The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: In your opinion, what is the best tourist attraction in the Bay Area?
Talk about it….
The homeless camps and the circus freaks in the city.
Not sayin’, cause then they’ll show up……
The Walt Disney Family Museum in the SF Presidio. Also, the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.
The Children’s Discovery Museum in Sausalito is also great.
Back in the day, Pier 39 was a lot of fun.. there was Disney Store, Dept 56 Store, and a lot of great spots. Not so much anymore.
We like to knock the Bay Area a lot, but really it is a beautiful place with so much to offer. We take it for granted and unfortunately it is often overshadowed by homeless issues and politics.
I highly recommend walking around the TL (Tenderloin) after around 8pm. You will have the best entertainment a short walk can provide. I’m not making fun of those in despair and need. I’m trying to showcase how the once great city of San Fransicko was hijacked by progressivism.
The Bay Model in Sausalito.
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Alcatraz Island… The Rock.
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The Golden Gate Bridge. My 9th grade teacher took us there on a field trip like 30 years ago. I had just come to this country. We walked the bridge from SF to the other side of the bridge, then we hiked up and down behind the bridge to this hidden beach. Never been able to do that one again i thought it was amazing. Never knew so many people go there and end their life!
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My 3rd grade teacher, Betty Sewald, was at the bridge’s opening in 1937 and she, at 9 years old, was one of the little girls who threw flowers into SF Bay in memory of the 11 men who died during its construction.
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She was a great teacher… and regularly wore a garter belt and stockings (wink).
Muir Woods
GG Bridge & Alcatraz
I like history and enjoy seeing historic places. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is a fun place to spend a couple of hours, and locally, we have the John Muir House in Martinez. Oakland has the Mountain View Cemetery that was establishes in 1863. Many of California’s prominent and wealthy families are buried there. It attracts tourists and has a spectacular view of the bay and San Francisco.
Golden Gate Park is another fun way to spend the day, and so is walking around China Town, and Japan Town. In Marin, there’s Muir Woods, Sausalito, Mt Tamapias, and the Marin Headlands.
A little known attraction is the USS San Francisco Memorial in San Francisco. The memorial was built from the ship’s bridge, and you can see the holes where torpedoes ripped through.
Across the street from the Cliff House, is a man made hill where they had cannons that were underground and pointed out to the ocean during WWII. The gun turrets are still there.
San Francisco Bay Helicopter Tour
I’ve been to the USS San Francisco Memorial a few times. My Dad was on the ship during the Pearl Harbor attack and most of WW II in the Pacific, including when it was shot up at the naval battle of Guadalcanal. The holes in the bridge are from naval gunfire from that battle, the only one in which we lost two admirals, one of whom was Admiral Callaghan on the bridge of the San Francisco. It was the second most decorated ship in WW II.
CLAYDEN, I didn’t know the USS San Francisco was at Pearl Harbor. My Dad was serving on the USS Nashville when she was hit by Kamikaze aircraft. She suffered heavy damage, and 133 sailors were killed. However, she did not sink, and after dropping off the dead and wounded at the Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, she sailed to Seattle for repairs, and my Mom flew up to Seattle to be with him.
https://www.kamikazeimages.net/books/ships/nashville/index.htm
Dawg, the San Francisco was at the repair facility, across from Battleship Row, waiting the get her bottom cleaned up and having some of her armament modified. A major mistake the Japanese made was not hitting the repair facility/drydocks and the fuel storage area. They had planned to do it in the next wave, but decided it was prudent to sail away. Because of this, we were able to get ships repaired quickly and had the fuel for them to get into action. My Dad saw the whole thing and the San Francisco had little or no damage.
Being born here one I haven’t been to is the Nike Missle Site in Marin…..https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
The ocean. The Pacific one is like right there. I won’t go on it or in it what for the bus sized sharks, but I’ll stack our coastline against any in the world for beauty.
Ok I got it now. You’re one of those… “Bus sized sharks” that’s a good one. No no, It’s ok I get it. It all makes sense now. Look how much the movie Jaws scared people. Maybe your mask would protect you my brotha, just a thought
I would say the coast of Norway is as least as pretty or a little bit better, especially if you go into the fjords. The Geiranger Fjord is the most beautiful place we’ve ever been to.
Mt. Diablo State Park. Port Costa.
There used to be so many wonderful things to see here in a safe, family friendly and inviting environment. We are now left with the San Francisco “poop map”.
A few month ago I went to an event in San Francisco, it was on Market and 15th Street. After the event was over in late afternoon, I decided to drive around to place where I use to go with friends or dates, for dinner and or drinks. Union Street and North Beach, I did not see many homeless, frankly don’t remember seeing any that stood out, or a lot of garbage etc. Sometime this spring a friend of mine will rent a hotel room for one night in North Beach and go to dinner and probably one of the little cafe’s. I use to love North Beach, Savoy Tivoli, was dating someone that loved that place, Siluette’s for dancing, Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store, and City Lights Book Store. When my friend from Denmark were visiting they were very impressed that there was a bookstore there was open late at night. When my cousin and her husband was visiting I took them to Perry’s on Union Street for a real American Hamburger and a Bloody Mary.
Thanks to all who highlighted some of the wonderful sites to visit in the Bay Area. My favorite is Muir Woods. To the others, who can only answer these kinds of questions with complaints and negative energy it sounds like an old record that is played over and over again.
It’s sad that their lives are so focused on negativity and gloom.
Dawg, and Reality Check, Yes, I agree. There is a time and place for everything. Why bring politics into this subject. I have lived in many different places, and each place has it’s charm, but certainly California is unique in the diversity of nature, Coastline, Mountain, Desert, Cities, Wine Fields. There are still place here I want to explore. This fall I went for the first time with a girl friend to Redding, we stayed in Redding, but went to a few quaint little towns close to Mt. Shasta, then walked over the Sundial bridge and walked along the Sacramento RIver.
Is San Francisco ‘doom loop’ walking tour still available? Just being snarky here.
Where’s the information on what went down on Quiet Circle in Concord yesterday? Isn’t this a local news information website?
It is hard to say. When my cousin and her husband were visiting from Denmark, I took them of course all over, not just the Bay Area, but Northern California, they were very impressed with all of it, but I think Muir Woods and Yosemite really stood out. My favorite areas, where I like to take visitors Half Moon Bay, Stinson Beach, Muir Woods, Mt. Tam, Pt. Reyes, and the wine country.
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Back in the 60s/70s relatives from the mid-West on vacation always wanted to go see the Hippies. We used to take two cars and cruise Haight/Ashbury. The elder from OK would tell us to lock the car doors, I thought it was hilarious. The second place they always wanted to go was Playland, I had no problem with that.
I never got tired of the Fun House, remember Laughing Sal? Last I heard, she’s in a museum at Fisherman’s Wharf.
there were several laughing sal’s made and located across the country. Santa Cruz claims to have the S.F. one…. I remembered her at playland and was actually excited to see her in Santa Cruz… So I hope the claim is true…🙂
@S….Yes it is true, Laughing Sal from Playland is at Fisherman’s Wharf. Six or seven years ago I took an old friend over to the City for a show at the Filmore.
We spent the day running around to the Conservatory, Fisherman’s Wharf and places we used to go back in the 70s. We went to the Musse Mecanique where they have a lot of things from Playland including Sal….killer day!…..https://museemecanique.com/