San Francisco

During the week I spent in Northern California, I only managed to fit in one afternoon of sightseeing in San Francisco.  

We went up to Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill.


It's a good place to catch the view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

We also went to Lombard Street where at Russian Hill, there's a block where the traffic is one-lane, one-way, downhill, featuring 8 switchbacks and a 27% grade.  

A block East we saw the Google Street View car.  I've tried looking for myself on the Google Maps Street Views, but no luck so far (I'm not even sure the picture is of the same day.  If you want to try to find me (blue jacket, no backpack or bag, standing next to a taller man), I'm on Lombard, the block East of Lombard and Leavenworth, on the North side of the street.).  The Google Street View car was very unimpressive, by the way.  You'd think it'd be some fancy, high tech van, but it was just a dark colored, old-looking sedan with a tiny Google Street View sign on the driver's door and a rotating camera on what looked like a homemade support a few feet above the car's roof.  

You wouldn't think steep streets would be so interesting, but it's pretty cool.  

Afterwards, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and took a late afternoon stroll through the redwoods at Muir Woods.