Posted February 27, 201510 yr In October 2013 I took a trip out west by a mix of Megabus, Greyhound, and Amtrak. I stopped in Omaha, Boulder, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, and San Francisco before flying home to Cincinnati. Each city will be linked below once I finish uploading the photos. There are higher resolution/more photos in my flickr profile linked in my signature if you're interested. Part I: Omaha, NE Part II: Boulder, CO Part III: Amtrak DEN-SLC Part IV: Salt Lake City, UT Part V: Amtrak SLC-SAC Part VI: Sacramento, CA Part VII: San Francisco, CA San Francisco, California City Population: 837,442 Land Area: 46.87 square miles Population Density: 17,867 / square mile Metro Population: 4,516,276 Nicknames: The City by the Bay, Fog City, The City that Knows How, Baghdad by the Bay, The Paris of the West San Francisco is surprisingly small. Cincinnati is about 78 square miles of land and San Francisco is 47. Also, San Francisco is basically a big square instead of a weird shape with tentacles going off in every direction. Despite the area difference, they have almost three times the population of Cincinnati. I start the photo journey wandering around the Tenderloin where my friend lives and making my way toward downtown. PA181787 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181788 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181789 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181790 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181791 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181793 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181794 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181795 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181797 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181799 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181800 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181801 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181802 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181803 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181806 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181808 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181809 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181810 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181811 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181813 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181814 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Going to Nob Hill. Emphasis on the Hill. PA181819 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181820 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181821 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181827 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181828 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181829 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181831 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181833 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181834 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181836 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181837 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181838 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181839 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181840 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181841 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181845 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181846 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181847 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181848 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181850 by ryanlammi, on Flickr We begin our decent from Nob Hill into Chinatown. PA181851 by ryanlammi, on Flickr First we take a pit-stop at a cable car barn and history museum. I had no plan for my walk, I just stumbled upon this. PA181852 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181855 by ryanlammi, on Flickr This is how the cables are pulled under the streets! PA181857 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181858 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181859 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181861 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181863 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181864 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Entering Chinatown PA181865 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181866 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181867 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181868 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181871 by ryanlammi, on Flickr I spot the Coit Tower (no idea what it was at the time) and decided to walk in that direction toward Telegraph Hill. PA181874 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181879 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181881 by ryanlammi, on Flickr And I stumble upon this gorgeous church. PA181882 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181883 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181884 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181885 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181886 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181887 by ryanlammi, on Flickr The sun was hitting the gold cross perfectly PA181889 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Continuing on the mission to find out what the tower is. PA181890 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181891 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181892 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181893 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181895 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181896 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Found it! PA181897 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Alcatraz to the left. Angel Island behind that. PA181898 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Crazy mural on the inside of Coit Tower depicting muggings and other crimes and tragedies. Hard to get great photos with the low light and crowds. I didn't go to the top because there was a long wait, it costs money, and there were plenty of great views from the base of the tower. PA181900 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181901 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181902 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Golden Gate Bridge off in the fog PA181904 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Students taking photos of their prototype toilet for third world countries to decrease diseases spread via poor sanitation and waste (he wasn't actually naked, just hiked up boxers). PA181909 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181911 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181912 by ryanlammi, on Flickr The previously seen church. PA181913 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181914 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181915 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181916 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181917 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181918 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181919 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181920 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181921 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181923 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181924 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181926 by ryanlammi, on Flickr Leaving Telegraph Hill and going toward Russian Hill PA181927 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181928 by ryanlammi, on Flickr I can't seem to get away from the church. But I'm not complaining. PA181931 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181932 by ryanlammi, on Flickr And I stumbled upon that really crazy winding road. PA181935 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181934 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181940 by ryanlammi, on Flickr From near the top. PA181941 by ryanlammi, on Flickr PA181944 by ryanlammi, on Flickr I stayed in SFO for about two more days, but I didn't take my camera with me. I did go to a beer fest called "Brews on the Bay". They had breweries all over the Bay Area on a World War II ship, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien. Of the 2,710 "Liberty Ships" built during WWII, this is one of only two that still float. It survived many battles, including the storming of Normandy on D-Day. Pretty cool to get drunk on a boat like that. Here's a bad cell phone picture from the boat. The only photo I have (I didn't trust myself with an expensive camera) After San Francisco I took a flight home. I was a little disappointed that BART workers were on strike, so I didn't get to take that to the airport, I had to take a bus :/ . The next weekend I went to Asheville, NC, so I might make a little album of those photos. Thanks for taking the trip out west with me. Hope you enjoyed it!
February 28, 201510 yr Nicely done. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 28, 201510 yr Great pics. Was just there for work last February...the coolest city in the US IMO. (Besides CLE of course :lol:)
March 1, 201510 yr So many great things to say about SF. You did such a nice job of capturing the sites! p.s. speaking of stumbling upon things there, I managed to run into this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove
March 2, 201510 yr They are some pretty good shots of SF. I was just there last week for 6 days. But truth be told, how many of those 800,000 plus are homeless? Has to be at least 5-10% of the population. The homeless are everywhere, and you can surely smell them. And drugs!! I saw people openly sticking needles into themselves in the civic area of the city. And I was really surprised at how dirty SF is. For a tourist destination you would think they would keep the city cleaner. There was definitely some of the most beautiful architecture I seen in the US there. And in the civic area of the city, one would think you could be in Cleveland's Group Plan area the buildings are so similar, and just as beautiful.
March 2, 201510 yr A visitor soon runs out of superlatives to describe walking around San Francisco. As often happens when a city is densely built on steep terrain, housing and private spaces are at a premium. Just having a garage and off street parking in SF catapults the value of a house far above those without parking. After visiting there several times, I concluded it is the most car-unfriendly place in the world. Best to take public transportation via BART. Traveling under San Pedro Bay in the underground rail tunnel from Berkeley is amazing but I wondered what would happen during an earthquake as we traveled deep under the bay waters. I also took the Ferry boat from San Rafael and loved the brisk ride into the harbor and the outdoor art displayed at the waterfront. The one time I took my own car to SF and stayed with a friend who lives there I was in constant fear of being "chalked" for parking too long. I frequently moved the car around until after 11 PM then rose early to move it again at 6 AM. I was advised by my host to leave nothing visible in the car as valuables left in cars soon disappear. But the positives far outweigh the negatives and it would be hard to argue San Francisco is not one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Given the astronomical increases in housing values, San Francisco is becoming a city of Millionaires and Billionaires. An older friend of mine bought a small Victorian townhome in SF's Noe Valley neighborhood in 1979 for about $80,000 and has turned down offers of over $2 million for it. He also had a tiny one car garage, a huge plus. I suppose the saying its a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there might apply. But SF's geographical limitations create one of the ultimate pedestrian friendly streetscapes. My aforementioned friend drove his small compact car down the zigzagging twisted street you photographed and the turns were so tight I swear we could almost see our car's rear bumper in front of us. There is no way one could see what there is to see in San Francisco in one day. Nearby Berkeley and Oakland are also worth visits and a short drive south is beautiful Santa Cruz a jewel-like beach-side resort and early surfing locale. Characters abound around the Bay area...the "gold Top Hat man" in the photo has nothing over the "Pink Umbrella Man" with his clown suit in Santa Cruz. No other place in the world is like the Bay area. Sedate old Ohio almost seems like Grant Wood's famous American Gothic painting by comparison but the Buckeye state has its own native charm and unlike the Bay area, remains relatively affordable as a place to live. Not as many characters, either. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
March 2, 201510 yr San Francisco is very beautiful (due mostly to it's location and topography). I enjoyed some of the architecture, but in general, I found the buildings themselves a little boring. New Orleans is easily the most beautiful city I've been to in the US. I also really like DC, Savannah, and Charleston. Of course, I also have a huge soft spot for Cincinnati and other Rust Belt cities, but I wouldn't consider them "beautiful" in the same way I consider New Orleans & co. beautiful.
March 2, 201510 yr I'm surprised you found New Orleans "beautiful." In many ways, it reminds me of rustbelt cities outside of the French Quarter & Garden District (for the record, I found New Orleans a beautiful city as well but not anymore so than, say, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh). I can certainly see Savannah and Charleston on your beauty list, though. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 2, 201510 yr Agreed. Solely on the basis of architecture, San Francisco would probably be way down the list. The Golden Gate Bridge and the needle form Trans America building stand out but the scores of side by side Victorian and Edwardian townhouses are all very similar. They can't hold a candle to some of Ohio's great historic homes and buildings but the steep terrain limited by the ocean on three sides necessitate the housing compactness. Contrast that with Los Angeles that sprawls forever from Huntington Beach in the west almost to the Arizona border in the east. NOLA really is charming with its French influenced architecture and historic neighborhoods. Although the Garden District is dazzling with its grand homes some of the most interesting dwellings are the iconic small shotguns. In Ohio, Cincinnati still has some way to go, but I feel it could be in the same league as far as urban charm in comparison to the cities you mentioned. The historic West End in Cincy strongly reminded me of the Vieux Carre (French Quarter) in NOLA. Every place has something uniquely to call its own.
March 2, 201510 yr I'm surprised you found New Orleans "beautiful." In many ways, it reminds me of rustbelt cities outside of the French Quarter & Garden District (for the record, I found New Orleans a beautiful city as well but not anymore so than, say, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh). I can certainly see Savannah and Charleston on your beauty list, though. There are some pockets of drab looking streets in New Orleans, and the metro as a whole is nothing particularly wonderful (lots of ugly sprawl), but between the French Quarter, almost everything along the St. Charles Streetcar line, and the neighborhoods to the East of the French Quarter (Marigny, Bywater, etc) the architecture is awesome and the old trees uprooting the sidewalks are almost magical. I also really like the slow, boulevard streets with tree-lined medians. Of course, streets with old growth trees are about 3 times more beautiful than those without (and about 30 degrees cooler). I would never buy a house in NOLA that wasn't shaded. It makes all the difference in comfort and beauty.
March 3, 201510 yr Nobody talks about how interesting so many of the trees and plants are in San Francisco (and Los Angeles). A lot of people have professional landscape designers in both cities and it makes a huge difference. People tend to have very small yards in SF if they have one at all, not unlike the denser parts of LA, and so they really do a lot with those small spaces.
March 3, 201510 yr I'm surprised you found New Orleans "beautiful." In many ways, it reminds me of rustbelt cities outside of the French Quarter & Garden District (for the record, I found New Orleans a beautiful city as well but not anymore so than, say, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh). I can certainly see Savannah and Charleston on your beauty list, though. There are some pockets of drab looking streets in New Orleans, and the metro as a whole is nothing particularly wonderful (lots of ugly sprawl), but between the French Quarter, almost everything along the St. Charles Streetcar line, and the neighborhoods to the East of the French Quarter (Marigny, Bywater, etc) the architecture is awesome and the old trees uprooting the sidewalks are almost magical. I also really like the slow, boulevard streets with tree-lined medians. Of course, streets with old growth trees are about 3 times more beautiful than those without (and about 30 degrees cooler). I would never buy a house in NOLA that wasn't shaded. It makes all the difference in comfort and beauty. Oh, I agree that places like Bywater are magical. I'm just sayin' overall I didn't find New Orleans a "beautiful standout" in comparison to other cities I find equally beautiful such as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, or Boston. I think that's the whole age thing coming into play. Older cities tend to have more detailed looks to them; even Louisville and Richmond are gorgeous in spots. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 7, 201510 yr San Francisco is very beautiful (due mostly to it's location and topography). I enjoyed some of the architecture, but in general, I found the buildings themselves a little boring. New Orleans is easily the most beautiful city I've been to in the US. I also really like DC, Savannah, and Charleston. Of course, I also have a huge soft spot for Cincinnati and other Rust Belt cities, but I wouldn't consider them "beautiful" in the same way I consider New Orleans & co. beautiful. Did you get to go to some of the more southren neighborhoods like Haight-Ashbury, the Castro or the Mission? (or even parts of Pacific Heights or what wasn't urban renewed in the Filmore district) - Basically most of the area you took pictures of was destroyed by the fires from the 1905 earthquake and those buildings are plainer/newer than the ones in the areas of town above that weren't affected by it. Example: https://4feet2mouths.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/2012-08-02-20-bay-area-road-trip-222.jpg
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