Category 

Routes start

00 651 Lombard St, picnic site at Joe DiMaggio Playground

37.802493, -122.412235 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Stage 1

08 56 Ross Alley  

37.795702, -122.407344 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Fortune cookie factory. Notes on the main door
Whom you should not feed?
голубей; голуби; pigeons

Historical background

That crunchy folded confection that charts your future destiny seems as ubiquitous as chopsticks to modern Chinese dining in America, but you will never find them in China. In fact, fortune cookies were originally Japanese. The Japanese Tea garden in Golden Gate park served fortune tea cakes from Japantown's Benkyodo bakery. The cakes were extremely popular, and Chinese restaurants started buying them too. During World War II nearly the entire Japanese population in San Francisco was rounded up and sent to internment camps. Many Chinese families took over Japanese bakeries when they were shuttered, and soon no one could imagine Сhinese food without fortune cookies.
26 Intersection of Broadway and Columbus Ave, NW corner  

37.79795, -122.407056 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Language of the birds artwork
What word has an exclamation mark at the end?
Words!; words; слова

Historical background

On the opposite corner of this intersection, on the wall of the building 535 Broadway is a street art by Banksy. It is easier to see from Columbus Avenue.
27 600 Montgomery St  

37.795486, -122.40235 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Transamerica Redwood park. Closed on weekend, no need to come inside the park
What tool is hanging on the redwood tree closest to the park north entrance?
камера; фонарь; camera; flashlight

Historical background Checkpoint picture 27

Constructed in 1972, the Transamerica Building is one of the most recognized shapes in the city skyline, and was the tallest building in the city until Salesforce tower was built in 2018. The trees in the redwood grove were transplanted here from the woodlands around Santa Cruz, and continue to gain height each year. The tallest tree in this forest was 350 feet in 2017. Coast Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, so who knows, maybe one day these trees will be higher than the newest leader, Salesforce Tower!
If you were standing here in the early 1800s, the water would have been lapping at your feet. The site where the pyramid sits is essentially the former waterfront line before the shallow Yerba Buena Cove was filled in to accommodate the popularity surge during the gold rush.
31 540 Broadway  

37.798075, -122.406192 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

The Beat museum. Window display outside
Which word is repeated 3 times?
Books; книги

Historical background

The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The central elements of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration. The term "Beatnik" was coined by Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle in 1958, blending the name of the recent Russian satellite Sputnik and Beat Generation. The core group of Beat Generation authors met in 1944 in and around the Columbia University campus in New York City. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures ended up together in San Francisco, where they met and became friends of figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. In the 1960s, elements of the expanding Beat movement were incorporated into the hippie and larger counterculture movements.
49 649 filbert St  

37.800967, -122.410746 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Washington park playground. Pair of swings
Who sits on top of it?
Попугай; parrot

Historical background

The busy streets of San Francisco seem like the last place you'd find wild parrots. And yet, there they are.The wild parrots in and around San Francisco are called cherry-headed conures originating from Ecuador and Peru. They were brought here to be sold as pets in the exotic pet trade. There are a number theories as to how they got out. If you are interested to learn more about them, check out “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” book or documentary.
Their favorite places in the city are Telegraph Hill and Ferry park. Hopefully you’ll spot them today, they are very loud and hard to miss.
53 916 Kearny St

37.796567, -122.405059 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

American Zoetrope information at the entrance
Which movie is mentioned first?
The godfather; Godfather; Godfather 1; Godfather I; Крёстный отец; Крестный отец; Крёстный отец 1; Крестный отец 1
54 649 Jackson St  

37.796029, -122.405944 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

San Francisco Chronicle article near the restaurant entrance
What is written on the bag that the famous person carries?
thank you; спасибо

Historical background

You can find Chinese food everywhere across America, but here in San Francisco they specialize in dim sum.
55 125 Waverly place  

37.794554, -122.406996 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Tin How Temple. A note on the door written by hand in Chinese
The earliest year on the note
1970

Historical background

San Francisco Chinatown is the oldest in North America and largest outside of Asia. All original buildings were destroyed during the 1906 fire. When Chinese immigrants first made the voyage to "Gold Mountain", the Chinese name for California during the Gold Rush, one of their first missions was to thank the deity who guided them safely across the Pacific. The temple they built to honor the goddess Tin How (also known as Mazu) in 1852 is still in its original location, and is the oldest Taoist temple in America.
56 743 Washington St

37.795071, -122.406276 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Chinese Telephone Exchange building
When was published the first newspaper in San Francisco?
9 января 1847; January 9, 1847
50 1-2 Embarcadero center

37.794726, -122.399046 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Pedestrian bridge between One and Two Embarcadero center. If possible, get to the highest possible level. The closest sign with a street name
What surrounds the sign?
Traffic lights; светофоры

Stage 2

05 Rincon park

37.791454, -122.389954 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Cupid's span sculpture. Plaque with the sculpture name
Gift to whom?
the city; city; город; городу
29 Vaillancourt Fountain on Embarcadero plaza  

37.795406, -122.395349 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnqqPed5PU
Come the place where the concert took place
How many squares does the road through the fountain consists of?
31; тридцать одной; тридцать одна; thirty one; trirty-one

Historical background

The impromptu lunchtime concert that took place in 1987 was thrown together in less than 48 hours. Bono dubbed it the Save the Yuppies concert, as it took place less than a month after "Black Monday", one of the nation's most devastating stock market crashes, and he thought the Financial District needed cheering up. The 20,000 attending fans agreed.
52 1 Ferry building

37.79549, -122.393508 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Ferry building marketplace. The departures timetable closest to the El Parteno shop
What is the mosaic creature on the wall to the left of the timetable?
Краб; crab; dungeness crab
57 201 Spear St

37.790976, -122.391707 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Photographer sculpture in the park nearby
Name of the sculpture
Smile
58 77 Steuart St  

37.793807, -122.393623 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

San Francisco Railway museum. Furthest window from the entrance. Route description in the lower part of the window.
Largest in the world what? (3 words)
open swimming pool; открытый плавательный бассейн

Historical background

In the early 1980s in San Francisco, like in many other cities of the world, streetcars were considered an outdated means of transportation. Streetcar lines were closing. When the subway started running under Market street, the streetcar line was no longer needed.
This new technology progress was celebrated at the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival. It used historic streetcars from several different countries, as well as a number of preserved San Francisco cars. The impetus behind the Trolley Festival was also that the city's famed cable car system, one of its biggest tourist attractions, was scheduled to be closed for more than a year and a half for renovation, starting in September 1982. The Trolley Festival was conceived as a temporary substitute tourist attraction during the cable car system's closure. However, its popularity was such that it was repeated in subsequent years, gradually expanded to additional months of the year, and even operated seven days a week in 1985. Each season, a few additional streetcars joined the festival fleet, adding variety and helping to maintain tourist interest.
The five seasons of Historic Trolley Festival operation helped to establish strong public and business support for the proposed full-time F-line streetcar service (an all-day, daily, year-round service) that ultimately came to fruition in 1995.
In 2000 the line extended two times and soon a second line was opened. The tickets for this type of transport cost only 2.50 dollars, just like on any other muni service in the city.
61 Intersection of Ecker and Market streets

37.790293, -122.399698 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Fountain
How many times are you warned to not stand on rocks?
4; four; четыре
62 Intersection of Market and Bush streets  

37.791239, -122.399275 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

The intersection of the original shoreline 1848 and Market street. Tablet with a map on the ground
How many times the word "of" is written on the tablet?
5; five; пять

Historical background

Every day thousands of passengers on underground streetcars (lines N, T and K) in San Francisco pass through the hull of a 19th-century ship without knowing it. Likewise, thousands of pedestrians walk unaware over dozens of old ships buried beneath the streets of the city’s financial district.
In 1848, when news of the Gold Rush began spreading, people were so desperate to get to California that all sorts of dubious vessels were pressed into service. On arrival, there was no point in going back, ship captains and their crew were eager to try their luck in the gold fields. The ships weren’t necessarily abandoned—often a keeper was hired to keep an eye on them, but they languished and began to deteriorate. A few ships were sunk intentionally. Then as now, real estate was a hot commodity in San Francisco, but the laws at the time had a few more loopholes. You could sink a ship and claim the land under it. You could even pay someone to tow your ship into position and sink it for you. Then, as landfill covered the cove, you’d eventually end up with a piece of prime real estate.
65 Intersection of Washington st and Embarcadero st  

37.79647, -122.395591 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Info stand
3 words before "comes down"
freeway to nowhere

Historical background

San Franciscans wince at the memory of Embarcadero Freeway. It was gray as a prison, ugly as sin. It was completed in 1959 and for decades it ran along the bayfront effectively concealing much of the Ferry Building from the rest of the city. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the elevated freeway and the city decided to demolish it instead of repairing.
69 Pier 14  

37.794489, -122.389742 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

The further end of the pier
Number of the floor lamps on the round part of the pier
4; four; четыре

Historical background

On October 17 1989, at 5:04 p.m., the Loma Prieta earthquake (magnitude 6.9) shook with such violent force it tore the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in two. As usual, the bridge was very busy at that time as everyone was getting home from work. The section of the upper deck of the eastern truss portion of the bridge collapsed onto the deck below
The bridge was restored in a month, but the decision was made to do major seismic retrofitting of both western and eastern parts of the bridge. Eventually it became clear that it will be cheaper to replace the eastern part completely.
The span replacement took place between 2002 and 2013, and is the most expensive public works project in California history, with a final price tag of $6.5 billion, a 2,500% cost overrun from the original estimate of $250 million. Originally scheduled to open in 2007, several problems delayed the opening until September 2, 2013. Inside the structure, 20 massive 6-feet-tall fuses will shift with the
bridge to ensure that not only will it not collapse, but it will be back up and running quickly to allow medical and emergency personnel to get resources to either side of the Bay quickly.
With a width of 258.33 ft (78.74 m), comprising 10 general-purpose lanes, it is the world's widest bridge according to Guinness World Records.
63 555 Mission St

37.78839, -122.398907 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Sculpture garden. Human structures installation
How many humans does the installation consist of?
62; sixty two; sixty-two; шестьдесят два

Stage 3

699 425 Mission St, 1st floor of the Salesforce Transit

37.789497966306, -122.39654526554 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Entrance between the Salesforce tower and Fremont street
Take selfie with round ceiling window

Routes finish

99 425 Mission St, Salesforce Park

37.78948, -122.396568 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)