Gary and Brenda's California Trip

California
San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Muir Woods, Napa and Sonoma Valley, and some Coast

DAY 1, Part 1: Alamo Square Park

Houses from Family Ties TV series

After we landed in San Francisco and checked into our hotel, we started walking, since, according to the map, Alamo Square Park was 7-8 blocks from our hotel. These are the houses that were used in the opening of Bob Saget's and John Stamos's series, "Full House". They are known as "The Painted Ladies." What we found out is that what looks like a block on the map we were using didn't include all of the streets, plus it didn't indicate the rapid change in elevation.
We had been sitting in the airplane for hours, and we had a somewhat lengthy drive up from the airport. So launching out from the hotel to go up the hill to Alamo Square Park was more than we had bargained for. It wasn't the steepest hill we would encounter, but it was a challenge at the beginning. Going up hill will tax the heart, but going downhill is another story. My toes were getting compressed from my feet sliding toward the front of the shoes (this cannot be helped), and since my heels were the first to hit the pavement and my feet were continually sliding towards the front of the shoes, I quickly developed blisters. And when you're heading downhill, the knees are part of the body's breaking system. It isn't long before a person feels like they need knee replacements. One more thing. Going downhill jars the whole body so that the lower back gets sore. It wasn't long before we were willing to wait for buses, trolleys, or trams -- no matter how long it took for them to pick us up. Oh, and those gel inserts for the shoes really work great.

Below are some pictures of other houses around the park, and some have the skyline of the city in the background.
Some houses around Alamo Square Park

Some houses around Alamo Square Park

One thing that becomes apparent when you travel around San Francisco is that the city is dotted by parks. They are used by the residents of the local neighborhoods. Whenever we arrived at a park, we found quite a few residents at the park, and there were always a lot of dogs playing and walking with their owners.