Thursday's Child: Walking the Golden Gate bridge

Last March, my mom, my youngest daughter and I travelled to San Francisco. It was an early celebration of a milestone birthday my mom had later that year, and a wonderful way for the three of us to bond.

Before we left for San Francisco, I had suggested that each of us read about the city and come up with one activity we couldn't miss. My daughter chose Golden Gate Park, with its lovely Japanese Tea Garden and the fabulous California Academy of Sciences. I didn't want to miss Chinatown. And my mom wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

She walks every day and is in excellent health. But I was worried that the walk might be too much for her. It was mid-afternoon, and we'd already spent much of the day on the city's up-and-down streets. So she and I agreed to the very practical suggestion of walking to the halfway point, then walking back.

We paused at the halfway point to take a few photos, and I got a couple of lovely ones of my daughter overlooking the city. Then I said, "I'd like Grandma to be in the next one." My daughter pointed along the pedestrian walk and said, "Grandma left a few minutes ago." And indeed, there she was, walking briskly toward the other end of the bridge.

Turns out she thought we were too tired to make the whole trip, so she decided to do it by herself. So I caught up to her, and we enjoyed our Golden Gate walk - in both directions.

Thursday's Child: San Francisco tour

San Francisco is well-known for a few iconic attractions, including The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the Powell-Hyde cable car ride.  When we visited earlier this year we loved all of those things, but San Francisco has a wealth of wonderful areas to visit. Last week I wrote about the California Academy of Sciences, and this week I’ll share some of our favourite destinations in the city.

A visit to any city isn’t complete without a trip to a bookstore.  The choice in San Francisco was easy – we had to see City Lights.  This bookstore came to national and international prominence in 1956 when its owner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems.  He was arrested on obscenity charges, but won in a landmark trial that defined freedom of speech in literature.  The Beat movement had a strong connection with the store and its publishing arm; Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were all affiliated with it. Today, it has a great collection of interesting books, and this is where I did most of my shopping.

City Lights may have been known for the beatniks, but Haight-Ashbury is the street corner most associated with the hippies. In 1967, the summer of love brought young people from all over America to San Francisco.  Wearing tie-dyed T-shirts and flowers in their hair, they ensured that Haight-Ashbury was immortalized as home of the hippie movement.

We visited the Mission District to see the great collection of street art.  Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley are home to a number of murals, many depicting social justice issues.

Everyone rides on a cable car while in San Francisco, but the museum is worth a visit too. It holds several antique cable cars – one dating back to the 1870s – and obsolete equipment. We enjoyed the viewing area for the cables and equipment that run the cars in use today.