Day 16 - 14/09/2022 - San Francisco

"I'm confused," said my Dad after I declared that if I lived in this part of the world and could choose to live wherever I would probably choose San Francisco. The confusion was due to the fact that, after visiting it again three years ago, I berated San Francisco as one of the ugliest cities I had ever seen. It was a poor contrast, I had said, to the San Francisco of some of my favourite movies from the 1990s, including Mrs. Doubtfire (I wasn't wrong there). When I first visited San Francisco in 2007, I was disappointed that the only place in the city we were taken to was Alcatraz, somewhere I wasn't particularly curious about seeing. When I returned three years ago, I was adamant that I would see more of the city. But I went to Pier 39 and found it touristy and ugly (I stand by it). I went to Chinatown and found it dismal (I'm sorry, but ditto). I walked up and down many streets, including Broadway, and found them all depressing and grey, and practically gasped at the TV when I afterwards rewatched Mrs. Doubtfire and couldn't recognise the lovely Broadway she was walking down from my memory of the horrendous grey rectangular buildings that I had walked past for what felt like an eternity.

I couldn't have been more surprised, therefore, when we arrived in San Francisco, my friend Genesis having taken the day off to spend it with me, and suddenly everywhere I looked I saw the beautiful, impressive Victorian houses I had for so long associated with San Francisco but never actually seen in person. "But what about the Mrs. Doubtfire house?" I asked fearfully. Had it been torn down and transformed into one of the rectangular monstrosities I had seen? No! A quick google search took us to the crossing of Broadway and Steiner, where we say the exact house, definitely not as beautiful now painted in grey rather than yellow, but still positively gorgeous. I hadn't realised that Robin Williams, my favourite actor of all time, and one of my favourite people ever, had actually lived in San Francisco himself. We saw a mural dedicated to him and went through the Robin Williams Tunnel, which, with its rainbow, looks as beautiful as any tunnel could. After Steiner Street, we stopped at Alamo Square to look at the Painted Ladies, and by then I had realised that I had been completely wrong in supposing these were virtually the only pretty houses left in the city.

Afterwards, it was down to the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood, where we passed by some of the coolest shops I had ever seen, selling everything and anything from vintage clothes, cannabis, witchy supplies and tie-dye clothes. I went around collecting stickers with David Bowie, Wednesday Addams and the Sanderson Sisters on them, and at one of the shops, Love on Haigh: Tiedye Emporium, I found out that there is a new Bowie documentary now on at IMAX. The same shopkeeper who told me this at some point waved goodbye to the tourists in the double decker bus that passed by and shouted: "Welcome to San Francisco! It's great to have you here, have an amazing day!"

San Francisco, I love you, and I'm sorry, I take it all back.

The Mrs. Doubtfire house on Steiner Street

The Painted Ladies

Robin Williams mural in Haight-Ashbury