Advertisement
Published: December 24th 2007
Edit Blog Post
The Golden Gate Bridge covered in fog.
We spent the night in Petaluma, about an hour north of San Francisco, and were lucky enough to find a great Indian restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. We also made friends with the guy working the front desk so that we could get some info about how long we should actually allow to get into SF with traffic and everything. GoogleMaps are great, but don't always account for traffic. He said it would take at least an hour and would probably take more like an hour and a half since we were planning to leave at about 8am--but it could take longer. Turns out we made it with no real problems in just under an hour. I drove across the bridge and couldn't see a thing. Fog was so heavy that I didn't even have a sense of how long the bridge was cos I had no idea where the end was. We did get a nice break though cos we had enough people in the car to qualify us as "carpoolers". The Golden Gate Bridge has a toll if you're headed south into town (free if you're
Such a nice sister
Trying to push me into the Bay headed north) unless you carpool. Fabulous!
The plan was to park the car and ride bikes from Pier 39 across the bridge to Sausalito and then take the ferry back across the bay. Lauren decided she didn't want to do this, but wanted to walk the 8 miles instead. We found a place to drop her off along the bay and wished her well on her way. We continued on to find parking and get our bikes rented.
Blazing Saddles was great. They gave us maps, ferry tickets, and sent us on our way.
Biking along the bay was good and the temperature wasn't too bad--especially for those of us NOT used to riding a bike up really steep hills. There were only a couple like this, but the good news is that they were LONG! We stopped along the way for photo ops of Alcatraz and the bridge and just generally cos Allyn wanted Amy and me not to die. :-) Just before we got to the bridge Lauren met up with us but then we all headed off on the adventure of making it across the bridge. There were a lot of people walking across the bridge
Oh, the Great White Death
I think it's coming to get us next and quite a few other people biking across like we were. Going across the bridge was quite cold and windy but we made it. Then we got to coast all the way down into Sausalito. Beautiful! I love coasting!!!
Sausalito is gorgeous and reminds me a lot of some of the Italian and Greek seaside towns I've been lucky enough to visit. We made it to the main historical area and knew we had time to ride around town, shop a little, and have some coffee or hot chocolate before we had to meet up with Lauren in order to make the ferry back to SF. We had arranged for her to call us when she made it to the visitor's center which wasn't far from the ferry dock.
We got our bikes on the ferry and headed up to the upper level to see what we could see. The bridge was still shrouded in fog and it remained that way all day. We did get a great view of Alcatraz and of the hill that Sausalito sits upon. It was very interesting to see the streets and hills of SF from afar and realize just how small
Just chillin'
Amy's taking a break off the bike--too bad we can't see more of the bridge in the background the city really is. I think I read in my travel book that SF proper is only 7 square miles.
Somehow we ended up on a ferry that took us back to the port, not Pier 39 or 41 or anything close to where we needed to be. We rode our bikes all along the Embarcadero and turned them back in. Had a great lunch on the Pier before headed out to brave the hills. Allyn's hip was doing great and she only took along her walking stick to walk around the city. Yippee! Our first destination was Ghirardelli Square, then we were just going to wander about, eventually getting to Lombard Street and China Town.
We wanted to go see Alamo Square--where the Victorian houses are--but in order to get there, we had to take a bus. We were all completely worn out and cold and knew that there was absolutely no way we were going to be able to get there if a bus wasn't involved. I figured out how to get a transfer ticket, on which bus we needed to be, and at which bus stop we needed to wait. This last one was a
Signs
These signs and phones are present clear across the bridge bit tricky for me cos the buses I'm used to taking have been in London and having my brain switch which side of the street I needed to be on to go in the right direction took some thought. But we did it and we got off the bus within half a block of where we wanted to be. By this time, it was absolutely freezing outside--or at least it felt that way cos we were used to 90+F/30+C degree weather every day. It never got above about 62 degrees all day, but the temps were dropping fast by late afternoon.
We got back on the bus and after a few little transfers and some walking, we were in the Haight Ashbury district of SF. Allyn really wanted to go see the communal home of the Grateful Dead so we did. It's actually a very nice house now and unless you knew that Grateful Dead lived there once, you would never be able to tell just by looking at it.
One more bus and we ended our tour back at Union Square. We waited in line to take the trolley and eventually got one. Let's just say that
it's not the most comfortable ride, but it got us where we needed to be. Amy's friend Matt lives in SF and we were going to meet him for Thai food. We took the trolley part of the way and then were able to hail a taxi at the top of Lombard Street. I think we all found that a taxi ride on all the hills was just the slightest bit scary.
We got the the restaurant and ordered fabulously warm and spicy food. Had good conversation and relaxed a bit while we ate. Lauren and I decided to walk back to get the car so that Allyn could rest her very tired leg and Amy could visit with Matt a bit more. I drove back to the restaurant and while I had a very good idea of where I was going and how to get there, the streets didn't want to help me out. One of the streets I wanted to take was a one way the opposite way I needed it...so that meant I ended up driving up and down VERY hilly streets. Thank goodness I only encountered the one trolley--I don't really know the driving etiquette
and rules when trolleys are involved! We finally got back to the restaurant and picked up the other girls and Matt too. Gave him a lift most of the way home as we were headed in his direction on our way to San Jose.
Lauren took over driving and got us to San Jose with no problems...at least I think. Amy was the co-pilot and dealt with directions and talked to Lauren, Allyn crashed in the backseat, and with no one back there to keep me awake, I fell asleep too.
I don't think I've ever been as happy to see my bed as I was that night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.299s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.09s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ruth
non-member comment
Grateful Dead?
Call me ignorant but who or what are the grateful dead????!