Family trip - San Francisco

When my oldest daughter turned 14 the thing she wanted most for her birthday was a trip to San Francisco. We had moved to the Sacramento area, about 100 miles from the City, less than two years before that date. We had never been to San Francisco prior to that time so it was a big deal. My daughter being a teenager didn’t just want to go to San Francisco, she wanted to go to Haight Ashbury.

I was in law school at the time, money was tight and we didn’t get to go places as a family very often but we made our plans. We left home by 9:00 AM and got to San Francisco before noon. Much to our children’s dismay we packed a lunch to eat as we walked around. They of course wanted to eat at some fast food restaurant.

Our first stop was Fisherman’s Wharf, specifically Pier 39. The weather was good and it was fun to both look at the shops and the interesting people along the wharf. Our youngest daughter was a little frightened by the seals laying around on the docks. The seagulls caused her concern also. Somehow we left the pier without incident or injury.

With my trusty map we made our way across the city to Haight Ashbury. I was surprised that what we found was an area of about two blocks. Having grown up in the 60's I had heard stories about Haight Ashbury and expected to find a larger area. In addition to finding it smaller than expected I was surprised by the number of panhandlers. We had seen street performers and panhandlers at Fisherman’s Wharf but the number at Haight Ashbury was possibly greater, in a smaller area. The street performers were panhandlers trying to be inventive and not very good at any type of performance.

We found a parking spot and started walking down the street. My daughter quickly saw a store she wanted to visit. That began what would be the pattern for the rest of our time in the “Haight”. My daughter stated she wanted to look at a store, my wife would tell me they were going into the store, I would take our other two children by the hand and we would stand on the curb in front of the store where I could see the interior of the store. Once my wife saw that I was in position she and our daughter would enter the store while I stayed on the curb keeping watch.

As we proceeded down the street stopping at different stores I became aware that we were not the only family visiting the “Haight”. Pretty soon my younger children and I were standing in front of stores alongside other fathers were younger children, all of us watching our wives and teenaged daughters looking at the different stores.

We went down one side of the street, me looking through store windows, my wife and daughter exploring inside. I’m not sure what the cross street is called but we quickly reached a point that clearly ended our area of interest, we crossed the street and worked our way back to our car in the same manner. Surprisingly our younger children were well behaved and did not fuss during this entire time. I suppose that can be attributed to the number of panhandlers and so-called performers along the street, my children were entertained.

Once back at our car we climbed in and headed back towards home. A successful, family trip.