'Tis hard to leave

"San Francisco has only one drawback: 'tis hard to leave." 

- Rudyard Kipling

Here are a few facts about San Francisco -

- The Chinese fortune cookie was invented by a Japanese resident of San Francisco.

- San Francisco had more dogs that live here than children. Almost 10,000 more.

- According to Zillow, the median asking price for a home in San Francisco is $1,299,000. Not the price for a luxury mansion or an expansive estate — that's the price for the average home or condo.

- Gas is over 4 dollars a gallon here.

- Denim jeans were invented in San Francisco by Levi Strauss for the Gold Rush miners who needed tough, comfortable clothing.

- In 1859, San Francisco citizen Joshua Abraham Norton self-declared himself the Emperor of the United States. At Norton I’s funeral, 10,000 people turned up to pay their respects.

- Alcatraz was the only federal prison to offer hot water. Why? This was a strategy to prevent prisoners from trying to escape in the cold San Francisco Bay.

- The Beatles performed their final concert on August 29, 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

- The color of the Golden Gate Bridge is called International Orange. It wasn't a color from the original list of options. It was the primer used to protect the steel for the bridge during transit and the architect loved it more than the other options, so he selected it as the official color.

- It took only four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge (1933 - 1937)

- This city is crazy beautiful. It is perhaps the most beautiful city in the country.

- We spent Thanksgiving here today eating Dim Sum in a Chinese Restaurant.

It was cool today, in the 50's, but the weather was clear. We spent the day hiking around the edge of the bay. Here are some images from the day -