Boardwalk / Promenade / StreetPier 39Reviews

LAST 2006 SUMMER, I was able to visit again the Californian state for the third time. San Francisco is one of them for the very first time. Fortunately, I stayed at my close friends apartment near the downtown area for three days. With my limited time and resources, I chose a package tour which PIER 39 was included, the place where you could find a range of souvenir shops, restaurants/bars, coffee shops, entertainments and even fresh food markets. This is also the place where the boats/ferries depart for the Alcatraz tour. The pier is a public place so there is no entrance fee being impose for visitors and the like. Without a package tour, the area is very accessible using the cable car and the Muni transport.

The Muni (municipal bus and streetcar system) provides a 24-hour service. There is an available Muni passport for one day ($11), 3 days ($18), or seven days ($24) ride to allow unlimited use in all Muni buses, cable cars, metros, and streetcars. The popular historic streetcars run from Castro St Station to Fisherman's Wharf (few walks toward PIER 39) via Market Street. It is a recommended to ride in these streetcars to have an excellent view of the downtown area, as well as having an unusual ride in the rugged (ups- and-downs) terrain of the city. The regular adult Muni fare is $1.50 and for youth/senior/disabled is 50 cents, while the cable car ticket costs $5. Transfers are valid within 90 minutes for two boardings in any directions except for cable cars. The salient highlights of my visit in Pier 39 are enumerated below:

SIGHTSEEING/ENTERTAINING: At Pier 39, I had a rare opportunity of having a close encounter of splashy sea lions at the pier's K dock. It was a wonderful scene looking at these grey/black/brown creatures moving gracefully and having a little splash to the water, including their 'cow-like' growling sounds. Talking about sea lions' growling sounds, it is interesting to know from the flyers distributed near the K dock that the 'war screams' of the Orcs in the movie 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' were the sounds made by young elephant seals that were recorded from the Mammal Center near Saulito (just across the Golden Gate Bridge). Also, these sea lions love to stay at Pier 39 because it is a comfortable place to sleep, without any threat from predators such as white sharks and killer whales.

There were also street dancers and artists/painters within the bay area which also attract tourists - either you give them extra coins after performing Michael Jackson's dance moves or grab their hand-painted artworks at $5 to 20 (3 to11 pounds) depending on the size and design of the painting. From the pier, you can have a perfect view of Alcatraz, Fisherman Wharf and the Golden Bridge, and the Aquarium of the Bay. The Alcatraz tour is quite popular which requires advance booking (at least one day) to avail the tour. It is not a surprise that this island is getting much attention from tourists considering its reputation as the former federal penitentiary offering self-guided, ranger-led and night tours where service ferries depart from Pier 39 or 41 as early as 930am.

SHOPPING: Buying souvenirs and gift items is always in my top list to accomplish while travelling. In particular, in my shopping list includes tops/shirts, underwear, books, postcards, caps, shoes, and perfumes. At Pier 39, I was able to visit the popular chain store/restaurant, Hard Rock café. My friend was quite generous enough aside from having free dinners he also grabbed a white shirt for me amounting to $22 (12 pounds) at the store. Hard Rock is very popular around the world where we could find memorabilia of popular entertainers. Two of the important stuffs housed inside the store are: the Saturday Evening Post clipping where The Beatles were dressed up in proper English bowlers; and the glittering cutaway costume of Beyonce Knowles of the Destiny's Child group in their 1999 'Bug A Boo' video. Aside from Hard Rock café, Pier 39 is quite popular for shopping from cosmetics/fragrances, gifts and collectibles to apparel and accessories, and jewellery. By the way, at Pier 39 (second floor) you can find an internet provider (the one and only accessible facility near the dock area) where you could have quick website browsing and emailing at $10 (5.6 pounds) an hour.

Well, every tag price is being subject to 8.25% sales tax, which is one of the highest taxes in the US; nevertheless, it is still cheap to buy in the US than here in the UK. Or I will put this way: I can buy more stuffs from a British sterling to a US dollar at an average exchange rate of $1.8 for sterling. It also worth mentioning that having a credit card ready for every purchase than carrying cash is quite hassle-free or even applying an ATM card to be used abroad is worth doing especially if you run out of cash.

DINING: From my friend's apartment, it was a few walks to the light rail station and we stopped at the Powell Station where we could catch up with the streetcar going to the Fisherman's Wharf to have our dinner. Few minutes later we reached the wharf and proceeded to the area where seafood stalls and restaurants are located. We decided not to dine there, instead we had our appetizer, a 10-dollar (5.50 pounds) fresh fried, hot crispy squid, and we strolled toward PIER 39 area. It was an easy task to choose where to eat at almost past 9pm since only few restaurants were open, so we went inside the popular restaurant, Crab House. As the name implies, one of its specialities is a 2-pound+ iron-skillet roasted Dungeness crab in a secret garlic sauce, together with roasted mussels, and soup. We had it at a very reasonable price and I enjoyed using the 'crab cracker' gadget to remove the crab meat from the hard shell/skin for the first time because I always use my teeth to crack it. The restaurant is situated in Pier 39 where you could have a good and breathtaking view of the bay, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. It is also voted as the 'Best Crab' destination gourmet in SF.

FINALLY, PIER 39 is one of SFs tourist attractions having things you want to experience the city hospitality and tourist-friendly environment. The place made my short stay in SF memorable and hopefully be back again for my next summer escapade.

(Note: This write-up is a tailored/modified version from my reviews posted in Ciao and Dooyoo under the name of digitalenvironmentalist and curious_tan).