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SAN
FRANCISCO: INTRODUCTION... |
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SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA
 Sitting
on 43 hills, and surrounded on three sides by water, San
Francisco is ideally located so that almost every one
of its streets ends or begins with a panoramic sea view.
Some call it The City By the Bay, but to most of its residents,
it is known simply as The City. Seldom has there been
such a passion for preserving the past with its colorful
legends and architecture as there is in San Francisco.
Seven times, it has been rebuilt after fires and earthquakes;
and seven times, it has been carefully and lovingly restored.
The city varies in altitude from sea level to 929 feet
because of its configuration. The combined effect of the
many hills, the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, and
the Golden Gate Bridge is stunning in its beauty and scope.
Established in 1835 as a resting place along the trail
and called Yerba Buena, the village had fewer than 100
inhabitants for 13 years. The discovery of gold rapidly
raised that population figure to over 10,000. Only a handful
made a fortune from gold, but many stayed on to develop
the city that became San Francisco.
Today San Francisco is an important industrial, tourist
and financial center. Its financial district is often
called “Wall Street West.” The city port handles
huge amounts of cargo annually and ranks among the top
ten ports in the world for passenger traffic. George R.
Moscone Convention Center occupies a city block between
third and Fourth Streets and Howard and Folsom Streets
and is almost entirely built underground. Across the street,
is the Center for the Arts at the Yerba Buena Gardens,
a visual and performing arts complex.
San Francisco has a world-class symphony orchestra, opera,
and ballet. Other not to be missed attractions are the
San Francisco Maritime Museum, the California Academy
of Science, the Natural History Museum and the Japanese
Tea Garden. Restaurants and nightspots span the entire
spectrum of fine cuisine and the best in live music and
dance. Sports are at the top of the charts with everything
from golf, surfing, fishing, skiing, basketball and swimming
to the unforgettable San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco
Giants.
In recent years, San Francisco has consistently received
the highest score of any city in the United States in
Conde Nast Traveler Magazine's Readers' Choice Awards.
San Francisco also scored highest in the world in the
Restaurant category and highest in the United States in
the Environment Ambiance. The year 2000 marked the twelfth
of thirteen years that San Francisco has been designated
Best City in the United States and the third year as the
leader in the Restaurants category.
The Bay Area, extending from the suburban communities
north of Oakland and Berkeley south through the peninsula
and the San Jose area, is really one continuous mega city,
with San Francisco as its heart.
A prominent feature of San Francisco is that beautifully
fluffy, chilly, wet, heavy, material called “fog”
which makes the city's weather so mysterious, exciting,
and unpredictable. A rare combination of water, wind,
and topography creates Northern California's summer fog
bank. It lies off the coast, and rising air currents pull
it in when the land heats up. Held back by coastal mountains
along a 600-mile front, the low clouds seek out any passage
they can find. The easiest access happens to be the slot
where the Pacific Ocean penetrates the continental wall:
otherwise known as the Golden Gate!
While in San Francisco, be sure to save time to visit
Fisherman’s Wharf. The wharf once bustled with Sicilian
and Genoese fishermen unloading their catches to sell.
There is still a fishing fleet, but the wharf is lined
with more than a hundred seafood restaurants and steaming
crab pots as well as marine gear suppliers, and sidewalk
performers. From there it’s a short walk to Chinatown
with its pagoda roofs; colorful lampposts, and fascinating
shops. The 853-foot Transamerica pyramid marks the heart
of the Financial District, as does Embarcadero Center.
Nearby is the home of the new San Francisco Giants baseball
stadium, Pac Bell Park.
The main shopping, hotel, and theater district is at Union
Square. A few blocks farther on, the formerly run down
factory district has been reborn as a cultural center
with the Museum of Modern Art as its centerpiece. Major
galleries, museums and restaurants have opened there,
as well as Sony’s Metreon theater complex. Yerba
Buena Gardens provides constant family entertainment year
round with its ice rinks, parks and children’s play
areas.
It is wise to plan to spend a day of relaxation in Golden
Gate Park and to save another day for a quiet stroll along
Ocean Beach. A leisurely pace leaves time to enjoy exploring
the city and opens space for the unexpected, such as that
park that looked to be five minutes away on the map, but
is actually at the top of a steep hill!
San
Francisco is a city of beauty and dignity. It presents
to the visitor a banquet of sights, sounds, tastes and
aromas to sample, to savor, and to remember forever.
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SAN
FRANCISCO ATTRACTIONS:
San Francisco tours, attractions, sightseeing
and things to do. Book your activities online!
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