Well, today was jam-packed full of physical activity. We started out walking to a breakfast place just down the street from our motel. The breakfast was delicious! After breakfast, we walked to Fort Mason, which is like a really beautiful recreational park for people to take their dogs and whatnot to play. It's also near the water and we could see the Golden Gate Bridge from there, although, not very closely. Oh, and I'm not posting pictures right now because the internet connection is very slow here so please check back later for picture postings once we get home, which will be on Wednesday evening. Anyway, after we took some pictures of the nice, green landscape and water areas, we headed down to the Fisherman's Wharf. We walked on this empty pier area for awhile to try and get better pictures of the distant GG bridge. I also got some pictures of boats in the marina. The first stop was Hyde St. Pier and that was just a bunch of Maritime stuff with souvenir shops with boats and books and things to collect and act like you're actually interested in boats. There were several boats that people could board and have a look around but not without the nominal fee of $5. We decided not to do that at that juncture. We continued into Fisherman's Wharf and smelled the exciting scents of fish and crab being prepared--mmm...sometimes. We walked in and out of knic-knacky stores and then walked some more. Without pictures, it's kinda hard to describe what we saw, except for a LOT of people and vendors trying to get people to buy things they didn't need. Another thing we noticed around this area was the number of homeless. It was sorta disgusting the way they just sat there and looked all gross and snored on the sides of the walkways. Aside from that, it was a very pleasant and busy place! After walking for hours, we settled in on a lunch establishment called Pompei's Grotto--very tasty, in deed! I had a crabmeat sandwich with a side salad and Kyle had the same except for a side cup of clam chowder--also extremely tasty!
Lunch ended and we decided we'd like to walk back to the motel and rest for a while, but NOT without walking through Ghirardelli Square! We went into one store and they gave us each a free Ghirardelli square of chocolate with carmelized almonds! MMMMMMM....we shall return later, for sure. We got back to the motel and took a nap for about an hour and then at about 3pm, went back to the Wharf area and decided to rent bikes for the afternoon. The self-guided tour would eventually take us across the GG bridge and into the little town of Sausalito. The day was perfect for a bike ride! It was sunny (as I have the red neck to prove it and also the red arms) and there was a breeze in the air! A perfect spring day. In total, we rode about 3.5 hours. The GG bridge pictures are quite amazing, if I do say so myself but you'll have to wait until later this week to see what I mean. Sorry. We made it over the bridge and rode for about 10-15 more minutes into Sausalito. Boy, you could tell this town was just brimming with money. The town wasn't that big though--just very...um, what's the word to describe it? I tried saying quaint, but Kyle said that wasn't a nice word to use...haha. It is a small community shoved into the hills along the waterfront and there are just beautiful homes that also kinda look like apartments--guess you could call them big condos or something. I can just imagine the type of people that live there. Penny loafers, sweaters tied around their necks or whatever...2 sports cars in the driveway (no, really, I did see that). I had read that Sausalito has a houseboat community but I didn't see any--maybe I wasn't looking in the right place? Anyway, b-e-a-utiful! I wanted some saltwater taffy, but we didn't have enough time--we had to catch a ferry to take us back to San Francisco so that we could return our bikes. We got on the ferry and it was about a 20 minute ride back. It was great. We got back to the ferry pier and had to take our bikes back to the garage and return them. By then, we were starving for dinner. We decided to eat at an italian restaurant. I looked like h-e-double hockey sticks and well, Kyle looked a little better than I did. Oh well. We ate at a place called Ciopino. I just wanted some salmon and Kyle also wanted some sort of fish. We ate, paid and then left promptly. We were sooooooo worn out from the day's exertion.
OOOOHHH! Totally forgot to tell you that we went to that famous steep and extra windy road that's been seen in all the movies! Lombard Street--where people literally wait in line in their cars for about 45 minutes or so to slowly wind downhill on this famous little strip of road. We decided to walk UP to it first. Talk about a 45 degree incline! I made it though. It wasn't too bad, I guess--if you like that sort of thing. We got to the top and there were all sorts of people watching the cars slowly wind down this street and cameras were flashing and people were just standing in awe...including us. Thankfully, we got to walk downhill then. I took a few pictures of that too.
We love being here. When we got into the great state of California, we noticed how at home we felt because of the lushness of vegetation and the TREES!!! It even had a moist, sweet, green smell like you smell in the summertime when people are cutting the grass and doing yardwork. *sigh* However, we probably won't ever move here to Cali because of the expensive housing and also because I don't feel like experiencing landslides and earthquakes.
So, we're now safely back in our motel and we're about to wrap it up for the night because tomorrow is another fun-filled day starting with the Alcatraz tour in the morning! Can't wait! Then we'll probably go to Chinatown and depending on how interesting it is, we may stay for the remainder of the day because it's a little further from our hotel than everything else and so we're gonna have to take a streetcar (ding, ding, the San Francisco treat)! Hope everyone had a very nice Easter today. I hope family get-togethers were filled with laughing, food and time with loved ones. We missed it this year (the family get-togethers and stuff). But I guess if you can't be with family, why not set out on an adventure for a new place that you haven't seen yet with your best friend for life?
ps. Have you ever been through an agricultural checkpoint? Well, let me tell you about our experience! We had just entered Cali and our greeting to the state was a checkpoint. I thought, "Hey, it doesn't really apply to us but then I remembered that we had fruit in our cooler. We stopped and the guy asked us,
"Are you all from the great state of Idaho?"
"Yes, we are."
"Do you have any fruits and/or vegetables with you?"
"Yes, we have pears, bananas and nectarines."
"May I take a look in your cooler?"
"Sure." (unlocked the door)
He stood there sifting through our food and picked up a pear, which previously I had taken all the stickers off of for ease of consumption. He looked and looked and looked at the pear as if to ask, "What kind is it?" So I answered his unasked question and said, "It's a D'Anjou pear."
The other guy said, "Idaho's okay--let 'em go."
I guess that pear could've been from anywhere but since I took off the stickers, he didn't know where they were from. I mean, come on...what were they gonna do? Confiscate our pears?
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