Anna S. E. Lundberg

Coach, Speaker, Writer

5 Highlights of My Month in San Francisco

By 2 Comments

I’m doing a little lifestyle experiment this autumn, which is to see if I can work and travel at the same time. I’m staying in each place for a month to give me enough stability and familiarity to allow me to focus on all my projects and clients, while continuing to try new things and have fun. I’ll tell you more about that when the experiment is complete but for now I want to share my latest city experience following my previous month in Dallas. These are 5 highlights of my time in San Francisco…

1. Feeling like a local

Potrero Hill
The view from the top of my hill in Potrero, east of the Mission district

Perhaps the biggest joy in a new city comes when you succeed in working out the public transport system. I quickly had my local buses sussed out, 19 and 10 if I was going down into town, 33 to go to the Golden Gate Park. I also had my local liquor store to buy the essentials, my local Wholefoods and, of course, my local Starbucks. The fact that I was there for a month meant that I had less pressure to rush around and do stuff, and I’ve been incredibly productive working from home and from cafés in the city. Experiencing a bit of the housing pain that the rest of the city is living also made me feel more like “one of them”, with my lovely old and very expensive flat bringing endless excitement in the form of mice, a power cut, and the bedroom door falling off its hinges. It was also interesting to be staying in an Airbnb while the city was voting on whether they would make it illegal!

2. Escaping to Alcatraz

Alcatraz from above
Alcatraz Island… Wondering how I got this angle? See #5 😉

The one touristy thing I did do was book a tour to Alcatraz. I took the early bird boat across one Sunday morning and spent a good few hours exploring the island, mostly wandering the corridors of the main prison. It’s a strange idea, really, to turn a high-security prison into a tourist attraction. The announcement on the boat over proclaimed, as if it were a laundry detergent or a new vacuum cleaner, “Alcatraz: it’s so much more than just a prison”; on arrival we were told about the free Wi-Fi and the official #cellfie hashtag; and as I embarked on the audio tour I was told merrily, “Hope you enjoy your time in prison”. In the museum shop you can even buy a prisoner’s uniform, the metal bowls they ate in, salt and pepper shakers… On returning that evening, I continued my Alcatraz education with a rewatch of The Rock, a great film with Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage and Ed Harris that happens to be the film I watched on my first-ever date with a boy, back in the day. Very romantic.

Join me on my visit and find out more about Alcatraz in this little video that I recorded:

3. Doing random things

Carving my spindle
Carving my stake for the zombie apocalypse!

Being in a big city offers you opportunities to do all sorts of things. My first Saturday in the city, I went to a writing marathon meet-up, where we all sat together in a café in SOMA writing all day with breaks for lunch and coffee. The following Sunday, I did a survival course up in Marin County. My visit happened to coincide with a Tedx conference so of course I jumped on the opportunity to go to one of these live for the first time. I went for fondue – Japanese and Swiss! – and returned to one of my favourite restaurants, La Mar cebichería, for dinner and of course a couple of pisco sours. I went to see the Martian (3D, naturally) and on my last night, I went to the San Francisco premiere of Idina Menzel’s latest musical, If/Then. And still there was so much more I could have done – visiting the Cable Car Museum and the Walt Disney Museum, SUP-ing over in Sausalito, sampling more of the bars and restaurants…

4. Running the Golden Gate Half

Anna and the Golden Gate Bridge
I should be able to shave a good ten minutes off my time considering all the selfies I took en route!

Well, running in general really. It’s such a fantastic way to explore and get to know a city, running through neighbourhoods you’d never otherwise see. I also had a few sessions with a running coach for the first time, meeting in the Golden Gate Park and discussing strategy. I lived right at the top of the highest hill (in the tallest tower, locked up by the evil queen… no, just kidding) so any training session by definition included hill training. I noticed such a difference even in those four weeks: when the half-marathon came, people around me were walking up the hills and I just kept on running. Boom! And what an experience to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, with a view across to the city. Thank goodness I took all my selfies on the way over to Sausalito, because by the time I was coming back the other way the fog had rolled in, in true San Francisco style.

5. Flying over San Francisco

San Francisco from above
Soaring the skies… I love the geometric patterns of this city, you just don’t get that in the mess that is London.

From running on the bridge to flying over it. My friend from Geneva asked me one evening if I wanted to go flying – errrr, yeah! – and then off we went to Palo Alto to take off in a little Cessna 172 Skyhawk. I’ve never been in such a small plane and I’ve never been flown by a pilot friend so that in itself made it pretty exhilarating (sorry, mum!). We flew over Stanford University, the huge houses in the expensive suburbs, the city itself and the Golden Gate Park, we did a 360 over Alcatraz, and we flew up past Half Moon Beach to Point Reyes and back. As we flew over the ocean, we even saw a school of whales. Magic! By the end of the flight, I was even considering studying for my own pilot’s licence…

Here’s a little glimpse of what we saw on our 1.5-hour flight:

…and that’s it! Bye bye San Francisco, it’s been special. And now: aloha Hawaii!

 

The practical bit:

Alcatraz tours – Alcatraz Cruises offers a few different options, including the early bird that I did as well as a night tour (eek!). The audio tour of the main prison building is included in the ticket price, and the return boat journey is free too so you won’t be stuck there if you lose your ticket!

Flying – Although AirAli (my pilot friend’s made-up airline) doesn’t do commercial flights, a quick search brought up for example Seaplane Adventures, who offer a shorter 30-minute tour of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge for $189.

The Golden Gate Half Marathon – This is an annual race and you can already secure your place in next year’s race, which will take place on 6th November 2016. I thought it was quite badly organised in terms of providing information and the bib pick-up but it did all go smoothly on the day and I got my results right after I finished. And the medal is huge!

West Coast USA Road Trip: From Los Angeles to San Francisco

By 1 Comment

I’ve always romanticised the idea of a road trip. There’s something about the open road, the fact that you can just pack up your things and go, you can stop wherever and whenever you want to, and you also have plenty of time to get to know the person you’re travelling with. Just look at Thelma and Louise and the deep bonds they formed as they… well, okay, they were in quite an extreme situation. Luckily for us my aunt and I didn’t get into that level of trouble when we took the roads of California for our ten-day trip.

For me, the planning of a trip is part of the fun and I’d done all sorts of calculations to see what we could manage in the time we had. As is often the case, I probably overstretched it a little – we drove over 2,000 miles in the end – but the result was a trip that can only be described as completely epic. We had plenty of time to explore the places we visited, to tick off a few items on the bucket list, and even to memorise all the US states and their capitals. What more could you want in a holiday?

Cocktails in LA
Two girls ready to have some fun. It’s all about the rooftop bar!

On a road trip, you don’t really want to spend a lot of time stuck in traffic in the city, so we planned to leave Los Angeles as soon as we could. Arriving on Thursday evening, we had booked into The Standard in Downtown LA, mostly (okay, only) because it’s a hotel that’s known for its rooftop bar. We figured we wouldn’t have time to explore the city but a couple of drinks at the rooftop bar would be the perfect remedy for jet lag after a long journey, in my case halfway round the globe.

Hollywood sign
Of course we couldn’t leave LA without stopping for some snaps of at least one iconic landmark…

The next morning we headed out of town. Our first stop was in Santa Monica, a gorgeous seaside town with a fairground pier that reminded me of Brighton – except, perhaps, for the weather. Here, we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp, a tribute to Forrest Gump’s prawn-obsessed buddy, and bought hats to protect our little heads from the burning sun as we took the top down on our lovely yellow Beetle cabriolet.

Solvang, California
We couldn’t resist stopping in Solvang, a little Danish colony founded in the early 20th century and offering the best (and largest) pastry I’ve ever had. YUM.

For our next overnight stop, I had selected a point that looked like it was more or less halfway between LA and San Francisco, at the “international landmark destination” Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. Named after its founder not the Madonna, this is a crazily kitsch hotel, each room different and with a restaurant decorated with huge flowers and fairy lights galore.

The Lone Cypress
The Lone Cypress is over 250 years old and is one of the points of interest that is called out along the 17-mile drive.

The famous route between LA and San Francisco is Highway 1 while the most scenic stretch is arguably the 17-mile drive that goes around the Monterey peninsula between Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove. It cost 10 dollars to enter this drive as it’s a national park, but it’s a small price to pay for stunning views out into the ocean (and plenty of golf clubs if that’s what you’re into).

Golden Gate Bridge
The famous fog lay over the bridge as we crossed over to Sausalito but it soon cleared as we reached the other side.

Having been playing Scott MacKenzie’s San Francisco (be sure to weeeeeear flowers in your haaaaaair) on repeat most of the day, we finally arrived into sunny San Francisco to be welcomed by free wine in the hotel reception, very nice. After having the most delicious ceviche and several pisco sours at La Mar, taking me back to my time in Lima (thank you, Marco!), I even ventured out into the SF nightlife with “the locals” (actually not-so-local friends from school) that took me to a bar in SOMA, to a Senegalese club, and to the city’s best burger and pizza joint, Sam’s, located just off Chinatown and open until 3am.

Golden Gate Bridge selfie
Golden Gate Bridge – I’ve optimistically signed up to the Golden Gate half-marathon in November so I’ll be back there soon enough!

My aunt and I had hoped to do the touristy thing of visiting Alcatraz the following morning, but when checking the ferries a few weeks before we had found that the tours were already full. Instead we headed out to Sausalito, a picturesque little town across the Golden Gate Bridge with beautiful views of the ocean with sailing boats and stand-up paddle boarders passing peacefully by. I think I’d like to live there one day!

Next up, ballooning and wine tasting in Napa Valley…

 

The practical bit:

The Standard, Downtown LA – It’s all about the rooftop bar!

Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo – This looked like it was about halfway between LA and San Francisco but in fact Highway 1 is a much windier road up north so it might be better to travel a bit further north before stopping for the night if you, like us, are doing the whole distance in two days.

17-mile drive – The standard direction seems to be from Pacific Grove on the north side of the peninsula to Pebble Beach on the south side. On entering, you get a map with various sights marked out along the route.

Best Western Tuscan Plus, San Francisco – We chose this hotel for its location on Fisherman’s Wharf, which houses a number of tourist attractions as well as many seafood restaurants. The Alcatraz ferry leaves from around here, while La Mar Cebicheria Peruana is in The Embarcadero in the east.

The Spinnaker, Sausalito – My second taste of oysters, darling, plus some very nice sole, with views of the little harbour and even a glimpse of the top of the Golden Gate bridge beyond the trees.