I Left My Heart in San Francisco

This past weekend, I took a three day bus tour to Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Hearst Castle, and Solvang. Honestly, the tour was not worth the money. But let me elaborate first.

Saturday, I spent about nine hours on a bus to get to Yosemite and spent maybe an hour and a half seeing only two spots. Then I spent another four hours on the bus to get to my hotel, which wasn't even in downtown San Fran. Granted, Yosemite was beautiful, but it didn't wow me. I feel like I've seen more amazing sights in New Hampshire. Although I did enjoy seeing snow; it was almost like being back on the east coast.

On Sunday, the tour took us to downtown San Francisco. Because this is a mainly Chinese tour (never again will I do Asian or bus tours), I pretty much ate Chinese food all weekend. So we started off the morning by going to dim sum in Chinatown (GAHHH!!). I actually met some people on this tour so that was a plus (the minus was that they were all Chinese--I think I'm a bit racist towards my own race). After breakfast, we headed over to Lombard Street, which is the crazy steep road with a bunch of turns. It was a hike to get up there! Seriously, I don't think handicapped or old people can live in San Francisco (which sounds pretty great to me) because it's such a hilly city! But the great thing is that no matter where you are, there's always a fantastic view.
Next we stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts briefly just to take photos (lame) and then headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, at that point, I fell in love with San Francisco. It was quite a sight to see. Unfortunately, the weather that day was not cooperative, so everything was cloudy or rainy. After that, the tour offered the option of going on a harbor cruise but I declined because my old roommates were also in SF this weekend, so I decided to meet up with them instead! It was so so great to see friends. We had lunch at a restaurant called Wipeout on Pier 39 and walked around for a bit. Unfortunately I had to meet up with my tour group again, so we parted ways briefly.

Our next stop was the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. I was very happy about this stop because it was a work of architecture. The interior was beautiful with its use of concrete and geometry. No idea who the architects were though.
Next we went to visit the Painted Ladies (most known for their appearance in the opening credits of Full House). I didn't know what the houses were called, and the tour guide kept calling them the 606 Houses, so it wasn't until I got there that I realized where I was. I also think that parts of Just Like Heaven were filmed there. And guess who I ran into! Dylan and Julia, haha. Small world.

 After that, the tour headed up to Twin Peaks, but because the weather was so bad, you couldn't see a thing from up there. So then the tour continued to city hall and the library... I don't know why anyone would want to visit those places on a tour. But at least the library had an interesting interior.
To end the day, we ended up where we started: Chinatown. Dinner was pretty good though; I was excited to order dragon dumplings (the best are in Manhattan at Joe Shanghai). On the way back to the hotel, we stopped on the side of the road to see the view of SF.
We headed back to the hotel pretty early (about 7:30) so I was sad that I couldn't experience San Francisco nightlife... or any life for that matter. The tour was too much about sights and not enough about experiences. That is why I've decided to return to San Francisco either at the end of this month or the middle of next month.


Monday morning, we left Fremont (where the hotel was) and headed for Hearst Castle. I was expecting an actual castle, but it was just an estate. It was interesting I guess, but I didn't know who this Hearst guy was so I didn't care too much about his property. I got some nice pictures though.

Lastly, our tour stopped by a town called Solvang which was designed to resemble the city of Copenhagen. It was a cute little town--completely touristy though.

Overall an alright trip, but I should've saved my money and went to SF solo to begin with. Ah well, at least I got to see Yosemite.

Tomorrow (or today actually...) Julia and Dylan come to visit until Saturday! And next week, I'm off to Seattle!