“I left my heart in San Francisco” is exactly right!

In 2007, I was in San Francisco for 10 magical and delightful days and nights! This is the same city where many years ago my parents went on their wedding anniversary. They told me they had driven down in my father’s black Lovebug and ate grapes all the way because they had no money then. They gained 10 pounds in two weeks but they said it was worth every pound and they were right!

So guess what? I got married in 2007, and we went to San Francisco on our honeymoon! Not in a Lovebug but the Amtrak! Now that was an adventure in itself. As I have always loved train traveling I thought it would be the perfect way to see the spectacular scenery and meet interesting people on the train. I did meet very cosmopolitan, worldly and extremely nice and interesting people on the train and at the dinner table. The train trip took even longer than expected as I did not know the Amtrak stopped at so many places because of freighters, etc. To top it all we did not have a sleeping car – just an ordinary seat! Thank God San Francisco has a lot of hills, so that certainly got rid of my aches and pains!

If you love seafood, this is the city to be! I was in heaven! Seafood for lunch, dinner, after dinner, you name it. Shrimp, crab, salmon, lobster, crab cakes, seafood chowder with that doughy bread to mop it up with. Yum! I knew I was getting a lot of that Omega-3!. My San Francisco heart loved it!

You have to take a San Francisco trolley ride. You kind of jump on and the trolley goes up those windy steep hills. The view from it was unbelievable. You could even see Alcatraz, the penitentiary which also I went to the next day via ferry. Everyone got a headset if they wanted to tour Alcatraz. The headset would give you directions to each cell, room, kitchen, etc and the voices of the prisoners would echo around….Spooky! Only the seagulls know for sure who escaped! The view from there also was unbelievable with the Golden Gate Bridge in the misty view.

In the late evening, we went to a cool, smoky, dark jazz club for another San Francisco experience. Sitting at a table while sipping a glass of wine, jazzy people around us were snapping their fingers and nodding their heads to the sultry voice of a throaty jazz singer. Her voice melted into the dark, smoky club.

We were lucky to be able to walk the streets, (including the famous ‘crooked’ street) view famous actors/actresses homes, study the fascinating architecture, hear the melodic clocks and witness the sophisticated, intelligent individuals who live and roam in San Francisco.

Also had the best chocolate sundae ever at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory! The chocolate was so rich and creamy with the ice-cream and for once the glass that it was in was the perfect size! I had so much energy afterwards that we did not even need to take the Trolley car, we walked down those steep hills and took a stroll along the harbor experiencing the salty air, the seagulls talking to us, the tourists like us, souvenir shops, the inviting ocean, Golden Gate Bridge beckoning us and Alcatraz looming the background.

Yes, I certainly did leave my heart in San Francisco!

Story written by Terry Meyer

**This short Travel Story was submitted as part of the Holiday Travel Writing Competition. All short-listed entries such as this one are published in our online Travel Guide**