More Transportation

Moving along on the transportation theme, I've always thought it a little "nuts" to drive a car in a big city. These are "street cars" powered by overhead electrical cables. The really neat thing about these were the "variety". I saw gasoline at $4.30 a gallon and the parking fee at the hotel was $53 a night.

San Francisco has a variety of different modes for the savvy traveler. I saw hundreds of "Prius" taxi-cabs. I saw Segways, and some really neat motorcycles with GPS features that were VERY interesting to ride.

I saw so many Prius hybrids that I was beginning to think they were the "state car" of California. I'll post more information and pictures about these on the next entry.

Oh yes.....and bicycles were VERY big here too. I saw thousands of them. It was refreshing to see so many on the flat areas near the coast. All the streets had special "bike lanes" specifically for the riders.

Cable Cars in San Francisco

I've been to many places in the world and they all have their own "unique" characteristics. In San Francisco it's the transportation system that caught my eye. This city has the most "fun" mass transit of any I've ever visited in the world.

Marilyn and I soon figured out how to travel from one place to another very easily in this town. The "hills" demand it, and this is the perfect solution for those not used to them. The "incline" is amazing in this town. Although boarding one of these cable cars may take a few minutes, they're well worth the wait for a nice ride. It's especially fun to hang onto the "outside of the car" when moving up or down these steep hills.

We just couldn't get enough of them and rode them as often as possible. Here's another quick video of the fun.

Have you ever wondered what they do at the end of the line?  This is what happens when you get there and need to turn around and head back the other way.

San Francisco

My last trip to California was less than 10 years ago. At that time, the Midwest was lush with tall vast acres of green corn. Today I noticed big changes in those fields.. A record heat wave has scorched the land and created desolate brown splotches below us as I fly across the United States towards San Francisco. Below me, I see vast fields of natural gas wells as I fly above Colorado. A new technology called "fracking" has enabled mega corporations to profitably harvest this resource but it also emits a deadly methane gas which harms the environment. Before our trip is over, we will experience 109 degree heat on the train in Fresno. I wonder if this foretells the inevitable in my home state of West Virginia.

Our tour group consists of around 40 travelers this year. Most of them are retired professional people. One is a doctor, another is a practicing lawyer, and another is a school teacher. The rest appear to be former businessmen and women. There are also several former Foreign Service people on this trip.

Our tour revolves around the naturalist icon of John Muir and the giant redwood trees. John Muir was born in Scotland and raised under the Calvinist theology of his father. Upon entering the United States, he soon found himself in the midst of a horrible civil war and the possibility of forced enlistment in the armed forces. He quickly fled to Canada and lived there until the end of war.

Although self taught, he was an expert in Botany and Geology. He heard tales of giant redwood trees in the wild places near San Francisco and wanted to see them.  Our first sighting of these trees would be just outside the San Francisco city limits in a grove of coastal redwoods appropriately named John Muir woods. These trees are not the largest of the giant redwoods but are the tallest of the species. We got our first glimpse of them in the higher elevations above the town of Sausalito.

This is the second trip Marilyn and I have taken with the Tauck Company. Our first was to Scotland, Whales, and England. Their guides are the best in the business, their lodging is superb in both quality and location, and the coach service is outstanding. As an example, we are staying at the Weston hotel in Union Square; it's the shopping hub of this section of the city and Macy's is just across the street.