THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO BY NIGHT

What else are you going to do at 4 am when your brain is wide awake and telling you it’s time to get up?  We’ve invented a new tourist activity called pre-dawn photography.  It’s great.  We have the city to ourselves with the exception of bin men and the homeless (of which there are plenty).  This is what it feels like to be a cat on a hot tin roof or a vampire , prowling the streets under cover of darkness and seeing San Francisco as it sleeps.

Cable car tracks up Powell Street

That is not a white piece of paper - it's a rat!

We’re not the only ones enjoying the streets of San Francisco by night it seems.  There’s an abundant rat population down Powell Street and they don’t seem that bothered by sleep-walking paparazzi like us.  Scurrying under the street planters, they were too quick to snap though we did manage to spot a white rat that stopped long enough to be captured on film.

Powell Street junction 

Not a soul in sight

More compact than New York, San Francisco appears to be an ideal walking city laid out in the typical American grid system so easy to navigate.  The Chancellor hotel is in a good central location about 10 minutes walk from Market Street.  This busy thoroughfare is lined with shops, Starbucks (there are millions of them!) and interesting looking buildings many of which have an Art Deco influence about them.  It will be interesting to see the same street in daylight.

Bright lights of San Francisco

Ferry Building at the Embarcadero

From Market Street it’s a lengthy stroll down to the Embarcadero area with its numerous piers but not unachievable for seasoned walkers like us.  Nice to give the legs a good stretch after the many hours on the plane.

Here’s what we saw in the pre-dawn hours of morning.

Trams

Powell Street cable car

Chugging up the hill

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Super Snooper