San Francisco

By Abdulkareem Alqahtani


Welcome back my friends, I hope this blog finds you fine and have full energy for the 7th week of summer 2011.

In this blog, I will continue writing about my fantastic trip to San Francisco last vacation. I have written about the first two days which were about the places I visited on The Pacific Ocean Road or California Highway 1. In this blog, I will write about our days in San Francisco city. At 6 o’clock evening we entered San Francisco, and we directly went the downtown where our hotel is. When I arrived the hotel, the receptionist welcomed us, and took us to our room. The problem of San Francisco is the car parking which is very expensive. The hotel asked me $33 per night for parking, but I looked for other parking, and I found public parking 3 miles away from our hotel. The public parking was $22 per night, I left my car there whole the time I stayed in SF because we did not need it. The good thing in SF downtown that you do not need for car because you can use public transportation likes train or cable car.

We stayed the first night at hotel because that day was tired day. The second day was rainy, so we decided to go San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). It has fabulous arts, and we had good time there. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted to modern and contemporary art. From the outset, the museum has championed the most innovative and challenging art of its time, and they continue to exhibit and collect work by both modern masters and younger, less-established artists. Then we went back to the market street where many of brands, fashion shops, and restaurant are. Then we had coffee near the Union Square which was awesome place. The third day, we visited the Fisherman's Wharf where we saw and enjoyed a lot of attractions there. The most attractions are: Pier 39, Pier 42, Wax museum, Forbes Island and restaurants and stands that serve fresh seafood, most notably Dungeness crab and clam chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl. Other attractions in Fisherman's Wharf area are the Hyde Street Pier which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the USS Pampanito, a decommissioned World War II era submarine, and the Balclutha, a 19th century whaling ship. These attractions need more than five days to explore and see them. Afternoon, we took one hour tour by boat. It launched from Pier 41 passing National Liberty Ship Memorial (SS. Jeremiah O'Brien), then the tour passed under The Golden Gate Bridge, WaaaaaaW, unbelievable scenery, then we went back and passed around Alcatraz Island, then we went back to the Pier 41. We tried to visit Alcatraz Island, but unfortunately all the tickets of 2 weeks ahead sold out. Then we went back to our hotel to prepare for a concert which was a performance show, it was a fabulous experience and we will attend it once again. Last day, we woke up early, we had breakfast on StarBucks then we passed over the Golden Gate Bridge then Richmond San Rafael Bridge. Then inserted the coordination of our home in Riverside in the GPS to go back home. In going back, I drove on Highway 5 which was boring road. We spent more than 7 hours from SF to Riverside.

This is my trip to San Francisco, I hope you enjoyed reading and for further question about my trip, you can ask me any time …………. Thank you……