Aug 5 & 6, 2024
Written By: J.Couch
I had the opportunity to fly down to San Francisco for a couple days and explore. What was I going to do? There were so many things that I could do. Ride a famous trolley, catch the hop on, hop off bus tour, stop by Coit tower, explore the Golden gate bridge. So many options but not a lot of time. I would be flying into San Francisco (SFO) airport which sits on the west side of the bay south of San Francisco. I had to get from the airport to the downtown area. They have a mass transit train called Bart, with a stop at the airport, that I could catch to get to the downtown area and that seemed to be my best bet getting downtown.
After a slight delay of the flight and questioning whether I was getting on the flight or not, I was on my way to adventure for a couple of days. We took off through the partial clouds of the pacific northwest, and got up above the marine layer to see Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens looking like mountains on the edge of a great white sea of clouds. It was a little hazy due to the wildfires in the local area but otherwise the sun was shining. The flight touched down in San Francisco early afternoon, but a little later than I had planned. I still had much of the day ahead to explore.
Getting out of the airport is fairly easy. I had to go to the third floor and take the blue line AirTrain to the Bart station. I found out that I could download the Clipper pass to my wallet on my phone and add money directly to it. I could then use my phone to scan through the gates to get into the train area, it deducts from the amount loaded when I scanned out at my destination. To get the Clipper pass this on an android, go to the wallet app, click add to wallet, select transit pass, search for Clipper, select it to add it. Add some money to the pass and you are good to go. Similar process for Apple phones. At this time, it cost $10.55 for a one-way ticket to downtown from the airport. It’s a simple and easy way to purchase a ticket without the hassle of standing at the ticket machine trying to figure that out, the possibility of losing my ticket or missing my train because it took me too long. It also provides an electronic documentation of rides. I am not sure if there is an option to download the receipt for business expenses or not but I am sure it’s possible. From the Bart station at SFO to get downtown I took the yellow line headed to Pittsburg/Bay Point and was on my way.
The ride downtown was fairly easy to do but not the quickest. However, due to the traffic in the area it may be just as long to drive into town. It was about 11 stops or (30 to 40 minutes) for me to where I wanted to get off and look around. One word of advice, bring some ear plugs, because in the tunnels when the train is going fast it is very noisy. Just putting in my earphones helped dampen the noise. I got off at the Montgomery stop and walked around that area for a bit, and ended up over near the SFMOMA, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This was one of the things that I wanted to do for the day. They have 7 floors of all types of modern art. It wasn’t too crowded so it gave me a lot of space to move around and not be bombarded by other tourists. I really enjoyed the museum and it gave me some inspiration to keep creating more of my art. I finished up the 7 floors in about 2 hours. I was told that was about average time, but it would take a little longer if there were more people and I stopped to read every description or informational piece. It was worth my time to stop by and check it out, I really enjoyed it.
I headed back towards the train to get back to the airport to meet up with Heather. I just backtracked on the same train back, and again it took about 30 to 40 minutes. We headed to the hotel and then out to dinner in the Burlingame area for a delicious Mediterranean meal at the Mediterranean Kitchen Burlingame. I didn’t get any photos of the food that we ordered and I am sure not all of what we ordered was vegan but it was delicious. I had a bowl of the red lentil soup which was very good. It was for sure vegetarian, and they have a lot of other meals that offer meat for, those that want meat. We do eat a lot of Mediterranean meals and I would highly recommend this place if you are in the area. We caught a Lyft back to the hotel and called it a night. In the morning, I was heading back downtown to wander and explore some more.
We were up early since Heather had to go to work. She was off and I took my time cleaning up and grabbing some breakfast before heading out. I had to catch the shuttle to the airport to get to the train. They dropped me off at the international terminal and it’s a short walk over to the Bart station from there. Again, I caught the yellow line downtown. The morning started out with low clouds and cool but it was slowly breaking up and hopefully warming up a bit. The train ride down was easy and uneventful which is always good when riding public transportation in a city that’s unfamiliar. I wanted to get off at the Embarcadero stop so that I could be close to the Ferry Building and farmers market to explore from there. There was a problem with the trains and the overhead announcements said it was going to be at least a 15-minute delay. I decided to get off, again at the Montgomery stop and walked from there. It was a nice morning so it was a good walk down Market Street to the Ferry Building. I was a little surprised as to how small the farmers market was, I guess for San Francisco I expected a lot bigger event going on. I walked around the market and to the other side where the ferries come in. I watched as a few ferries pulled in and dropped off massive herds of people. Then loaded back up and were off again across the bay.
From there I decided to walk back to the front of the building and catch the train that goes along the waterfront over to Fisherman’s Wharf. I bought a $5 all-day pass at one of the kiosks, they also offer a one-way ticket for $3, I believe that kids are free. You might be able to use the clipper pass too, but I am not sure. I saw a few people scan their phones or cards when getting on. This train line was also having some backup issues so it took a while for the train to show up. I rode out to Fisherman’s Wharf and got off near the SkyStar Wheel (Ferris wheel) to look around, which only took about 10 minutes. There was a great view of Alcatraz and glimpses of the golden gate bridge sticking out of the fog in the distance. A long time ago, I went on a tour of Alcatraz and wouldn’t mind doing that again sometime soon. I wish that I had the time to get out to see the Golden Gate Bridge too, but did not have the time today. There were a ton of people out today enjoying the weather, the shops and the overall atmosphere of the city. I heard a lot of different languages; this town is a very popular international destination for a lot of countries. This seemed to be where it was happening today. After a quick look around, I jumped back on the train heading back towards the Ferry Building, which then turns and heads up Market Street. I got off near the Powell stop and walked up Market Street to the Civic Center Bart stop. I had not been down this way and wanted to see what was down here. I ended up down near City Hall and saw that there was a protest of some sort going on, a good place for me not to be. I headed back to the Civic Center stop and got on the Bart train heading back to the airport.
It has been an awesome couple of days exploring the downtown San Francisco area and I would really like to come back again soon. There is so much to see and do, it is impossible to do in two short days. Time to get back to the airport and try to catch a flight back to Seattle.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
