Breaking: San Francisco has TWO bridges!

The Golden Gate Bridge is kind of like the Bay Bridge’s diva younger sister. Constantly in the spotlight, she’s been called the “most photographed bridge in the world” and is super high maintenance – with a staff of 34 devoted just to touch-ups.

Even though they both span across the San Francisco Bay, one of them gets all “I’m golden” about it and the other just tells it like it is. In fact, the often-overlooked Bay Bridge stretches 8.4 miles and helps 45 million people get to work every year without making a fuss.

I don’t mean to sound like their mother or anything, but, as iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge is, they’re both beautiful in their own way. And I have pictures of both of them ~~in my wallet.~~ in this post. Here are a few spots where I’ve caught a great view and what you need to know to travel across.

How to Cross that Bridge When You Come to It:

Golden Gate Bridge

In Your Own Car
The good news: You no longer need to stop at a toll booth.

The bad news: You still have to pay a toll for crossing southbound to San Francisco. You just don’t have to stop. It will be charged to you via your license plate with the new Pay-by-Plate program. (Convenient or creepy? You decide!) Currently, the toll is $7 for most cars, but check goldengatebridge.org for rates.

In a Rental Car
Since tolls are now collected via license plate and not on-site, make arrangements with your car rental company before you go.

Without a Car
You can walk the mile-and-a-half(ish) distance or take a (non-electric) bike or scooter during certain hours, as long as you stay on the sidewalk. Animals aren’t allowed, except, of course, for service animals. This is not the place to walk your chihuahua. His tiny little legs probably couldn’t make it that far anyway.

A few places I’ve enjoyed the view…

Baker Beach
Coit Tower (it’s in the distance of the photo above)
Marin County (a.k.a. the other side of the bridge)

Bay Bridge

The Bay Bridge now only accepts cash or FasTrak – no credit cards! The toll varies by time of day, currently $4-6. You don’t have to have exact change (although that’s quicker), but you do need to request a receipt if you want one.

Art
In addition to sculptures along the nearby Embarcadero, the bridge itself has become part of a giant art installation. 25,000 LED lights covering Bay Bridge cables twinkle in constantly-changing patterns. You can see The Bay Lights through 2015, although there’s an effort underway to keep them lit for another decade. If you can’t make it to San Francisco, there’s also a livestream every night.

A few places I’ve enjoyed the view…

The Embarcadero
Coit Tower
Oakland

What bridge(s) do you love? Where do you go for a good view?

A big thank you to local experts Julie, Matt, Isaiah, and Allie (whose new project is the San Francisco magazine Friendly Strangers)!

July 30, 2014

Tips for packing shoes

When I was repacking my suitcase to return home from my SeaSFBlog trip, I remembered seeing this trick of putting your shoes in a shower cap to keep the dirty soles off your clothes. I’ve never used a shower cap for my hair, so there was still one boxed up on the hotel bathroom counter that I could try out.

Before, I had just thrown my shoes in a plastic shopping bag, which ends up being this unwieldy, crinkly blob taking over a corner of your suitcase. The shower cap’s elastic edges made it fit snugly over my flats. There was room for a pair of wedges, as well. Then I got greedy and tried to add a pair of ankle boots, and the shower cap tore. So those went back into my shopping bag blob. The tear was small enough I could still use my shower cap, and now I’ve learned its limits. In the future, I’ll pack fewer shoes – or more shower caps.

Somewhere I read that the TSA recommended packing shoes around the edges of your bag, so they don’t block the x-ray or because terrorists pack shoes in the middle or something. (Although now it looks like they’re recommending packing them on top. Seriously, who can keep up with the TSA?!)

I also try to pack shoes and anything heavy in what will be the bottom half of my suitcase when it’s standing upright, so it’ll be more stable. Really, though, it usually ends up top heavy and constantly tipping over. On the occasions I manage to pack so it can stay up unassisted, I feel like the queen of the world!

The other shoe packing tip I see a lot is to pack smaller items inside of shoes. When it comes down to it, there are not a lot of things I want to put inside cavities made for holding feet. Socks maybe. But how short on space do you have to be to think it’s a good idea to pack your toothbrush inside your shoes? Am I the only one who’s not on board with stashing a few granola bars in your ballet slippers?

I’d love to hear your method for packing shoes and whether you ever pack anything inside them!

July 22, 2014September 3, 2014

Historic Globe

I stumbled across the Arizona Good Roads Association Illustrated Road Maps and Tour Book at the Tempe Public Library. It’s a reprint of a 1913 book full of hand drawn maps and photos of Arizona towns as they were back then. (Yay libraries! And yay maps!)

Phoenix was sparsely populated when there wasn’t air conditioning blasting away the desert heat. All the recent development makes the city feel so new that it’s easy to forget that people have lived here for centuries. I love the window back in time this book provides.

I brought the book along when we went to my uncle’s house in Globe over Fourth of July weekend. Globe is an old mining town about an hour and a half east of Phoenix with lots of quirky antique and thrift stores. In 1913, it already had 5 hotels (!)

As we drove, I looked for surviving landmarks and tried to picture the route we would have taken in an early Ford or horse-drawn wagon. The map from Phoenix to Globe passes through Tempe, over railroad tracks no longer in use (but still there), right by the old creamery that now houses a handful of businesses – including the ever-popular Four Peaks Brewery. It continues down Apache Boulevard, which I believe was part of US 60 before the freeway was built, and winds through the Superstition Mountains over Apache Trail, and past the Roosevelt Dam.

It would have been a much slower route. Instead, we made it to Globe early enough to grab a coffee before heading out to the cookout at noon. We had a great time catching up with cousins I hadn’t seen in forever, picking cherry tomatoes from the garden, sitting in the shade and chatting.

On the way home, Phillip and I stopped in the historic downtown and tried to spot a few of the buildings in the book.

We found the 1st National Bank (now an antique store with a new facade), the courthouse, and Gila River Bank Building (currently empty and for lease).

I thought the school looked like what’s now The Noftsger Hill Inn, but, once we were in front of it, the details weren’t quite right. Turns out it was built in 1917. We’ll have to find the school in the picture another day. I think I’ll just have to get my own copy of the book.

July 17, 2014July 21, 2020

Seattle sights and upcoming trip #SeaSFBlog

It seems like only yesterday I was buying plane tickets “too early.” And now my big trip is about to begin!

Saturday I fly to Seattle. I’ll do some sightseeing, so I can tell you how to get a taste of the city in a short time. I’ll also see my brother and family and a few friends.

Then I’ll spend a day in San Francisco before heading to the BlogHer conference in San Jose. I’ll be tweeting and Instagramming with hashtag #SeaSFBlog. (It comes from the three parts of my trip: Seattle, San Francisco, and the BlogHer Conference. It’s also kind of like “see Stef blog.”)

I’ve been reading up on what to do in Seattle. Here are a few sites/lists I wanted to share:

Visit Seattle is a non-profit dedicated to promoting the city and surrounding area. Their site features a ton of things to do, sample itineraries, and day trip ideas. They’re also helping us explore by providing us with City Passes.
See/Eat/Do Seattle [abridged] – My friend and Seattle local Luz has put together a list of landmarks, local food and coffee shops, scenic drives and walks, and artsy/designy spots in 13 different neighborhoods.
A most excellent 2 days in Seattle – Jeff, who shared words of wisdom in the Phoenix Comicon newbie post, also has an entertaining recap of 2 days he spent Seattle sightseeing.
Best “Secret” Views of Seattle on Queen Anne Hill – Seattle blogger Tim Lewis shares less-crowded spots to relax and take it all in.

Is there a Seattle sight that you’d like to hear about or have enjoyed visiting?

July 8, 2014July 5, 2022

Papago Park and Making Time to Celebrate

hole in the rock at Papago Park in Phoenix

The celebratory Nutella brownie bites I made last month for Craft Hack were actually part two of the Travelcraft-Journal-turns-one festivities.

On the actual day of the site’s anniversary, Phillip and I took a little break to commemorate it on our own. It had been a tough day, and he was swamped with finishing up school stuff. So we couldn’t do anything big, but he said “let’s do something.”

So we picked up donuts at our local Tempe favorite, Arizona Donut Co., and headed to Papago Park. (I’m back to eating gluten – at least temporarily, so I’m taking advantage of it. Carpe donut.)

There are some nice picnic areas just beyond the Phoenix Zoo parking lot with ramadas and grills, but we hardly ever see anyone there. It’s a short drive for us, and it’s a very peaceful spot.

It was windy enough that it took several tries to light the birthday candle we stuck in a chocolate coconut donut. The wind blew it out again a second later. Maybe it made a wish.

We enjoyed our donuts and then went down to the little lake to feed crackers to the ducks. There was one that had this super noisy way of paddling that made us laugh.

Our little break only lasted about an hour, but we were both so much happier and more relaxed when we came back.

—

PS More info about Papago Park below. Also, Phillip took the donut shop sign pic. Gotta love the dizzying angle! :)

Things to know about Papago Park:

Papago Park is home to the Phoenix Zoo, Desert Botanical Gardens, rock formations (such as Hole-in-the-Rock, which you can see in the background of a photo above), picnic areas, and hiking trails. (There are also several other attractions in the area.)
The park encompasses an area that used to be a fish hatchery, which is why it includes several (manmade) lakes.
The city of Phoenix has a PDF map that shows some of the picnic tables, but there are more out there than the map shows.