Sketching in San Francisco

I went to San Francisco last weekend – while I used to visit the city fairly often, this was the first trip in six years. I love the city because it is compact enough to explore many parts of it on foot.

Here is a view from Alamo Square Park.

I sketched some more around the neighborhood near the hotel. The structure on lower right corner is a bus stop – the bottom is at an angle because it sits on a sloping street. Some streets are so steep that they have stairways cut into the sidewalks.

Besides older buildings like Victorian houses, older vehicles like cable cars and F-Line street cars are restored and operating, adding to the city’s charm. Each street car on F-Line route is different – I caught two of them on paper.

Even in the rain, the cable car is turned around at the bottom of the hill by a gripman so it can face uphill to climb back up. I’m amazed to learn that San Francisco cable cars are the only cable cars in the world that are still manually operated, ever since they were built in 1873.

I stood under an awning to draw this building because it was raining. I’d love to come back and sketch again, and go on an architectural walking tour (when it’s not raining) to learn more about the city!