Majestic and alluring San Francisco is my favorite city in the USA, after Tucson of course. Santa Fe, Boulder, and Savannah follow close on their heels. Enjoying the unusual experience of a short break in our production schedule for my TV series Meteorite Men, I mentioned to my director that I could really use an actual vacation, rather than traveling somewhere to research a story or dig for space rocks. She said: “Take it soon.”

So, I returned to San Francisco—a city that I find, at once, relaxing and inspiring. It was my first proper holiday in two years, and these are a few favorite images from a week in and around that lovely city by the bay.

Fisherman's Wharf

The living roof atop the California Academy of Sciences

Haight-Ashbury cafe

Mailbox in Berkeley

Artist Gail Suzanne Weissman in her studio in Marin County

Street market in Chinatown

Cat-friendly sign in people-friendly Bolinas

Sleeping nautilus in the California Academay of Sciences aquarium

Cable cars near Market Street

The Haight

Chinatown

USS Pampanito submarine museum

Public shrine in Bolinas

Crab traps at Fisherman's Wharf

Abandoned resort in Fairfax

Grant Street, Chinatown

Riding the cable cars is still the best part

Photographs © by Geoffrey Notkin. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.