…enough to make an urban hiker happy in a big city!
First off, I have to make a full and frank confession, and a big thank you. We didn’t actually walk to all of the places photographed in this post. One day we were lucky enough to be given a car tour around the various neighbourhoods of San Francisco, with an emphasis on looking in from the edges. A huge thank you to Jet Eliot for this wonderful overview of a fascinating city – a memorable day out!
Overview!I have to say, I think you could live for years in SF and never get to grips with all the stories and possibilities it has to offer. It is a mass – and mess – of contradictions, in the best possible way. I’ve been struggling with figuring out how to convey our visit in a short blog post and, to be honest, concluded that I can’t. It’ll have to be several parts posted intermittently over the next while or so, but not week on week. So bear with me (if you’re still here!) and my next confession is that I’ve decided to pretty much use the unedited notes I jotted down there each evening – I do promise I spellchecked most of it. If it is a little incoherent or disconnected, never mind, let’s say that might also be true of parts of SF…
A hardboiled apartment building (huh?)All this talk of confessions, promises, and being honest, why, it’s like I’m wishing I could write a hardboiled detective mystery. Well now, we didn’t know before arrival, but it turned out we were staying in the same apartment building Dashiell Hammett lived in for a while.
You should read this, I tell ya!Once I found this out, I immediately got hold of a copy of The Maltese Falcon, and it was quite the thrill to be reading and recognizing some of the place names in the book, to be treading those same mean streets, let me tell ya, sister. (Hmm, best leave it to writers of detective fiction…)
The streets of San Francisco (really, PlaidCamper?) can be tough, like many big cities. Our exchange with a cab driver upon arrival:
Me: Hi there! (Ooh, the air is warm!) San Loretto Apartments, Nob Hill please.
Jamal: That’s near the Tenderloin! Do you know the Tenderloin? Don’t go to the Tenderloin after dark. There are prostitutes, drug dealers, and other criminals. It’s not Canada!
Me: How close is our apartment to the Tenderloin?
Jamal: Not far! Don’t go down the hill towards the Tenderloin. It’s not Canada. I like driving. I once drove to Toronto to visit my sister and her baby. Took me two weeks, there and back, with three days in Toronto. Stay away from the Tenderloin. I deliver cars. I like driving. California, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Delivered from Africa. This is the Tenderloin! I won’t stop, don’t worry. Maybe you could visit here in the day, but not after dark. See the people?”
Not Jamal’s taxi – but he would have loved this car. He liked driving.Not wishing to taint Jamal’s vision of Canada as a crime-free northern Utopia, we agreed the Tenderloin wasn’t like Canada. Anyway, as Jamal slowed down but didn’t stop, we did see the people, and they might have been up to less than good. We didn’t visit later, not even during the day, not even out of curiosity. Perhaps another time. For a detailed description of the Tenderloin, you could read chapter two of Gary Kamiya’s Cool Gray City of Love. Actually, read all of it, it’s a splendid book, and that chapter makes for a wonderful introduction to the colourful history of the Tenderloin. As Kamiya puts it a “radioactive core of junkies, drunks, transvestites, dealers, thugs, madmen, hustlers, derelicts, prostitutes, and lowlifes”…so, not all bad then.
A good read!Each evening after dark, I did enjoy sitting at a small corner table in our rented apartment, wedged in between two windows, taking notes as the sounds of a different city drifted up. We live in a big – for Canada – city, close to the downtown, with an evening soundtrack of sirens, trams, and big city noises. It was the same but different in SF. The apartment block is on an intersection between Sacramento and Leavenworth, so reasonably busy. The sirens were more frequent, the clanking cable cars almost musical, the streets more populated later into the night, and the air warmer, with pedestrians strolling less hurriedly than the brisk, let’s-fight-the-chill-air speed walk we have in Calgary. It was fun to hear the bursts of laughter, and snatches of conversation as passersby came and went.
Part of the city soundtrack – almost musicalI’ll leave it here for now. As I said near the start, this is the first of a somewhat jumbled series of posts about SF. It’s a beguiling city, and the fun here is in writing and attempting to make some sense of it. More to follow later…
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to make a comment or share a San Francisco story or book recommendation!
I am a would be outdoorsman - that is if I had more time, skills and knowledge. When I can, I love being outdoors, just camping, hiking, snowboarding, xc skiing, snowshoeing, paddling a canoe or trying something new. What I lack in ability, I make up for in enthusiasm and having a go. I'd never really survive for long out there in the wild, but I enjoy pretending I could if I had to...
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13 thoughts on “Hills, thrills, and tender tales…”
Interesting post. Thanks for sharing. If I get back to San Francisco someday, I will be sure not to go to the Tenderloin. Ha 🙂
Thank you! I hope you get back there one day – it is such an interesting city (and you could always take a cab through the Tenderloin district!)
Have a wonderful week.
You might have been sitting in the same place Dashiell Hammett sat, taking notes and listening to the snippets of San Francisco. That’s pretty exciting, pc. Thanks so much for the kind words, I had just as much fun as you and Mrs. pc. Am looking forward to reading more about your urban adventure. Great photos!
You are welcome, Jet!
We stayed in apartment 3, as did Hammett – but before we got too excited by that, it turned out all the apartments have been renumbered several times over the years. But maybe…
I hope you are having a good day!
This post really resonates with me. Actually, I’m not sure if one could spend a lifetime in this city, and know everything there is to know, see everything there is to see. I just don’t know 🙂
Glad you had an excellent time of it in old SF. The city, as a character or character display, is surely exciting and diverse and contradictory, something to savor as you recollect experiences for your write up. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing and seeing more in this series!
Thanks, Walt. It is a challenging city, that’s for sure, and one we’ll return to sometime. Until then, I’ll spend some time trying to do it justice in words and pictures…
Have a great week! (I finally got around to ordering a copy of Earthstars…looking forward to that!)
Great photo of not Jamal’s taxi and thanks for the book recommendation. I’ve already looked up Cool Gray City of Love and it sounds like another book that needs to be added to my library. Enjoyed reading about your big city adventure and about the sounds of the “city soundtrack.”
I’d take more cabs if they were more like not Jamal’s taxi! The book is great, a really interesting neighbourhood by neighbourhood portrait of SF by a resident happy to tell it warts and all.
Thanks, and have a great week!
I think we’d like Denver – smallish and peaceful is just fine for city living. Plus, you have quick access to spectacular wilderness!
Have a wonderful week!
OldPlaidCamper 
Interesting post. Thanks for sharing. If I get back to San Francisco someday, I will be sure not to go to the Tenderloin. Ha 🙂
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Thank you! I hope you get back there one day – it is such an interesting city (and you could always take a cab through the Tenderloin district!)
Have a wonderful week.
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You might have been sitting in the same place Dashiell Hammett sat, taking notes and listening to the snippets of San Francisco. That’s pretty exciting, pc. Thanks so much for the kind words, I had just as much fun as you and Mrs. pc. Am looking forward to reading more about your urban adventure. Great photos!
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You are welcome, Jet!
We stayed in apartment 3, as did Hammett – but before we got too excited by that, it turned out all the apartments have been renumbered several times over the years. But maybe…
I hope you are having a good day!
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This post really resonates with me. Actually, I’m not sure if one could spend a lifetime in this city, and know everything there is to know, see everything there is to see. I just don’t know 🙂
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Still, there is the fun in anticipating another visit, and uncovering just a little more each time…
I hope your week is going well!
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Exactly! It is indeed 🙂
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Glad you had an excellent time of it in old SF. The city, as a character or character display, is surely exciting and diverse and contradictory, something to savor as you recollect experiences for your write up. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing and seeing more in this series!
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Thanks, Walt. It is a challenging city, that’s for sure, and one we’ll return to sometime. Until then, I’ll spend some time trying to do it justice in words and pictures…
Have a great week! (I finally got around to ordering a copy of Earthstars…looking forward to that!)
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Great photo of not Jamal’s taxi and thanks for the book recommendation. I’ve already looked up Cool Gray City of Love and it sounds like another book that needs to be added to my library. Enjoyed reading about your big city adventure and about the sounds of the “city soundtrack.”
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I’d take more cabs if they were more like not Jamal’s taxi! The book is great, a really interesting neighbourhood by neighbourhood portrait of SF by a resident happy to tell it warts and all.
Thanks, and have a great week!
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Same here, people keep telling me how this is not Finland. No, it’s Denver, a very peaceful smallish city.
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I think we’d like Denver – smallish and peaceful is just fine for city living. Plus, you have quick access to spectacular wilderness!
Have a wonderful week!
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