A Holiday Weekend in San Francisco

We take a short break from memories of this year's trip to Cinque Terre to visit San Francisco over a December weekend just before the holidays.  Our first stop is Union Square to see the Winter Wonderland set up in the square, admire the tree, and view the windows in Macy's Department Store and other stores around the square.

Macy's windows

Pets available for adoption in the windows

Union Square tree

It's SantaCon in San Francisco today, a tradition that began in Copenhagen in 1974 and arrived in San Francisco in 1994.  The streets are filled with people dressed as Santa, exploring the city and visiting the bars.

SantaCon

Tree and windows

Ice skating in the Winter Wonderland

Leaving Union Square, we spot the lights on Maiden Lane and the displays of Nieman Marcus, facing the square, across from the imaginative windows of Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and others

Sidestreets off Union Square

Nieman Marcus

Louis Vuitton

Cartier

Looking back at Union Square

In a few blocks, we reach the entrance to San Francisco's Chinatown, which is also decorated for the holiday.

Chinatown

A few blocks further, we pass the office building at 100 California Street, which has really put out the lights for the holiday.

100 California

In a nearby allyway, people are sitting on the sidewalk watching Let's Glow SF 2023, a project to show visual art on the side of the building across the street.

Let's Glow SF

As we walk, we notice that the trollys and fire stations are also all decorated for the holidays.

Ready for the holidays

As the sun sets, we head over to Kokkari Estiatorio for a fabulous dinner starting with appetizers of gigantes beans and fresh dungeness crab spread, followed by branzino, sole, and pork shoulder roasted in the rotisserie in the fireplace across the room.

Sunset in San Francisco

Kokkari Estiatorio 

Appetizers

Main courses

The next morning, we rise and take a stroll through the city before heading home, spotting more great decorations among the fantastic San Francisco scenery on the streets and along the harbor.

Building decorations

Harbor traffic

It's been a fabulous weekend in San Francisco, a city that never fails to delight.

Biking around Alameda-Oakland-San Leandro

While we are working at home, we occasionally get out to walk over to and along the San Francisco Bay or to bicycle through town and along the Bay Trail (we get a lot farther on the bicycles).

First we cut through Alameda over to the Bay, glimpsing it at the far end of streets as we pass through the city.

 Glimpses of the Bay

Soon we reach the Bay, see San Francisco on the other side, pass the ferry terminal for the San Francisco morning/evening ferry, and start down this section of the Bay Trail, which should ultimately circle the entire Bay, about 500 miles (805 km), passing through all nine Bay Area counties, transiting 47 cities, and crossing seven toll bridges.

 Heading south along the Bay, San Francisco in the distance

The trail leads through the middle of the Oakland Airport and we take a short side trip past the terminals, where not much is happening these days.

 Oakland Airport

We proceed alongside the Oakland Airport Connector rail link and turn south along the airport perimeter, heading into the Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline, leading us into San Leandro.

 Along the train tracks, leaving the airport area

 Continuing along the Bay

Leaving the airport behind us

 With odd-looking animals sharing the path

We proceed through the shoreline to the southern end near the San Leandro Marina (and FedEx warehouse), turn around, and go back, watching the occasional landing aircraft pass over on final approach.

 Through the park to the end of the trail

 Back along the Bay, reapproaching the airport

We've already done our tour of the airport terminals, so we continue on the trail through the middle, over into Alameda, and back along the Bay.

 Back in Alameda

Weaving through the city streets, we make our way over the the Bay Farm lagoon, across the bridge, and back home.  The lagoon system is connected to the Bay and fills from the Bay at high tide and empties into the Bay at low tide, an ingenious system to keep water fresh and flowing through the system.

 Along the lagoon and over the bridge

Views up and down the lagoon

This bicycle ride is about 22 miles (35km), taking 1.5 hours or so.  The winds along the Bay are often gusty (often 20-25 knots, 35-45 km/hour), making for a challenging and rewarding ride (especially into the wind) in addition to the beautiful scenery along the way.