Books to travel with

San Francisco did not disappoint. Before we left I kind of saw our four days there as a little like taking a trip to a magical land at the top of Enid Blyton’s Far Away Tree. Sure enough, it was as good as that and although there were no trees that grew currant buns or fire works on the hour, there were still plenty of amazing sites to see. We had a print out of an email that Megan had sent me with a huge list of ideas that were not necessarily found in the guide books. It was invaluable and although we only managed to see about a 5th of her suggestions I was very thankful. What I had really wanted to do was to mention the trip on my site so that I could get comments about things to do and see in SF — much like Caterina’s list of Things to do in Vancouver BC. Before Megan sent her list along, I was referring to my old copy of This is San Francisco for travel tips but I soon discovered that while in 1959 “Ladies are not permitted to hang on the outside [of cable cars]” things are slightly different in 2003. We also used our Lonely Planet guide to San Francisco (which was great when we became overwhelmed by who and what we should tip) and a popout map but I also managed to find a copy of The City by the Bay (which I highly recommend for the beautiful, joyful illustrations by Elisa Kleven) which inspired me to see much more than we had time to see so a return trip will be in order.