SAN FRANCISCO & YOSEMITE

This trip was, by far, the best time I have had in the US. I went in December expecting rain and lots of the famous fog, but had non-stop beautiful sunshine the whole time I was there. I loved the golden light of the western seaboard. I wondered if it was like that all the time, or I had just been lucky.

I flew with Virgin and had a row of seats to myself. We flew north to the Arctic Circle and then across the top of the American continent and down to San Francisco. There’s a scientific reason why this route is economical which I don’t understand but It’s definitely very beautiful and it was wonderful to see the Golden Gate Bridge from above as we were landing.

I stayed at two different hotels in the city, bookending my Yosemite excursion. I booked each for special reasons but was disappointed with both. The Palace Hotel was my first stop. I chose it because it has a famous Maxfield Parrish painting behind its Pied Piper bar. The King Cole bar at the St Regis in New York also has one and I had hoped for a similar ambience. But, apart from the odd feature, the decor was dated and oppressing. In my bedroom, there was too much going on: stiff curtains, rock hard cushions, busy wallpaper, horrible paintings and nothing felt comfortable. I wasn’t surprised that part of the refurbishment a couple of years earlier had been a plan to sell the Maxfield Parrish painting. Thankfully public pressure forced them to change their minds.

I also discovered that wifi is not included in the room rate, and you had to pay some exorbitant extra charge for it. Is this typical of American hotels? As breakfast wasn’t included either, I ended up crossing the road to a Starbucks and having breakfast there and using their free wifi.

On my first day I had arranged for a couple of local guides, Aaron and his girlfriend Charlie, to take me to Point Reyes. We stopped to pick up delicious salt beef on rye sandwiches on the way and then walked around the Palomarin trail ending up the Almere falls where the creek tumbles on the beach. It felt odd to get out of the city so soon after I had arrived, but it was a good antidote to a long flight and the weather was beautiful.

We saw some interesting birds including turkey vultures and the little white crowned sparrow, some cool fungi, and grey whales swimming close to the coastline. I learnt a new word – ‘gulch’ meaning narrow ditch with a stream in it. Aaron is a guide at Yosemite so he gave me some tips for my later trip there.

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Marin County and I tried not to get emotional about being on such an iconic structure. On the way back we stopped at a viewpoint that looked over the bridge towards the city. An absolutely fantastic start to my time there.

On Sunday I walked down to Pier 7 early on to get the view in and out of the city before it got crowded.

Afterwards, I walked up to Pacific Heights via the overrated Lombard Street and its eight hairpin bends, now completely ruined by non-stop cars – it must be hell to live there. I had booked an architectural walking tour of the area via the quirky Haas-Lilienthal, HQ of the SF heritage organisation. My guide was Gay Ducharme, and I was the only punter, presumably because it was winter and the weather was supposed to be bad. I would definitely recommend this tour – I’m pretty sure it was free.

We walked quite a big area and there were so many interesting buildings of different styles. It was hard to get good views of many of them, and everywhere is spoilt by ugly cars parked outside.

My favourite – the Belden House with its fish-scale shingles and ‘moongate’ balcony surround. Designed by Walter J. Mathews and completed in 1889.

This slightly sinister architectural mash-up above was once owned by Nicolas Cage. Below H.C Bauman-designed art deco apartment block.

Another day I took a bus out to Muir Woods, also on the Marin peninsula. Most of the trees are coastal redwoods which flourish here in the wet environment provided by the dense coastal fog. This park is a major tourist attraction but I didn’t see many people as I walked round. I noticed here and at Yosemite that everyone seems to hang around the cafés and shops, and it doesn’t take much effort to get away from the crowds.

I’d like to think that this is the exact cross-section that you see in Vertigo, a favourite film: “Their true name is Sequoia Sempervirens, always green, ever living” but apparently not.

One the way back from Muir Woods, I got off in Sausalito where I could catch the ferry across the bay.

Apparently Sausalito is a city. I’m sure it was very urban somewhere but the part I saw felt like a sleeping little fishing harbour. Great things have happened here: it’s where Otis Redding sat in 1967 just before he died, and one of the greatest albums of all time was recorded.

Views from the ferry: Alcatraz island – now a tourist destination, and sea lions on Pier 39 – hundreds of them.

The famous Boudin Bakery on Pier 39 sells clam chowder in a carved out bread bowl. It was delicious.

My San Francisco food tour was supposed to be Chinatown and Little Italy. It wasn’t the most inspiring one I’ve done foodwise, but it was great to get out and about in the city at night – not always easy or safe to do when you’re a solo female traveller.

I am not an expert on Chinese food but I liked what I ate. We went to a bakery for Dim Sum and I had har gow (shrimp dumplings), sticky rice, shaomai (pork dumplings), char siu bao (pork-filled steamed bun), jian dui (sesame seed bun with red seed paste) and lo mai gai (rice wrapped in lotus leaf), all served with tea. My favourite was the char siu bao. We also had mooncake which is sort of like a sweet version of pork pie, filled with a lotus seed paste that is a bit fudge-like. It’s traditionally eaten at the Mid-Autumn festival and the ones here are so good they are shipped to China.

We ended the tour in Little Italy in North Beach, bizarrely having a very average pizza at a Greek restaurant. I would have preferred to try more food in Chinatown. It was great to see the Beat Poets area though, and City Lights Bookstore (sadly not open).

I wanted to get to Yosemite while I was in California. I don’t drive so the only other option seemed to be an organised coach tour – no thanks! After a lot of googling, I managed to work out how I could get there by public transport. It wasn’t easy, it took a day to get there and a day to get back.

First of all I took the orange BART line all the way out of the city to Richmond station where it terminates. Richmond is also an Amtrak station and, if you time it right, you can then jump on a train to Merced. Of course I got there ridiculously early and spent an hour or so in an otherwise uninspiring station waiting for my train. It arrived on time and I spent a few enjoyable hours listening to music as we travelled through the east Bay Area towards Merced. Quite an industrial landscape on either side but the sun was still shining.

The YARTS bus calls at Merced a couple of times a day and then goes all the way to Yosemite. I got the timing right this time and got a bus almost immediately which was lucky as it’s quite a long drive to the park. I chatted to the driver a bit and she told me a lot of the people who travel into the park by bus are part of rehabilitation schemes who work there but don’t have driving licenses. Travellers on the service are not that common. She dropped me at the Yosemite Bug Mountain Resort which is about 30 miles outside of the valley itself. I was delighted to find out that I got a discount on my room as I had travelled there by public transport. My log cabin was like something out Twin Peaks with gingham curtains, stuffed animals and lots of heavy wood furniture. Was there a gun on the wall or have I made that up?

The next day was the winter solstice and I made my way down the slippery, star-lit slope back to the bus stop in time to get the early bird YARTS bus and into Yosemite NP itself. It was still dark and cold but the starry sky was amazing. When I arrived I had breakfast at the café and found out that I didn’t have to pay an entrance fee as I had come in on the bus.

I spent a happy few hours walking around the valley including El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. It was cold and there was a hard frost on the ground but plenty of sunshine – the perfect winter’s day .

After lunch, I joined a photography workshop at the Ansel Adams gallery with a few others. It was really interesting to learn about all the things my camera could do that I never knew. Our guide took us to some locations where we could get good shots of various landmarks – we even saw a bobcat.

As it was starting to go dark, we finished the day at a spot where we could see the last of the solstice sun hitting Half Dome and North Dome and creating a reflective ‘X’ pattern. Sadly all my photos of this reflection look like a Mac screensaver. Damn you Apple.

I got the last YARTS bus out of the park and spent another night at the Bug. Then I did the journey back to San Francisco in reverse. In hindsight, given the effort I put in to get there and back, I should have given myself a couple more days at Yosemite and done some of the trails. But it was totally worth it anyway.

Back in the city, I stayed at the Fairmont Hotel this time. Again, an old hotel with a reputation, and it was the place where a lot of the cast of Vertigo had stayed. Again, hugely disappointing and overpriced with paper-thin walls and unfriendly staff. I did, however, treat myself to breakfast in bed on my last day which was described as: Local Dungeness Crab; Poached Eggs; Wiltered Bloomsdale Spinach; Blistered Asparagus; Toasted Brioche Hollandaise. Very nice despite the association of the name ‘Dungeness’ with a nuclear power station in England.

I loved my time here, I wish I had booked a longer trip as there is so much to see in and out of the city. Another place to revisit one day.