The Golden Gate, the hills that test you, the Mission's burritos, and a city that somehow contains multitudes on a small peninsula
I first went to San Francisco in April 2019, an obvious date to choose given the weather: the city is at its most clear in late spring before the summer fog sets in. The Golden Gate Bridge visible from the Marin Headlands without fog is a different sight than the version buried in grey — both worth seeing, but the clear day version closes the distance between expectation and reality.
San Francisco operates on hills. The topography isn't incidental — it's structural. Neighborhoods are divided and defined by which hill they're on or in the valley between: the Castro on its slope, the Mission in its flat valley, Nob Hill at the top, North Beach between the hills and the Bay. Walking the city means constant elevation change, and the views from the high points (Twin Peaks, Tank Hill, the Potrero Hill crest) are legitimately among the best urban panoramas in the country.
The Mission District is where I tend to spend the most time in San Francisco — the taquerias, the murals, the longest stretch of sun in a city that otherwise skews foggy, the energy of a neighbourhood that is in constant negotiation between its working-class Latino roots and the tech workers who've moved into it over the past decade. The Mission burrito (a specific thing: a large flour tortilla, rice, beans, meat, sour cream, wrapped tightly, the size of a forearm) is one of the great street foods of any American city.
Walking the Golden Gate Bridge is the obvious thing to do and is entirely worthwhile — the views from the bridge deck to Alcatraz and the city and Marin are different from any other angle, the scale of the suspension towers is comprehensible only up close, and the colour (International Orange, chosen partly to be visible in fog) reads completely differently in person than in photographs.
Alcatraz, offshore in the Bay, is another case of a place whose reputation for being a tourist trap obscures that it is genuinely interesting. The audio tour narrated by former inmates and guards is thoughtful. The island's gardens — maintained by Alcatraz's civilian population and then its prison population before being abandoned and now being restored — are surprising. The views back to the San Francisco skyline from the cell house are exceptional.
