Clare: Field Trip Info

When: Saturday, October 17, 2-5 pm

Where to Meet: 2pm, in the lobby of 79 New Montgomery.

Destination: Coit Tower, a historic observation tower on a Telegraph Hill, a big hill between the SF Bay and the North Beach neighborhood.

What to Bring: It will be a long walk, and the weather could range from sunny and hot to foggy and cold. I recommend:

comfortable shoes
water bottle
money
an extra sweater and jacket
a camera!

Also you can bring a friend if you want to.

Route: We will walk down Mission Street to Embarcadero Street, which runs along the bay. Then we will walk along Embarcadero Street to the Ferry Building. If anyone is hungry or thirsty, we’ll stop there for a snack, coffee, or tea. Then we’ll continue along Embarcadero Street to Greenwich Street. We’ll take a left on Greenwich Street and follow it until it turns into a long stairway. We’ll climb up the stairway until we get to Coit Tower.

After we spend some time at Coit Tower, I’ll go home and leave you on your own. If you need directions to get home or to go somewhere else, I’ll give you directions before I leave, or I’ll go with you back to the Academy of Art.


Highlights of our route:
Coit Tower is on Telegraph Hill, a hill made famous in the movie The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. If we’re lucky, we might see some wild parrots on our way up the staircase.

Telegraph Hill has great views of the city. To get even better views, you can pay $4.50 to go up to the top of Coit Tower and look out.

On the ground floor of Coit Tower, all the walls are covered with murals, painted in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. They were paid for by the US government as part of an effort to create jobs for people during the depression. The Coit Tower murals are considered one of the best examples of depression-era art. They show scenes of daily life in California in the 1930s.

Coit Tower is in the North Beach neighborhood, an Italian neighborhood with a lot of cafes, restaurants, bars, music clubs, parks, and gift shops. It’s known as a place to get great Italian food and pastries. It also has art galleries, clothing stores, and jewelry stores that have hand-made jewelry.

If you feel like walking even more, you can walk down Grant Street all the way back to 4th and Market Streets. Grant Street starts in North Beach, goes through Chinatown, and ends up in Union Square. It’s a great street for people-watching and all kinds of shopping.

See you Saturday!