San Francisco, open your Golden Gate!
San Francisco welcomed me with open arms when I moved here from Boston 2 years ago June. And now 2 years later, I’m finally exploring the city. I still have 1 more day of sightseeing to go. But I’m done posting about my trip to China, and I need to start getting these pictures up.
I’ve always thought that San Francisco was a little overrated. People are always raving about how beautiful the city is. To me, San Francisco has always been somewhat of a grimy city. This is because I’ve been here many times before moving here, and I’ve spent most of that time on the real streets of San Francisco, and not at the tourist sites. But I have to say, San Francisco really won me over this year, from the very first day of my sightseeing series following along the Barbary Coast Trail. I bet it will win you over too.
My 2016 sightseeing series in San Francisco was of course inspired by the sightseeing I did around Boston and beyond in 2009 and 2010. I had a deeper appreciation of my place of birth as a result of these excursions. There is much beauty in Boston. And it’s hard to beat Boston when it comes to historical sites in major American cities.
Now I have to deal with conflicting loyalties. The picture above is just the most obvious example of San Francisco’s beauty. The Golden Gate Bridge is my favorite infrastructure project in the world.
The picture also includes a bit of history with the Civil War-era Fort Point. I’ve always sneered at California for having a lack of significant history, especially compared with my hometown and the rest of New England. The Boston area is where the American Revolution began, after all. Everyone learns about the American Revolution in school, and in Boston we get to live the history. Yet San Francisco has significant history of its own, even though its not quite as well known as the American Revolution. The history of San Francisco is to a very large part tied to the California Gold Rush. With no California Gold Rush, there would be no San Francisco as we know it today. Household names that owe their fame to San Francisco and the California Gold rush include Levi Strauss, Wells Fargo, Stanford, locally known Mark Hopkins, and of course the 49ers. Even William Tecumseh Sherman briefly got into the act, over a decade before his famous March to the Sea. So come to find out, San Francisco indeed has lots of history.
I think what may have impressed me the most about San Francisco this year is the public art. All over San Francisco is exciting street art and other historic free art. I was completely blown away by the murals in the Mission District. Absolutely everyone coming to San Francisco should check it out. There are also beautiful and enlightening historic murals at Coit Tower and the Rincon Center, plus an important (and free) Diego Rivera mural at the San Francisco Art Institute. If you’re willing to shell out some bucks, the newly expanded and somewhat overwhelming San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a must for lovers of modern and contemporary art.
And this is just the beginning. I’m planning to see much more of San Francisco next year, starting with the magnificent Golden Gate Park.
So stay tuned for the pictures in the upcoming weeks. Maybe you’ll leave a piece of your heart in San Francisco.
Billy O
Oh, of course. I wouldn’t leave something goofy out. Here you go!:
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