Travel to San Francisco – Amateur Traveler Episode 159 Transcript

page 4 of 15 of Travel to San Francisco – Amateur Traveler Episode 159 Transcript

Richard: That’s coming up, it’s coming up. What I’d recommend doing, is noting the Cliff House and thinking “Ah yes, there’s that thing that that guy mentioned.”. Ah, here’s the good thing; this is something I actually used to do all the time, when I had a weekend morning free, I would get on my motorcycle, ride out to Lands End, not go to the Cliff House, but go to this little greasy spoon diner called Louis’, or something like that. The food is not fantastic, it’s vinyl counter tops, it’s a greasy spoon in every way that you’re picturing that, but the view is the best view of any diner on the planet. It’s right on the edge of the cliffs, you’re looking out over the breakers towards Japan. There’s Seal Rock out there, which certainly you know, Chris, the seals have long since migrated from Seal Rock to Fisherman’s Wharf where the tourists are more generous with their handouts. From there you can see not just the water, and not just Ocean Beach spread out to the south, that you’ve just passed as you drove north, but you can also see down into the ruins of Sutro Baths. Sutro Baths, it looks like a Roman ruin down there, it’s a couple of big, concrete pits full of water. It used to be an enormous Victorian enclosed natatorium, a greenhouse style structure, with glass panes and elaborate ironwork, and it was the most popular joint in town, also accessible via the new railroads that were starting to link the city with the seaside back in – this was probably more like the 1880’s now – but it’s cold and wet out there, foggy, that’s the sad truth about San Francisco that many people, especially those who are visiting California for the first time, they’re thinking palm trees and tanning on the beach, that’s more than likely not going to be the result of a visit to the seaside. But this big, beautiful old natatorium provided a place where people could enjoy the water without freezing to death. It had heated water, it was pumped full of steam, they had waiters in tuxedos, and fancy snacks, and hot springs, and cold plunges, and high diving boards. It was an elaborate, fabulous thing. Now completely gone, but you can enjoy this view.

Chris: We should pause at this point, and talk about what time of year would you recommend people to come to San Francisco, because you’re right that I’ve certainly run, as you have, into a lot of tourists wearing the sweatshirt that they’ve just bought on Fisherman’s Wharf because they were coming to California in the summer and thought it would be warm. Quite possibly the sweatshirt emblazoned with the quote attributed to Mark Twain, “The coldest winter I ever spent was that summer I spent in California.”.

Richard: That’s right!

Chris: When would you recommend people come?

Richard: I’d say the best time of year is that period commonly referred to as ‘Indian Summer’. Late August and September. That is the best time of year, bar none. It’ll actually feel more like the summer that we San Franciscans know from television and movies! Sunshine, birds chirping, that sort of thing. That’s September. You can run into the odd, gorgeous day in the early part of the Spring, too; March, April, May can be beautiful too. The irony – and this is what captures the tourists in the sweatshirts that you’ve just referred to – is that the summer creates the conditions that bring that most famous element of San Francisco into being, i.e. the fog.

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