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This travel article is dedicated to Herb Caen the late San Francisco columnist who used to wax poetically about his favorite city.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Dave
2004-02-21 18:05:34

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San Francisco, The City, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. How many cities have a population of just over 750,000 and have the instant name recognition that San Francisco has? What other city can lay claim to have founded the United Nations, introduced the topless dancer, and the hippie movement? How many cities are known world wide for its cultural diversity and cultural acceptance? Where else can you chose Chinese for breakfast, Zimbabwean for lunch, and Swiss for dinner? How many cities have sexual traffic flow? This, of course was pointed out to my by one of The Cities renowned cab drivers as we were driving through Union Square. I was shown prostitutes standing on the sidewalk, and then shown certain cars dodging in and out of traffic to come over to the curb sides.

Of course, all of this is partly possible due to the San Francisco Bay being one of the largest land locked harbors in the world. The City never would have been located in its current location if it were not for this harbor. A deep waterway is integral to any large development. San Francisco is but not one city but several cities and cultures contained within one city. There are many districts ranging from Chinatown, to North Beach, to the Haight-Ashbury, Twin Peaks, the Financial district, Mission district, and Japan town, among several others. One of the great things about San Francisco is that many of these districts are within walking distance of each other. San Francisco is a great city to ditch the car in a garage and walk from attraction to attraction.

In 1906 a devastating (short term devastation) earthquake destroyed 4/5 (28,000) of The City's buildings. This quake was especially hard to swallow because it destroyed most of The City's fire fighting equipment and many buildings burned for days afterward. This was only one of 7 times that most of The City burned to the ground, only to rebuild from the ashes. The most recent ...