Where’s the Defibrillator?

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Today we’ve signed up for a bus tour out to Muir Woods, which is about twenty kilometres north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, and then onto the northern bayside village of Sausalito.

Our guide introduces himself as Danilo. He tells us that he’s originally from Honduras, and he’s a mine of information, some of it useful, and some of it maybe slightly less so. He says that a range of diverse things were “invented” here in San Francisco including fortune cookies (I thought they were Chinese), cable cars - OK he can have that one, and Irish coffee - surely now he’s just making stuff up.

We stop at the viewing point on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, and then continue on through the Robin Williams Tunnel towards the Woods. We pass a large eucalyptus forest which we’re told was grown from stock imported all the way from Australia - the smell is certainly very familiar.

Muir Woods National Monument protects some 200 hectares of natural forest, around half of which is old growth coastal redwood. We’re told that only some 4% of the original coastal redwood forests remain, most of the rest having been logged during the early years of European settlement. The Monument was established in 1908 by Scottish American naturalist John Muir in response to proposals to construct a dam in the area. The trees certainly are extremely impressive. Whilst redwoods can grow up to 115 metres, the tallest one here is only a “paltry” 80 metres. Most of them are between 500 and 800 years old, and the oldest has been on the planet for at least a mind blowing 1,200 years. The roots are apparently relatively shallow at only around three metres, but they often extend out laterally for ten times that or more. It’s extremely peaceful here and the whole thing’s been done very sensitively. We walk several kilometres, mainly along boardwalks along the creek that runs through the site.

We head into Sausalito for a bite to eat. The town‘s very cute, and is apparently well known as an artistic enclave and for the large number of houseboats here. The next town around the Bay’s called Tiburón, which I’m pretty sure is Spanish for shark. Huh? Wouldn’t that be a bit like calling a town in Australia Snake or Crocodile …..

Youngest son Troy is supposed to be leaving Melbourne today to come to Canada for Emma’s wedding. He can tend to get a bit distracted sometimes - Emma expressed some concerns last week about him forgetting to go to the airport … and maybe she was onto something … as we sit peacefully on the Sausalito waterfront munching away on rolls and sipping clam chowder, we get some panicked text messages from him about problems he’s having getting his US entry documentation accepted at Melbourne Airport. This is not good; he was supposed to be MCing the wedding. A few long minutes later it seems all‘s been resolved, and we start to breathe again … this is another excellent example of why children should be required to equip their parents with defibrillators as soon as they’re able to crawl ….

There seem to be an awful lot of cyclists here in Sausalito, and apparently there are local rules to match. If you want to park your bike, you’re only allowed to do so in the town’s bike parking lot, and they’ll then relieve you of five dollars for the privilege. So you have to pay to park your bike? Really? … and in particular don’t even think about chaining your bike to any of the waterfront railings - the tone of the signs there suggests that that’s probably close to a capital offence.

We catch the ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf, and I head to the Ferry Building while Scott gives his legs a workout with a stiff climb up to the “Crookedest Street in the World”. We were told on one of the tours that until the Oakland Bay Bridge was built in the 1930s the San Francisco ferry terminal was the second busiest transit terminal in the world after London’s Charing Cross Station. It looks pretty busy even now, with long queues to board the many ferries, and lots of bustlingly busy bars and eateries.

I pass a driverless car parked along the waterfront. We were told today that these are currently being trialled in a handful of cities across the US including San Francisco, and a quick scan of the Google machine suggests that it’s been far from plain sailing. Some of them have reportedly caused traffic jams here when they’ve suddenly ground to a standstill after mistaking fog for another car. But it seems that the most infuriating thing for other drivers when this sort of thing happens is that there’s no one to yell at. The number and complexity of the gadgets on top of these things is mind blowing, which to me is just an indicator of the number of things that could potentially go wrong. We’ve been warned that if we want to order an Uber here to make sure that we choose the option that includes a driver …..

We dine at an excellent steak and seafood restaurant overlooking the Marina. Which brings me to another random observation. Why is it that the prongs on so many of the forks in restaurants here are bent? Is the steel perhaps not strong enough for American teeth, or are dishwashers here possibly just a tad on the aggressive side? … I think I probably need to find something more useful to think about.

We finalise the evening’s dining by heading next door to the apparently iconic Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop on the site of the former chocolate factory of the same name. Sooooo much chocolate …..

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

US Entry
I'm glad all the paper work got sorted out. We lived in the SF area about 3 years. Muir Woods is always a nice day. It is a great city. Yes, the Irish coffee was invented at the Buena Vista. I hope you went there to have one. Happy travels.

[DaveandIssy]

San Francisco
Great city indeed. Didn’t manage an Irish coffee, but suspect a session at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory probably made up for that….