Coit Tower, San Francisco

We went to take a peek up at Coit Tower too ^.^ There is a bus that will take you up to the tower, but we walked up, taking a shortcut through some interesting neighborhood. 

Here's looking at the street level, the highest point with car access, because going up those cement steps. 

The homes along the way are pretty high up. Every time people want to go somewhere, they'd have to hike down the steps to street level where they parked their cars. And yet the real estate here is through the roof!  

The upside is the breath taking view, of course, and the sense of living in a hanging garden. But then there are always people and tourists treading right by your backyard, and you can't put up a tall fence. Actually, sometimes the steps pass right by your door too, which means at best you don't get much privacy and at worst you'll have to put up with constant footsteps and talking all day long. It sounds like there are more downsides to living up here, but may be that's just me :P

And then there's the view. The view!

Looking at Coit Tower before lining up to climb it.

More view from the top. The picture at right is the famous Lombard Street. When hubby's colleague A-san visited from Tokyo last fall, he wanted to go down this street and so we took him. The wait was completely absurd - an hour, moving inch by inch in the car, with people cutting in at every intersection trying to beat other up the line. And yes, there are houses all the way up the top with street level parking, and yes, each estate is worth millions. Nuts or what?

While waiting in line in our car, we were discussing how impossible it would be to come and go from any of those houses along Lombard Street, or even have a moment of quiet. The weather in SF is very mild year round, and having lived here for a year now I can attest to that. So there's really no bad time to visit SF, which means there's a constant stream of tourists and visitors. Which means if you live up there, there will always be a traffic jam right in front of your house in addition to hordes of pedestrians walking, talking, and taking photos. Sounds like a nightmare to me +.+