San Francisco (82 – 89)

Following our arrival to the campground we raided their tourist brochure stand, a procedure that has been adopted as our “SOP”. The stand is generally kept up to date (with a few exceptions) and is a great way for us to compare what we had in mind, plus learn about other exciting things to do and see.

It’s also a good way for me to correct my misconceptions, as until then I had always thought that Fisherman’s Wharf was a single pier among many piers in the dock area of San Francisco Bay. In fact, our software shows a road travelling on to Fisherman’s Wharf that’s located just past Pier 39. As I learnt, Fisherman’s Wharf is an area that encompasses a number of piers.

The best and least stressful way for us to travel to the San Francisco CBD is by water and the nearest ferry terminal was at Larkspur, about a 15 minute drive from the campground heading south towards the city. Parking there was free and the ferries departed every 30 minutes during peak periods and hourly outside of those.

Once again we needed to balance what we’d like to do and see with the volume of required schooling for the girls, so our first full day was allocated as a study day. On Tuesday morning we excitedly rose to prepare for our trip to the city. Driving to Larkspur wasn’t a problem but trying to find an available spot in the car park was impossible. It was also quite difficult to manoeuvre the Chev through the small distances between cars in the car park - I expect this will also be the case when we eventually bring it home to Sydney.


Leaving Larkspur



We tried to time our trip to be at the ebb of the morning rush period, however miscalculated the time required to find a car parking spot and missed our planned ferry departure time by a few minutes. This meant a wait of almost an hour, but gave us the opportunity to look about the small ferry terminal and surrounding area. The morning breeze beside the water was much colder than we anticipated; fortunately we had taken more clothes than we thought we were going to need as a cosy looking waiting room was the other side of a turnstile that wasn’t to be opened until 30 minutes before the ferry’s departure.



Plenty to see and time to annoy!



Whilst standing and waiting in a queue, we struck up a conversation with an elderly couple waiting in line behind us and they turned out to be lovely people who made the waiting time dissolve quickly. Some others also joined in our chat and soon our group was being hustled into the entrance of the "now open" turnstiles by people waiting in line further back – the time passed quickly indeed! The view from the Larkspur ferry for the 35 minute journey was a delight and its route passes near the Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay, however you aren’t able to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Bay Bridge

 As a quick note that may be of some help if you are going to consider a similar trip to San Francisco, there was also another location to catch a ferry a little closer to the city from a place called Sausalito. The driving distance between the two places is only about 7 kilometres and you need to pay for the car park in Sausalito, which may have make it easier to find a parking spot than in Larkspur. However, the ride on this ferry takes you between Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge and its terminal is beside Pier 39, near the centre of the Fisherman’s wharf area – a fact I only discovered once we had departed San Francisco and had reached Los Angeles :-(   Neither of these ferries stop anywhere else – their route is from the above locations to the city and return.

Our arrival from Larkspur was at Pier 1, about 4 kilometres from the Fisherman’s wharf area but this location did have benefits also. After a short walk through some street markets, we found a cable car terminus which was great as that’s one of the items on my Bucket List! We boarded the cable car and sat on seats located on the outer edge of the cable car facing outwards. The driver was directly behind our seat and operated the cable car with two long steel levers that disappeared somewhere into the bottom of the vehicle. The levers had hand-clamps and were pushed and pulled forwards and backwards to make the cable car stop and go – I have no idea of how they worked, nevertheless, they were very effective as some starts and stops were on quite steep hills.

We left the cable car once we reached the terminus at other end of its journey and walked towards the wharf area. Frankly, we had no idea at all of where we were, other than we were still in the city and needed to ask directions to the wharf area a number of times. We boarded a “bendy” bus that took us further towards the wharves and disembarked at the location suggested by the driver. With San Francisco Bay still not in sight, we stopped at an Ihop (turned out to be a chain of restaurants that we have frequented a few times since) restaurant, had a terrific lunch and asked for directions to Fisherman’s Wharf. It turned out to be only a few blocks away so we burnt off some calories with another walk to see the sights of the Bay.

The wharf area was a great place to explore and we were surprised about the small number of people walking about. Seemed at times we had the place to ourselves other than a few fishermen on boats. The day was cold and quite overcast which may have explained the lack of people, so we weren’t too nervous about being in a dangerous city location.

We walked to Pier 39 and found a throng of tourists exploring the shops, carousel ride, street entertainers and restaurants, and from the end of that pier we had a beautiful view of both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Sunset was around 5pm and once the sun disappeared, the temperature dropped quickly. We decided to head off home to carry on exploring this area the following day and for a different mode of transport, rode a tram back to Pier 1 to catch the ferry.

Using our experience from the previous day, we knew where to find a good spot to park the car at Larkspur and how much time was needed for us to catch an earlier ferry. Our plan came together and we arrived at Pier 1 about 1½ hours earlier than the day before. We chose to walk the 4 kilometres to Fisherman’s Wharf from Pier 1 and explore the other piers along the way. To the girl’s delight (OK, us “oldies” had fun too) we came across a pier that had a warehouse full of old arcade games dating back 50 years. Everything was still in working order and we had so much fun we even forgot to take a photo or two!

Further on we passed a chocolate factory with free sampling (the 2 small pieces we were each given wasn’t all that good and the price, sheesh, I thought they might have at least included some shares in the company with each box – needless to say, we didn’t purchase anything) and arrived at the pier that ferried people to Alcatraz.

Leaving the wharf for Alcatraz 1¼
miles in front, slightly to the right

Monopolies aren’t a great thing and this ferry company had sole rights to transport tourists to and from Alcatraz. One of the ferry captains we chatted to from the Larkspur ferry told us this newly formed company (about 2 years ago) won the Alcatraz 5-year contract and shortly after taking over, increased the ticket price by about 50%. The return ticket price for the 15 minute each way journey cost us $105 for the family, but we really wanted to see Alcatraz so we paid and joined the other 100 or so people already on the boat for the ride there.

The Golden Gate Bridge in the
distance behind Alcatraz

For accuracy, I think it’s best for me to plagiarise some paragraphs from a book we purchased there:

“...In the 1920s, Prohibition had created a well-financed, well-armed and well-organised criminal class; then, the Great Depression of the 1930s spurred what many Americans considered to be a crime wave of epic proportions

....[J Edgar Hoover], a master at raising the FBI’s profile, did little to quell the celebrity surrounding “public enemies” – including Ma Barker’s gang, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger. Yet the gangsters caused problems for the federal prison wardens. Pushed by Hoover, US Atty General Cummings agreed on the need for a “super prison”: they chose Alcatraz and selected James Johnston to run it.

...On three of the prison’s quartet of free-standing, three-tiered cell blocks, Johnston replaced the key-opened doors of soft strap-iron with bars of tool-proof, case-hardened steel and installed a new locking system. The heavy metal slam reminded prisoners that guards were in complete charge.

...A firm pull on a lever closed fourteen of the prison’s cells at a single time. In a mere three seconds, each 250 pound door shut and locked with an explosive crack of metal thunder. Perhaps the most intimidating sound in the history of American justice, the very definition of “slammer”, it’s a signature of the United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz.

...From 1934 to 1963 Alcatraz housed bank robbers, gangsters, kidnappers and killers, reputedly some of the toughest and most incorrigible federal convicts in America. The island’s roster of felons included Al “Scarface” Capone, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and the murderous Joe Cretzer. Used as a threat against convicts in other federal penitentiaries, Alcatraz took only criminals who couldn’t follow rules elsewhere. Ostensibly escape proof, it was known as “Uncle Sam’s Devil’s Island” or “Hellcatraz”.

The cells below were used for solitary
confinement and let no light in at all,
no bed and limited food rations

...Most penitentiaries had one guard for every ten convicts; Johnston hired one for every three Alcatraz prisoners. He ordered twelve official “counts” per day, and random and unofficial tallies sometimes pushed the daily total past fifty.

...Restless bodies turned in other cells. From one came the snoring of a human cave bear. The muffled engine of a passing boat crescendoed and faded. Dancing across the water on gusts of wind were the taunts of San Francisco: horns, sirens and even female laughter from the St Francis Yacht Club, just 1¼ miles away, yet for a convict, an insurmountable distance.

And then there were the birds. A seasoned con might sleep through the periodic outbursts of nesting gulls. But for a new “fish” (inmate) on Alcatraz, the sudden squawks rudely broke an uneasy slumber. At two in the morning, The Rock sure had a way of giving its residents the unholy creeps."

There’s so much more I could write about The Rock including the “Birdman of Alcatraz” and the attempts at escapes including the one based on the movie where they, to this day don’t know whether or not they lived (or are still alive) or perished in cold waters of San Francisco Bay.

So near to freedom, yet so far. The area
Below was rec area for those guards
and families who lived on The Rock

Within the gift shop on the way out of Alcatraz sat Darwin Coon, an elderly, former inmate. He was there at the time of the escape and I asked him what he thought (I bet many people do). He suggested they successfully got to Brazil, although.... If you would like to read more about Alcatraz, use this link to: Alcatraz

Alcatraz and the Golden Gate are to
the right of this picture

Following our return to the wharves, we walked up to Pier 39 where each of the girls had a caricature drawing done and we had time enough to properly explore the shops and restaurants. Hours once again had passed quickly and at almost 4pm, we sat down in a Japanese restaurant at the end of the pier to have a very late lunch/early dinner. The price was quite expensive but the meal and views were worth every cent. We were at a window table and had views of both Alcatraz and the Golden Gate during sunset. Once again, the very chilly night air surrounded us when we left the restaurant, so we headed for the tram and ferry ride home.

Thursday and Friday were allocated as school days with a quick shopping trip for groceries. I also needed to find a location that sold propane as we had finally emptied the second 7 gallon bottle – I was surprised how long the gas had lasted because we were now 3½ months into our trip. There were many other things we would have liked to have explored in San Francisco but, ironically, we felt were limited in time by the vastness of what lay ahead in our travels in the USA.

One thing we had ticked as a “must do” was to see the Golden Gate Bridge close up. As we were to leave on Sunday, this left Saturday as our nominated day. We studied the Trailer Life software of where to drive as “Homer” was of no help at all and our USA atlas didn’t show in sufficient detail what we needed to find out. In the end, we just got onto highway 101 and “winged it” hoping for some signposting once we were close.

Alcatraz is on the extreme left

That turned out to be the best strategy because when we were almost on the bridge, a signpost pointed the way. A semi-thick fog covered much of the city and Bay area but not enough to dampen our excitement of the views. One thing that surprised me was the colour of the bridge – call me dumb, but I didn’t expect it to be an ochre red colour – ‘tis a sad day when you don’t learn something new!

The Golden Gate Bridge, designed by Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss and others on his staff, long-considered an impossible dream, was constructed between the years 1933 and 1937. The concrete piers at the bases of the towers went in first, in cold, deep water with a strong tidal current. The art-deco towers were then erected on the piers, the suspension cables were emplaced and the road deck was installed in sections from each end. The bridge was opened to vehicles in May 1937 – ahead of schedule and under budget.

I found a number of the statistical facts about the suspension bridge quite interesting:

    • the length of the main span of the bridge between the two towers is 4200 feet

    • the distance the centre span can swing in either direction is 27 feet and under extreme load and temperature, can drop as much as 10 feet

    • the height of the main towers is 746 feet making them the 4th highest structures in San Francisco

    • it took 27 years to totally repaint the bridge and it’s only been painted once since 1937. Continual spot-painting has been deemed as adequate to retard corrosion

We drove around the Marin Headlands on the north side of the bay; they tower almost 1000 feet above sea level and provide a beautiful view of San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean and the Bay Area and then explored some of the old gun emplacements at Battery Mendell. Just as in Sydney Harbour, the headlands were critical positions to defend the Bay, as from the Marin Headlands to the Golden Gate Bridge on the north side there are 3 forts, Forts Cronkhite, Barry and Baker and on the south another 3 sites, Forts Miley, Winfield Scott and Point.

For the first three quarters of the 20th century, the Marin Headlands were fortified with weapons that evolved from canon to nuclear warheads. The guns became more and more powerful, able to hit warships way out to sea. Anti-aircraft guns appeared on key hilltops during World War 2, after the development of aeroplanes and aircraft carriers made aerial attack a possibility. Finally, during the Cold War, radar-guided Nike missiles bearing nuclear warheads were installed and remained ready for launch against enemy bombers until 1974.

We walked about a kilometre to the lighthouse on Point Bonita, passed Bonita Cove where we saw many Harbor seals lying on rocks sunning themselves, and through tunnel, carved by hand in the 1870s. The bridge to the lighthouse was closed to tourists and frankly, we weren’t all that disappointed as it was narrow and may have been a little un-nerving.

Time once again passed quickly and all too soon, we headed back to the campground to prepare the rig for our trip to Paso Robles tomorrow and a visit to Hearst Castle.