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EnCompass^® The AAA Companion

July \| August 2004 Volume 78 Issue 4

Feature Article

Where Getting Around IS the Fun!
San Francisco rides your kids will remember (and most are free!)

Photo: San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau

By Clark Norton

When my wife and I started traveling with our kids, we soon discovered that our ideas of what makes a trip fun or worthwhile were very different from their ideas. On our first trip to the zoo, we assumed the kids would want to see exotic animals. Wrong! They wanted to ride the "Little Safari" choo choo. When we took them to the mountains, we thought they'd love learning to ski. Foolish parents! For them, riding the chairlift was the thing. And as for seeing some of the world's biggest trees in Yosemite? Those were OK, but the tram ride through them was awesome.

Maybe that's because my kids grew up in San Francisco, where cable cars, ferry boats, spectacular drives and other ways of getting around sometimes overshadowed everything else.

Here are some suggestions for keeping your family happily on the move in the City by the Bay — and a few things to see when your kids finally let you stop.

Hop aboard

With their bells clanging, brakes screeching and cables humming, San Francisco's Victorian-era cable cars are a thrilling throwback to another age. The only National Historic Landmarks that move, these antique conveyances have been climbing and descending some of the city's steepest streets since 1873. And for $3 a ride, they're still the best show in town. Using a combination of teamwork, timing and muscle, the gripman and the brakeman work the ingenious machinery that propels the open-air cars forward and brings them to a halt on hills that plunge precipitously toward the bay. (Be sure children are sitting or standing safely away from the edges and are holding on tight.) Ride them to Fisherman's Wharf, Nob Hill, North Beach — and the free-of-charge Cable Car Museum (on the corner of Washington and Mason streets, next to Chinatown), where your kids can discover the "ancient" secrets of what makes the cable cars go…all without engines.

Slow but wacky

Officially, it's the 1000 block of Lombard Street, but everybody knows it as "The Crookedest Street in the World." With its eight hairpin curves, designed in the 1920s to enable motorists to negotiate its incredibly steep 40 percent grade, the Crookedest Street zigzags down the east face of Russian Hill. Lined with houses and landscaped with flowers, this short, snake-like stretch of red cobblestone may be, inch for inch, the most traveled piece of roadway in existence. Kids almost always love the weaving back and forth — take it at about five miles per hour and you won't need Dramamine — but to add to the fun, don't tell them where they're going before you set out. The crooked street starts at the corner of Hyde and Lombard, and you may encounter a mini-traffic jam of cars waiting their turn. (Don't try this in an RV.) If your kids are ready for more driving excitement, wheel them two blocks down to the corner of Hyde and Filbert streets, where Filbert begins a one-block, 31.5 percent downward grade. It's one of San Francisco's steepest descents, and there are no switchbacks-just straight down...down...down. Oh yes-check your brakes first.

A bridge so near

Since opening in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge — which some kids and parents are surprised to discover is actually orange — has become probably the most celebrated and photographed span in the world. Stretching north 1.7 miles across the straits (aka the "Golden Gate") from San Francisco to Marin County, with two towers soaring 750 feet into the air, it's still one of the world's longest suspension bridges. Driving it is plenty exciting (more than 40 million vehicles cross it each year), but to fully appreciate the structure and its surroundings, try walking or biking across.

Park your car at the lot on the San Francisco side and set out along the pedestrian lane that runs along the eastern (bay) side of the bridge. Even if you just stroll out for a few minutes, it's a memorable experience. Standing some 220 feet above the water, you'll feel the whish of cars zooming by and, often, a pronounced sway, as the wind howls and fog swirls. From this stunning vantage point, your kids can pick out famous landmarks like Alcatraz, Angel Island, Fort Point, and Coit Tower, and ogle a parade of sailboats, freighters and even windsurfers passing below. If your kids are old enough to ride bikes well, you can opt to cycle across. The best time is on weekends and holidays, when cyclists follow the lane on the west (ocean) side of the bridge — on most weekdays, you have to share the east lane with pedestrians. From the west side you can also stop and admire the view at several points along the way, as the Pacific crashes up against the craggy cliffs and rocky shores of both sides of the Golden Gate.

Escape to Alcatraz

When notorious criminals like Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly took their federally mandated boat rides to Alcatraz, they could never have guessed that someday people would willingly wait in line and buy tickets to follow in their wake. For kids, the ferry ride to the onetime maximum-security prison, which sits in sinister isolation in the middle of San Francisco Bay, sets the stage for one of the eeriest attractions around. During the 10-minute, mile-and-a-quarter ride, the color and bustle of Fisherman's Wharf recede in the background and the 12-acre island (now a national park) draws menacingly nearer, its lighthouse often shrouded in misty fog. Alcatraz guards used to frighten prisoners with tales of man-eating sharks in the bay-they weren't true (we hope), but may have held off an escape attempt or two.

Once on the island, your family can view the tiny, spartan cells that held Capone and his ilk and the isolation block where special troublemakers languished in near-total darkness. (Bonus: Informal studies have shown that by the ferry ride back, many children have already renounced lives of crime.)

Alcatraz is a huge draw, so reserve your boat tickets well in advance, especially in summer and on holiday weekends throughout the year. Blue and Gold Fleet ferries leave several times daily from Pier 41 on Fisherman's Wharf; tours start at $11.50 for ages 12 and up and $8.25 for ages 5 to 11. You can also combine trips to Alcatraz with gorgeous Angel Island, a state park and the largest island in the bay. Dress warmly for the boat, whatever the season.

Ups and downs

While they aren't exactly the latest mega-coasters at Six Flags, some of the city's more intriguing elevators prove that low-tech rides can be fun for kids, too (and, they're free!). First, head for the outdoor glass elevators at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, located at 335 Powell Street on Union Square in the heart of downtown. They're some of the fastest in the city and will whisk you to the top of the hotel, as the Bay Bridge, TransAmerica Pyramid and other sights rise in the distance. Then head over to the nearby San Francisco Main Library at 100 Larkin Street (corner of Grove). While the elevators aren't nearly as fast there, they make up for it...by talking. As you ride, a pleasant voice calls out helpful information such as "going up," "please turn right," and "first floor." And while you're there, be sure to take a ride to the second floor, home of the Fisher Children's Center, where the librarians expect kids to be noisy, and story rooms and computers await, too.

Going in circles Sometimes

kids just have to ride in circles, to the upbeat strains of organ music and the prancing of carved horses. You'll find antique carousels beckoning at three locations throughout the city, each with plenty of other activities for kids as well. At Yerba Buena Gardens, a family playground located on the rooftop of the Moscone Convention Center in the South of Market area, your kids can board a restored 1906 Looff carousel, which once made the rounds at a long-defunct amusement park out at the ocean. You can also ice skate there year-round in an NHL-sized rink. At Pier 39, a bayside shopping and amusement complex at Fisherman's Wharf, the new San Francisco Carousel, handpainted in Italy, depicts famous local highlights such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz; it's illuminated by hundreds of twinkling lights. (Ferries to Alcatraz and other points around the bay leave from the adjacent piers.) In Golden Gate Park, a 1912 Herschel-Spillman carousel spins with 62 hand-carved wooden animals in the park's southeast corner, next to the Children's Playground. And while you're in the park, check out the paddle boats in nearby Stow Lake — another fun way to go around in circles.

Clark Norton, who lives in New York but returns to his former California home at every opportunity, is the author of Fodor's Around San Francisco With Kids.

Planning Your Trip

Planning Your Trip For airfare, hotel accommodations and suggestions on other activities in San Francisco, visit your AAA Travel professional. To view more than 100 listings of Show Your Card & Save partners in San Francisco — and what discounts they give AAA Members — go to aaa.com, click on the "Savings" page, then click "Search for Savings." Enter "San Francisco" as destination and up should come more than 100 entries.

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