More photos from San Francisco >>
Well upon entering San Francisco we took 19th ave. over the Golden Gate bridge with the CruiseMaster through heavy downtown traffic, but it was well worth it to see the city. We could barely see Alcatraz out in the bay due to the heavy fog. It got very sunny and warm at our RV park in Larkspur. What kinda freaked us out a bit was we were just over the channel from San Quentin State Prison. It was so close, we could not believe it. At night was the eeriest time to view it, it was lit up so bright and it seemed so quiet and calm, totally sheltering the outside world from the dark awful happenings on the other side of the wall.
We had time on our first day in S.F. so we decided to track down a dog park. We found one in Sausalito that drew us in from their welcoming website. Seeing we have had a couple bad run ins lately we figured this park might be better. It was in an upscale community and the dog owners were proud of their park enough to create a well-designed website and even had a board of directors for the operations of the park.
We were not disappointed. The park was very nice, well-kept with pretty much mulch and some grass. The people and dogs were great. We made friends with a couple of people and chatted with them while the puggles played with whistle (a small jack russel mix with endless spunk). One of the people we met was , he is one of the board of directors and the website creator. He and his friends told us of the Marin Brewing Co. Brewpub which happened to be just down the road from where we were staying. Perrrfect. Time to head out for beer:)
We figured we would eat at the brewpub but as we neared it we saw our dream restaurant row. On the right of the pub was a sushi bar, and the left was a THAI place!! We were in a happy place. So we had awesome thai food followed with a great beer to follow. I had a San Quentin Breakout Stout, so appropriate I thought :) We met a great guy at the pub who gave us a lowdown on things to do and places to see around San Fran. Thanks Steve!
So the day was upon us, one we had been waiting for a couple of years now, a day of exploration around San francisco. The day started with an old fashioned chocolate donut while taking a ferry from Larkspur to the Ferry Plaza downtown. We cruised by San Quentin, still as eerie as ever even in the daylight. It is still so wild to think of the people that are behind those walls and the horrible acts they have committed on other human beings. The next landmark wouldn’t you know it to pass by was Alcatraz with the Golden Gate Bridge visible in the far distance. It was a bright and sunny day, we were so lucky to get such beautiful weather in mid-June. No fog at all. It was quite chilly on the water though but once on land in the sun it felt great.
While we rode the ferry we observed a family on the lower deck break out wine and cheese for the ride over and we thought it would be a great idea to find a bottle of wine for the ride home and do the same. Would make the ride home a good capping off on what was to be a great day. We probably should have grabbed a ferry schedule to see when the last ferry was scheduled but we checked the board and it was 5:30.
So once we disembarked we caught a streetcar to the Fisherman’s wharf. Sharon came up with the idea to eat our way around the city and I was all for it. The first food came at The Crab House on the second level in the form of a bowl of crab chowder. It was alright, but not like Maryland crab soup like we were craving, but it worked. We had a view of the bay and the sea lions perched on their manmade platforms. The highlight of the restaurant was their Crab House Pale Ale, it was great. Highly recommend it!
Next on our agenda was Dim Sum in Chinatown. We grabbed a cable car to get there and actually got to hang on the outside from the handrails, it was something I always wanted to experience. I was like a little kid again with a goofy smile that would not go away as I watched the streets of San Fran go by. One of the many moments from our journey I will never forget.
Chinatown was even more crazy than I had seen on TV. I felt as if we had just been transported to the other side of the world. It was awesome. But where to eat dim sum was not going to be easy as it was at every restaurant. And as always I was looking to score a solo shoe photo, especially in San Fran to commemorate the day. I wanted to go down a few alleys thinking that would be the best spot to find one. As we strolled down one we saw a small sweat shop turned fortune cookie factory and had to stop and get some cookies. I did not know they came in chocolate! Well we were getting hungry so we settled upon a place for dim sum. Being a little leery of eating mysterious dumplings from a small hole in the wall restaurant at $5.95 all you can eat we opted for a nice establishment. We had great little bites of chinese cuisine and then dashed off. We paid of course first :) No dine and dash these days.
We were now going to head to Japantown but had to do some shopping first. We strolled around for a bit and decided that Japantown was too far and we might miss the Ferry back so we decided to just mosey back to the Embarcadero and maybe eat some and shop some and get the 5:30 ferry back to Larkspur. We ended up taking an electric zero emissions bus back to the Ferry port. As we got off and were walking to the Ferry, I spotted a shoe, finally! It took me a bit to get the right angle and lighting but it was barely 4:30 so we still had plenty of time. Or did we? Had we had a ferry schedule we would have noticed the 5:30 was for Sausalito, the Larkspur was scheduled to leave at 4:30!!! Holy shitake!! We are going to miss our boat, we ran, but it was tooooo late. It was just pulling out. The only time something runs on time for us is when we need it to be delayed :( Of course it was the shoe that was the cause of this, had I not found it, we would have been there in time to catch the 4:30 ferry. Damn shoes.
The attendant at the ticket booth was great, she refunded our money and gave us information on when and where to grab the city bus to get back to Larkspur. We had 10 minutes to get 4 “real” city blocks, as she called it. “You probably don’t need to run, but I would do a brisk walk” she told us. Our brisk walk turned into a full sprint at the end. We did not see the #80 bus anywhere when we got there. Finally after some help from another bus driver we saw it, it was getting ready to leave! We ran full speed with panic faces and just caught the driver’s eye so he waited for us. Thank god, because a cab would have been over $40 bucks I bet.
So there we sat, going through all of downtown SF, making stops every 10 seconds. It was our fifth different form of public transportation today. But we were still having fun, we got to see all of the city now. As luck would have it, the bus stopped right in front of the RV park. Now all we had to do is grab the dogs and go for a short walk to the ferry parking lot to get our jeep. It was still early and we could go to the coast at Muir Beach to catch the sunset so off we went.
Traveling to Muir beach was a beautiful 30 minute drive over Mt. Tam. We witnessed a rental motor home take off a mirror of a car traveling in the oncoming lane, close call!! Muir Beach was really cool, tall steep granite cliffs sourounding an almost black sand beach in which dogs could roam off-leash. The puggles had so much fun running in the surf, they just love the beach. It always make us feel good to see them having so much fun after being trapped in the motor home all day. We realize we are crazy dog owners, but hey what can we do, we love our dogs. I found an old soft sided suede winter boot down there sitting half buried in the sand, perfect for a great sunset beach shot.
We thought about stopping at the pub by the beach for a beer but we were worn out, It was an long awesome day of sight-seeing. Sometimes it is fun to just be a tourist running around a city just soaking it all in. It was, as we like to call it, a diamond day.
We thought about staying longer but we needed to move on to Russian River, and we decided it was time to speed up the process of getting back east, we were dying to see our family and friends and share our stories with them.
Before leaving out we did meet a nice family that has been full-timing on the road for a while. We enjoyed sharing experiences with them, so if you should happen to read this blog we wish you safe travels.
Note: I could easily live in Larkspur or the surrounding communities if I got rich :)