By Michele E. Buttelman
Signal Staff Writer
People are now focusing on having “experiences” rather than buying “things.” This trend can be seen clearly in the travel sector as travel has become the most sought after “experience” in all age groups.
Mastercard Travel Services reports global leisure travel is up 31% in March 2023 compared to the same period in 2019, representing a 25% increase from 2022 to 2023.
The “travel bug” has intensified for many since the COVID-19 pandemic severely restricted everyone’s travel options for several years.
This new emphasis on seeking “experiences” is more than just seeing the usual tourist sights. Gone are the days when a vacation meant traveling to a beautiful location and hanging around a pool or laying on a beach.
Today’s travelers want to see, and experience, unique sights, sounds and food. Locations off the beaten path are among the most popular travel destinations.
However, travelers can also visit a popular tourist destination, such as San Francisco, and find unique sights. It’s time to see something you didn’t know existed.
The Wave Organ
83 Marina Green Drive 94123
Info www.exploratorium.edu/visit/wave-organ
The Wave Organ is a huge musical instrument played by the ocean. Located on a jetty in the San Francisco Bay, the Wave Organ was built in 1986. This acoustic sculpture amplifies the sounds of the waves in the bay.
The organ’s jetty was constructed with carved granite and marble from a demolished cemetery that also forms the irregular terraced seating. The “organ” is comprised of more than 20 PVC and concrete pipes that extend down into the water at various levels. Sound is created by waves crashing against the ends of the pipes. When waves roll in, the pipes create low, gurgling notes that ebb and flow with the movement of the ocean and the changing of the tides.
The acoustics of the wave organ are only active when the tide is in, and the music is best heard at high tide. Parking is available in the nearby marina.
San Francisco’s Cable Car Museum
1201 Mason Street 94108
Info www.cablecarmuseum.org
Riding a cable car isn’t that unusual, but visiting this free museum located in the heart of the city’s historic cable car system is a unique experience. The San Francisco Cable Care Museum is a place where giant spinning sheaves pull the cable cars up the city’s famously steep streets.
Anyone who’s ever wondered about the inner mechanics of San Francisco’s cable cars can experience it here. See how each streetcar is pulled along a huge continuous loop of cable, which is constantly turned by a giant spinning sheave. These enormous sheaves, which are wheels with grooves along their edges for holding cable, can be seen in motion at the Cable Car Museum.
The museum also features exhibits that explain the history of both San Francisco’s cable and streetcar systems along with the story of how the cable cars were saved from the post-WWII threat of replacement by buses.
Take a cable car to the location by using the Powell line at Washington.
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
56 Ross Alley 94108
Info www.goldengatefortunecookies.com
Founded in 1962 the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory is one of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies in the United States.
Located in a pedestrian alley tucked into San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood, this tiny factory still uses its original secret recipe.
The classic fortune cookie recipe is so secret even co-owner Kevin Chang doesn’t know his mother’s recipe.
Other producers have turned to automated labor, leaving this factory as one of the last of its kind.
When their rent quadrupled within three years, the Chang family, who has run the operation since 1962, opened up the factory to allow visitors to see how the cookies are made. The factory is able to crank out up to 10,000 cookies a day.
You can buy flat or folded cookies in a variety of unique flavors at the factory. The factory is open seven days a week.
Relics of the 1906 Earthquake
At 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9. Fire broke out in the city and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed. The event is remembered as the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States.
Instead of visiting a dusty museum take to the streets of San Francisco to see these two amazing relics from that historic earthquake.
The Golden Fire Hydrant
Church St. and 20th St. 94114
On the southwest corner of Dolores Park sits a historic fire hydrant. As fires raged throughout San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, much of the city’s network of fire hydrants failed. Miraculously this hydrant, nicknamed “little giant,” is said to have been the only functioning hydrant and is credited with saving the historic Mission District neighborhood from destruction.
Lotta’s Fountain
Kearny Street and Geary Street
94102
This fountain has survived earthquakes, fires and attempts to move it to Golden Gate Park, and in the process has become San Francisco’s oldest surviving monument.
Lotta’s Fountain is a 24-foot cast iron sculpture, painted bronze and adorned with lion’s heads, griffins, and other ornaments.
Gifted to the city in 1875 by famous vaudeville performer, Lotta Crabtree, the fountain became a gathering place for dazed 1906 earthquake survivors who were searching for anything familiar left standing.
Lotta’s Fountain served as a meeting place for people to be reunited with their loved ones. Every year at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 people still meet at the fountain in a ceremony of remembrance.
