Hop On and Have Fun!

How windy was it as we crossed the glorious Golden Gate Bridge seated on the top deck of the San Francisco Deluxe Tours bus? 

It was so windy that I had to sit on my tote bag to keep it from blowing into the Golden Gate Strait, that mighty body of water where the Pacific Ocean rushes into San Francisco Bay even as California rivers, creeks and streams rush out to sea. 

It was so windy that I had to keep hold of the chin strap clasp on my hat, so I removed the hat and stuffed it in my bag. It was so windy that once the hat was off, my glasses started to bounce around on my face! Unlike the tote or the hat, prescription glasses are expensive — so I took off my glasses and hung onto them with both hands. 

The whole time, I was laughing for the pure joy of it all. The sky was blue, sunlight shimmered in the 64-degree weather and we had wind gusts over forty-twelve mph (okay, upwards of 30 mph at least) — and it was glorious! 

This was my second afternoon playing tourist on a bus in the city where I live. A decade ago, my friend Carol and I rode the downtown loop so she could photograph the towering buildings from the top deck. Then, on the very last day of April this year, my friend Julia and I signed up for the 21-stop tour that offers live commentary. 

Riders are welcome to hop on or hop off at any stop, including those that follow — in no particular order — plus stops at the edge of Golden Gate Park (home to amazing museums), Pier 39 (say hi to hundreds of sea lions) and Ghiradelli Square (grab a sundae or catch a cable car) — and more. We opted to stay put for most of the full loop. 

So what did we see? 

I will never tire of admiring the Golden Gate Bridge. I even carry a tiny piece of it on a key ring, purchased from Golden Gate Furniture Co. (Read my Next Avenue article about how that company got started.) Here is a lovely photo of part of the bridge's support structure, which was as high up as I dared raise my phone to take the photo because of wind shear. 

Below is a look back from the popular "vista point" in the Marin Headlands, just north of the bridge — a fetching skyline photo of the City by the Bay, which measures only about 7 miles wide and 7 miles long and yet is home to about 809,000 people. (And at least that many stop signs.)   

Another stop on the tour is at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. It's the only structure from the exposition that survives on the site.

Here's what's under that brilliant white dome, should you hop off to see more. (I took this shot a long time ago.)

City Hall, which boasts a dome larger than that of the U.S. Capitol and features  gold leaf up top and elsewhere on the building, was looking good. The massive 500,000-square-foot-building was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when the dome was "twisted like a corkscrew." The quake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale.   

Of course any good bus tour in San Francisco is going to cruise through Haight-Ashbury, where our driver pointed out one of my favorite local stores: Sockshop Haight Street. The driver also made sure everyone aboard paid tribute to the Jimi Hendrix mural, Amoeba Music and this fun-loving woman: 

Palm trees are not native to San Francisco, and yet they are all over the place — and I love them. This one is standing tall at Union Square. (Fun fact: There are 2,600 species of palm trees in the world.)

Even taller, of course, is the Transamerica Pyramid, a 48-story, 853-foot-tall skyscraper in the Financial District. (Photo by Julia) Of course it was controversial when being built — but then, everything in San Francisco is controversial. This is a city of People With Opinions. (I fit right in.) 

Francis Ford Coppola's office is in the Sentinel Building, which he owns. Because the wedge-shaped building was under construction at the time of the 1906 earthquake — just a skeleton, reports say — it survived. Cafe Zoetrope, on the ground floor, features mementos from Coppola's career.

We hopped off at the next stop in North Beach, just a handful short of the full loop, to have dinner at Flour + Water Pizzeria. Because the day seemed so celebratory already (and because lots of fresh air makes people hungry) we even ordered appetizers. And someone ordered a Negroni! (That's equal parts gin, vermouth and Campari.) 

Full disclosure: That was me. And it was delicious!