Lincoln Highway: San Francisco History You Didn’t Know Was There

If you’ve been to visit the fine art treasures at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, you’ve been to the western terminus of the first transcontinental automobile road in the United States, but probably did not know it. Lincoln Highway, where the museum is located, once spanned 3,389 miles across the nation. It was the first paved road across America, linking San Francisco’s Lincoln Park to New York’s Times Square at 42nd Street.

 From the Atlantic to the Pacific

Just where the parking lot of the Legion of Honor meets the grass of the Lincoln Golf Course, see a Lincoln Highway marker indicating the end of that two-lane transcontinental road. It displays a Lincoln portrait medallion that looks just like a big penny set into the cement post. A small plaque reads, “This Highway Dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.”

Discover the Lincoln Highway, Main Street Across America,  on its 100th anniversary in 2013.  More ->

The western terminus of the Lincoln Highway in San Francisco

 

5 San Francisco Places That Feel Like Another Country

Poke around San Francisco’s Richmond District to discover five spots that can transport you to another part of the world. Within this neighborhood hugging the Pacific Ocean at its western end and surrounded by the expansive green spaces of Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, there are mini-foreign adventures to discover.

Wilhelmina and Windmills

There is likely no single item more closely aligned with the imagery of Holland than the windmill. Not one, but two historic windmills grace the western edge of Golden Gate Park near the Pacific coast. The Dutch Windmill and the Murphy Windmill, exceptionally tall at 75 feet and 95 feet, cannot easily be missed.

Authetic-feeling slices of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dublin, and London are all found in one neighborhood.

More.  >>>

A Dutch Windmill by the Pacific in San Francisco

An Empty Coffin and Other Amazing Lost Property on the London Underground

Detective work and good samaritans combine to successfully reunite just a fraction of the lost items on London’s tubes, buses, and taxis with the rightful owners. Astonishing stuff has been lost and found underground – although not necessarily retrieved by its owner – on the tubes, to the tune of 220,000 items per year. Since 1933, Transport for London‘s log indicates 15 million items so far turned in across the 249 network miles traveled by 1.1 million passengers a year.

Every day, about 1,000 items found on the tube or on London buses make their way to be tagged up at the lost property depot located, fittingly enough, across the street from the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street.

Crazy, remarkable items lost. If only Sherlock Holmes could help out…read what’s been turned in.

Lost and Found is called Lost Property in England

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How the Golden Gate Got Its Name

If you believe that San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is named after the straits of the waterway known as the Golden Gate, you would be correct. But have you ever wondered how the Golden Gate got its name? Actually, it has nothing to do with the fact thatCalifornia is known as the Golden State. Nor has it any connection to the 1849 Gold Rush. It’s not about the color of the bridge, either; that color is called international orange. The Golden Gate is named after the Greek word for a harbor in Istanbul, Turkey.

Read the story on Yahoo!

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge spans the Golden Gate

And so, for trivia and pub quizzes: The Golden Gate is named for the Golden Horn adjoining the narrow that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara at Istanbul. This is the unlikely but true story of how the Golden Gate got its Greek-derived name from an American explorer from Georgia buried in New York.

Forget the Diet Resolution: Eat Your Way Through San Francisco in 2013

San Francisco is a sparkling jewel in the crown of great American food cities, and has been for decades. Indeed, with a list of attributes that includes excellence in dining, Business Week pronounced that, “San Francisco is America’s best city in 2012.” With a reputation that reaches beyond our shores, Zagat, Huffington Post, Travel & Leisure, and Food & Wine are among the publications to award San Francisco a sky high ranking among the top twenty dining cities worldwide.

Visit in January
Eat out for less! San Franciscans are placing theDine About Town dates, January 15 through 31, 2013 in their calendars. The locals know that twice a year for two weeks, about 100 of San Francisco’s restaurants offer a special promotion of a two or three course lunch for $18.95 or a three course dinner for $36.95. Zagat suggests a hit list of 10 restaurants to book now.

To read on, click here

Farm to table cuisine is the Northern California way

Union Square will host SF Chefs in late July 2013

A Harry Potter Shop Opens at King’s Cross Platform 9 ¾

Since the publication of the first book in 1997, fans of “Harry Potter” are aware that between Platforms 9 and 10 at London’s King’s Cross Station, there is another platform known as Platform 9 ¾ through which students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may enter. From there they board a scarlet steam engine named the Hogwarts Express on the first of September at 11:00 a.m. sharp to begin the school term.

The area between Platforms 9 and 10 at the real King’s Cross had nothing more than half a luggage trolley and a sign for Harry Potter fans to pose before in photos. However, franchise and transportation executives with a clear sense of humor – and likely with the lure of tourists’ sterling coins jingling in their pockets – have cleverly opened a brand new Harry Potter shop right here.

Click to read on, as published in Yahoo! Travel

Harry Potter Shop Opens at King’s Cross Station

Where to Pop the Question in Paris…Not Just the Eiffel Tower

A friend of mine has asked my advice on whereabouts in Paris to propose marriage when he and his girlfriend visit the world’s most romantic city for the first time. Here are four of my best suggestions on romantic spots in Paris for Joe to get down on one knee, although there are easily another five or ten more, including the Eiffel Tower, in the city of light.

Which four places?…As featured on Yahoo! Travel

Propose in Paris on a Bateau Mouche

Australian Island Resort Scores Award as World’s Best Hotel

The 2012 “World’s Best Hotel” results are in from Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers Choice Awards, and for the first time, the winner of the magazine award is in Australia. Hamilton Island, measuring just two square miles, in the Great Barrier Reef is home to this 30-acre ultimate escape, which bagged a perfect score.

Quality at qualia
Built by the Oatley family for $75 million in 2008, guests fly in to the privately owned island via Jetstar or Virgin Australia from Sydney. Surrounded by the deep turquoise of the Coral Sea at the Great Barrier Reef, the resort is 10 miles off Australia’s Queensland coast.

Read more about one of the world’s perfect places.

qualia

What’s on in London for Christmas

London’s Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square

“Get ‘yer skates on!” London has half a dozen outdoor ice skating rinks open for the holiday season at historic locations. Hyde Park is hosting a large scale Winter Wonderland complete with an ice fantasy, ferris wheel, and circus. Celebrities are flicking the switch to illuminate Christmas lights and decorations in London’s major shopping streets and at a couple of new-ish malls. For a more traditional Victorian Christmas look, there are certain spots where the atmosphere of a Dickensian scene can still be found.

Street Lights All Over…click for where 

Lights on in London for Christmas

 

Drinking in the Past at San Francisco’s Historic Bars

San Francisco’s historic bars are scattered around Fisherman’s Wharf, Nob Hill, North Beach, and the city’s former red light district. Old San Francisco conjures up images of Barbary Coast bad boys, clipper ships, Gold Rush fortune hunters, opium den warlords, billionaire railroad barons, silver tycoons, and the devastation of 1906. When the great earthquake and fire left 80 percent of the city crumbled that year, the City by the Bay rose anew from the ashes. Here’s where to raise a glass at the city’s historic bars.

Read about five of the best here >>>

Serving up a classic cocktail at one of San Francisco’s historic bars