” meetings and such, while a serene group of Asian elders calmly practiced their Tai Chi exercises on the lawn. It seems that all of the passersby are plugged into cell phones and ipods, and all have a Starbucks coffee cup firmly gripped in their hands. You can’t sling a dead cat in this part of San Francisco without hitting a Starbucks Coffee Shop.

There’s a darker side to The City, too. Unkempt old men and women wander down the streets searching through trash cans for recyclable treasures. An “unbalanced” man on the corner shouts obscenities at the top of his lungs at no one in particular and everyone in general. Pedestrians have to be on constant guard against collisions with disrespectful bikers, skateboarders, and pigeons. Yes, I said pigeons. Those airborne rats are everywhere, and they have no respect!

No one walking past looks another person in the eye. If someone does meet your gaze, it’s a sure bet they are going to ask you for a handout. Or else, that they are not from San Francisco. Sure enough, as I wrote those words in my notebook, a man greeted me and stopped to talk to me. He had just moved to The City from Florida, and we talked for a few moments comparing our impressions. We could both see the dark side of the place, and we both loved it anyway.

After San Francisco, we drove north to Mendocino to visit Eric’s parents and siblings. To get there, we drove through wine country on a road that has more twists and turns than a soap opera plot. It makes me carsick every time we go. but the scenery is gorgeous.

This is the view of the ocean from Don and Wilma’s deck; I think I could force myself to withstand watching this as I drink coffee in the morning. In the early hours of morning, all you can hear is the ocean’s roar, and the cry of seabirds. If you choose to go into the town, there are tourists everywhere slowly meandering the shops. They smile and nod as you walk past or stop to chat with you. Though many of the residents are wealthy beyond anything I can imagine, there is no fashion contest. All dress in comfortable shoes and clothing.

Mendocino is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, yet I could never live there. The isolation would drive me up a wall. Years ago, this would have been my ideal spot to live. I don’t know when I changed. These days, if no family drew me there, a day’s visit is all I would want.

Which would you choose?

Technorati Tags: San Francisco, Mendocino