The top five sightseeing spots in San Francisco

It’s almost impossible to choose the best five sightseeing spots in San Francisco. Just about everywhere you look in all directions is a beautiful view. Years ago, we were on a Northern California tour with our kids. When the bus was crossing the Oakland Bay Bridge and we could see the magnificent vista of the City by the Bay grow out of the fog before us, the driver played the perfect song by Tony Bennett. Remember how the lyrics began?

I left my heart in San Francisco.

High on a hill, it calls to me.

To be where little cable cars

Climb halfway to the stars!

So, that ride across the bridge would be my first choice for top sightseeing spots in San Francisco. My second choice goes back, way back to December 1945, and it is for another bridge. After service in the Philippines, and with the war ended, I was on a troop ship returning about 5,000 Navy and Marine veterans to the States.

Some of the guys had been overseas for more than three years, including some former POWs, and as we entered the bay and saw the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge loom in front of us, we knew we were home. Most of us lined up on the sides of the ship and waved and yelled at the top of our voices. Others just stood there silent, while they brushed away tears.

We had made it through the war! I can also remember just months before in the Philippines, when we were assembling an enormous fleet and half a million troops for the final battle, the air and amphibious assault on the Japanese home islands. D-Day, along with staggering casualties, was expected to be at about that same month in 1945. The cynical poem then was: Golden Gate in 48.

The other three? I must name Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s an obvious tourist trap, with all kinds of souvenir clothing, overpriced restaurants and knicknack shops. However, it still has the look, smell and feel of a fishing village, and if you get to the right (and reasonable) restaurant, you can order delicious meals of super-fresh seafood just hauled in a few hours ago. The pier itself is enjoyable, and has beautiful views of the Bay, Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge. When we were there, an outdoor music festival was all around us, including everything from rock to Bach, as well as brightly dressed magicians, jugglers and clowns.

My next favorite attraction is the one Tony Bennett sang about, the famed, ancient but still thrilling, cable cars of San Francisco. To see the city from the very top of Nob Hill to bottom at Market Street or Fisherman’s