All original content on this page is © Stuart & Darryl 2004
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| San Francisco - 2004 | ||
| One of our dream destinations, and a beautiful city. After weeks of anticipation we were on our way and not even an 11 hour flight could dampen our excitement. The skies had been cloudless ever since leaving London Heathrow and there were some spectacular views from the plane .... and on arrival there was no discussion needed about where to go sightseeing | ||
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| Our first sight of the most famous bridge in the world (well it's a close-run thing with Tower Bridge in London and Sydney Harbour Bridge, I suppose). This was taken from the air as we approached SFO |
And a few moments later, we flew over the city and the Bay Bridge. Actually just as impressive in it's own way - the island in the middle is Yerba Buena and the road between two sections of the bridge goes through a tunnel carved into the island |
San Francisco is home to a Maritime Museum and a couple of it's exhibits are moored in the bay far all to see |
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| On our first day we decided to walk along the bay toward the Golden Gate Bridge and get a closer view of Alcatraz |
And we just had to get on a cable car of course. A couple of Japanese tourists took our photo for us - how's that for a role reversal! |
Pier 39, right opposite our hotel, is home to a colony of seals. They seem to spend most of their time sun-bathing and making a lot of noise. To prove it we've got a video (high quality 1.5Mb or lower quality 475kb) |
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| And whilst walking on Pier 39 we spotted a little humming-bird diving in and out of the flowers collecting nectar. We even got it on video (high quality 1.1Mb or lower quality 450kb) | The following day we decided the walk up to Coit Tower was going to be worth it. This is the view over the city from the top so you can see it was |
But a rest at the top was definitely needed. The view behind is the opposite direction from the previous picture, so as you will notice, the ground goes downhill on all sides |
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| This was also taken at Coit Tower |
Just an odd picture of the crookedest street in the world - Lombard Street. We've got it on video too (high quality 1.6Mb or lower quality 520kb) | And so the bridge, this is the view of the Bridge from the Visitor's viewing point on the SF side |
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| Proof that we walked the Bridge. We had been warned it could get very cold out in the middle so went armed with jumpers and coats. It wasn't ..... and everyone else was in T-shirts ! |
A view across the Bay, between the main support cable of the bridge and, below it, the sidewalk fence, looking toward SF |
And another one, with Darryl in shot |
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| One of the two piers that hold up the Bridge, shot from the roadway/sidewalk looking upwards |
At the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge on the SF side is an old fort. It used to be the main defence to protect the bay and is called Fort Point. It is now a national monument |
And in the early days, before the bridge was built, it also acted as a lighthouse - but though you can't see it from these picture, the Bridge now goes right over the top of it - hence the light is no more |
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| Bay Bridge from Telegraph Hill |
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All original content on this page is © Stuart & Darryl 2004 |
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