SAN FRANCISCO – This week we wrap up my three-part series about a recent baseball odyssey to San Francisco. I still have a lot to share from this three-day trip, and it is not baseball related.

What you’ve heard about the massive number of homeless people lining the sidewalks in downtown San Francisco is all true. For several blocks, homeless people are camped against the buildings along the sidewalks. Their makeshift towns of cardboard boxes and tents sit side-by-side, making it difficult for pedestrians to pass by.

After sundown, it appeared a flea market broke out along the sidewalks of downtown San Francisco. “Vendors” displayed their products on blankets laid on the ground. Brent said he was familiar with this, having seen the same thing in New York City earlier this summer. Apparently, what these folks are selling are counterfeit products that look like the real thing, are labeled like the real thing, come in the same packaging as the real thing, but are a total knock-off of brand name products and they are sold for much less than the real products.

I consider myself a very experienced driver. I’ve driven across this country many times and have driven in some of the largest and most congested cities in the U.S. but driving in San Francisco is a whole other experience. The streets are laid out in a grid for the most part, as they are in many cities, but many of them are one-way streets. In downtown San Francisco, Market Street, which runs northeast to southwest, divides the area in half turning streets on an angle. The streets that run north and south, like Hyde, Jones and Kearny, turn diagonally and become numbered streets when they cross Market St. Very confusing.

Plus, there are several streets in the downtown area that are painted red and are designated for taxis and busses only. Yes, I mistakenly drove down one of these for several blocks before I realized it. Then I couldn’t turn to get off the street, so eventually the red paint came to an end, and I was legal again.

It may be difficult to believe that a city “by the bay,” on the coast of California is built on many hills, but it sure is. The streets are built on the steepest inclines I’ve ever seen, and you drive straight up, as opposed to crisscrossing back and forth. There is one street that is built with a zig-zag pattern, and that’s the famous Lombard Street. First you have to drive straight up a 27% grade to get to the top of Lombard Street, then you make your way down that same grade but by driving through eight hairpin turns on a narrow one-way street, bordered by some beautiful landscaping. While I was making this drive, I realized there were houses on both sides of the street. I can’t imagine what it’s like living on a street that is always busy with tourists.

You may have heard about driverless taxis as a wave of the future, but it’s already arrived in San Francisco. There are two companies that operate autonomous vehicles: Cruise and Waymo. We saw several Waymo vehicles around town, in fact, one pulled up next to me at a traffic light. I thought about racing it when the light turned green, but realized, it probably didn’t care if I won. While walking, we crossed the street in front of a Waymo that was preparing to turn right on red, but it waited until all the pedestrians crossed the street before proceeding.

While on our little self-guided tour of San Franciso’s streets, we happened upon the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. Haight-Ashbury became notable for its role as one of the main centers of the hippie movement and the counterculture of the 1960s. It still is today, and it appeared that some of the hippies hanging out there, have been there for 50 years.

Arguably the most famous landmark in San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve seen it before, and I don’t understand why a bridge is a tourist attraction, but my friend Brent had never seen the bridge in person, so we stopped by Crissy Field to get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge and to take some photos.

Crissy Field is a part of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which is made up of several venues, such as Alcatraz, the Presidio, Muir Woods, and others.

We made a quick stop at the William Penn Mott, Jr. Presidio Visitor Center so I could look around, do some shopping, and get my National Park Service passport stamped. We did see Alcatraz from one of the piers but didn’t take the tour to the island.

Of course, we had to eat seafood at Fisherman’s Wharf, and we purchased some authentic sour dough bread at the very popular Boudin Bakery.

I never had any strong desire to visit San Francisco, because of all the negative press it gets, but honestly, we had a good few days there and I’m glad I ventured out to see some of the sights.

TULSA BEACON RADIO

Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national level guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week my guest will be author, producer, and director Mark Steele. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.