San Francisco - Civic Center
Today was simply amazing! The weather has been perfect. Blue skies and sunshine greeted us as we entered the city. San Francisco is such an eclectic city that is brimming with personality. After arriving at the airport, we hopped on the BART (the local public transportation), which quickly brought us to the Civic Center area of town. Some of the great places to visit in the Civic Center are the Asian Art Museum, Capital Building (featured at the left), Library and UN Center.
We started off our tour with a delicious lunch at local hangout Sol y Luna; there we met with Marilyn Straka, San Francisco native and tour guide extraordinaire. Marilyn specializes in unique and accessible “On The Level” tours, and described at length about the many wonderful sites available for wheelchair users and slow walkers in San Francisco. We look forward to working with Marilyn, pictured here with us at Sol y Luna.
Our next stop was at a lovely hotel run by Holiday Inn in the Civic Center. This hotel had stylish accessible rooms, a fabulous roof-top pool with views of the city and a warm and welcoming staff. We had the opportunity to meet with the General Manager, Gino Lazzara, of the hotel who is from Italy. When he discovered that Loredana was a fellow Italian, he insisted we stay so he could get her advice on how best to design and remodel the pool area! He actually had her looking at tile samples as they had an excited and rapid-paced discussion in Italian over which soccer team from their respective home towns was best! You know the old saying: “You can take the Italians out of Italy…” See Loredana advising on the pool design here.
After Loredana’s adventure with interior design, hotel representative Maria Bernard showed us their additional properties at Fisherman’s Wharf. The local street vendors, shops and restaurants lining the water create a fun and inviting atmosphere - plus, you can see the infamous Alcatraz right across the bay. We’ve always wanted to visit Alcatraz and now we have the chance! Check in with us tomorrow as we share more of our adventures in this wonderful city.
Tags: Accessible Escapes, accessible travel, barrier free travel, san francisco, Slow Walker tours, Wheelchair Tours