The San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park is located on the San Francisco Bay, and is an easy visit if you are headed to the popular Pier 39 area, Fisherman's Wharf, or, most importantly, Ghirardelli Square. :) This was the first National Park Service property that I decided to visit after setting my goal to see a NPS property in every state. It was an easy "get", since I was visiting my son at Berkeley, and my typical visit to see him allows me a lot of free time, while he is off studying so that someday he will change the world.

The park is located at the very end of the famous San Francisco Trolley car line. It consists of a park, and a visitor center. There is also a Maritime Museum located in the park. The Visitor Center is actually very easy to miss, and is located in a building amongst all the shops in the Fisherman's Wharf area. Once inside, it is a typical NPS property - with amazing exhibits that clearly describe the history of the area. The NPS does an amazing job with all of their exhibits: it is easy to get immersed in them, and forget the craziness that is going on outside the walls of the visitor center.

There is also a Maritime Museum on the property. It is also a treasure trove of information, but I don't think it is actually run by the NPS. It has information on the local maritime happenings, and has ship models inside.

Since part of my quest requires that I do something of value at each site, such as a hike, or a tour, I decided to tour both the visitors center and the museum. Since it is so close to such a large tourism area, I also decided to take a tour via Segway. The tour started in the park, and went out on the pier and stopped at a few locations for some historical information. The guide talked about the National Park, the bay, and it was a great way to get another view of the area. One of the places we stopped at was the nearby Musee Mechanique - which was a building FULL of old arcade games. I think they were all for sale - if you are into that sort of thing. It was neat to see how gamers did things back at the turn of the century.

After leaving the park, and getting done with the Segway Tour, I was ready to head back to Berkeley - my plan was to take the Trolley to the BART. The line to get on the trolley was about a block long! So, I started walking. If you know San Francisco, you will know that walking up those hills is extremely challenging! I walked to the next trolley stop - it was still a long line, so I kept going. The next street brought me to the top of Lombard Street - the steepest street in the city. I was waiting at the trolley stop there, catching my breath, when a limo stopped by. He said to the 6 of us that were standing there, that he would charge us only $2 each to take us into the downtown area. PERFECT!!! Less than the trolley, available, and really cool. Once we were in the limo, we found red solo cups and decided to pretend we were having a party. It was a fun way to end the day.

If you are interested in the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, please visit the NPS website at: https://www.nps.gov/safr/index.htm

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