So, Wednesday, we started across from the Powell Muni Station waiting for a trolley to take us to Fisherman's Wharf. The trolley was pretty cool - there are 4 lines in the city and they go no faster than about 9 miles an hour. And that's very comforting because the hills in San Francisco are great - you could really take off if the trolley let loose :-) And the idea that they manually turn the trolley around at each end of the trolley line is pretty interesting. Great ride through the city!
We ate lunch down on the Wharf and then checked out the fog that covers the Golden Gate Bridge most days ... from our bicycles! It was only 9 miles but I never thought I would make it another inch with the hills, the wind, and the out-of-shape body I am hauling around! Super fun, though, and I'm glad we made it all the way! We rode bikes from Fisherman's Wharf over the bridge to Sausalito. We should have planned better because Sausalito seemed to be a super cute area and I wish we could have explored ... but the ferry was on it's way and there was no way that I was biking it back :-)
Oh, yes, these are the bikes ... see, I have proof that I am not making this adventure up! Ha!
Clearly by the smiles on our face, you can tell that we haven't even left the bike rental shop at this point!
Aaaahhh, good thing we rode over the bridge because it was hard to see through the fog from the street!
If the fog wasn't so bad, it would have been a great picture! I was one "hottie" at this point ... and not because I looking too good!
Pretty sure this was at the first leg of the bridge ... yikes! I was already pooped - thank goodness we were about 1/2 the way done by this point!
And here's the 2nd stop on the bridge ... now, it was only like 3/8 further to go!
Beautiful picture of San Francisco from the tower just under the Golden Gate Bridge.
And this is the ferry that we were supposed to ride back to Fisherman's Wharf on ... it was a little bit confusing as to why we didn't, but thank goodness there was another ferry not too far behind!
And after pushing my leg muscles that much, I needed a special treat ... and Ghiradelli's served that right up!
I really didn't think I would be able to walk the next day after our bike ride; but, I pre-medicated with much Ibuprofen so I was actually surviving the next day. And, of course, we were not finished site-seeing so we hit the streets again on Thursday - Cable Car Museum, Chinatown, Lombardi Street,
We were so impressed with the trolley system (and we talked to someone that visited the museum and thought it was pretty neat) that we decided a stop at the Cable Car Museum might be worth it so that's where we started. And it was pretty impressive - thinking that the trolley system overcame the earthquake and fires many moons ago ... definitely a national landmark and worth the "stop" - ha!
Welcome to China ... town! I handled it pretty good but there were too many people and the fish just hanging out in the markets on the streets were too smelly for me to move there!
There is a place amongst Chinatown where they still hand-make fortune cookies. We bought some and enjoyed reading them after dinner. I bought some yummy ones with chocolate! If you took a picture, you had to pay $.50 - I didn't mind :-)
We decided to walk from Chinatown to Lombard Street - the world's curviest street ... needless to say, the city map didn't indicate which streets were at 180 degrees :-) We walked up this "hill" (these are actually called "mountains" on the east coast)!
And this is Lombard Street - curvy road with beautiful homes on each side. Super excited that we got to walk down the "hill" this time :-)
Here we are at the bottom of the street ...
From Lombard Street, we headed back to Fisherman's Wharf to see what it was all about ... since all we had done the day before was pick up our bikes there and took off for the bridge. Since San Francisco is known for their sour dough bread, there is a company right on the waterfront that makes homemade bread in all these funny animal shapes! The teddy bear was my favorite!
And here's a picture of Alcatrez from Pier 39 - one of the most popular piers on the Wharf.
It used to be that these water piers were covered with sea lions, but during the summer months, most of them migrate. It was good to see just a few that stayed behind - I'm pretty sure I saw them biking the bridge the day before so they were just plain worn out! Ha!
And once we finished seeing all the sights we could cram in, we went shopping along the famous Haight Street (where Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia used to live). It's a crazy street so I wasn't sure what to buy to remember it by ... but I think these tights did the trick!
All and all, my time away was terrific. I had a blast and we got super lucky with the weather! I got in late Friday night but since the kiddos were at the beach, I left early Saturday morning to join them at Wild Dunes. It was a great trip - really short - but worth every second to see them! Hope you all had a fabulous July 4 week!
We are getting ready for birthdays around here ... the next big thing on the agenda will be the children's birthday one week from this Friday - can't believe they are turning 3! We picked out their cakes today and they couldn't figure out why they couldn't take them home ... so funny!
1 comment:
I still CANNOT believe you biked across the Golden Gate Bridge! Sheesh! We went to that fortune cookie place when were there a couple of years ago...yummy!
PS. Can't wait to see you wearing those tights!
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