wanderingways

  We hit the restaurant next to the hotel for breakfast, which was great. A little Swedish pancake/ lingonberries and all before catching a late flight back home.

An early morning, maybe a little before 5am hustle down Market St to catch a bus to the Pier.   We had been told if we got to Alcatraz early enough there might be some tickets available.   We were not the earliest. We grabbed the most expensive breakfast sandwich in the history of early morning eating.   Its cost was indirectly related to its taste.   The National Parks are not known for quality food.   Alas, we scored tickets to “The Rock” and set off across the Bay.   It was windy and Sunny, ironically, we both found it quite pretty.   The flowers and birds were spectacular, and the tour of the prison was really well done, complete with who had been there and who had gotten away.   Back on the mainland we walked up to the Ferry Building for lunch.   We weren’t the only ones with that idea and as the weekend was getting closer you could feel the population of the city swell.   We ate our lunch on a park bench overlooking the Bay. Spen...

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We wanted to get to the Pork Store for breakfast. The original Pork Store was in Haight Ashbury.  The local in the area are not known for early rising and the Haight still had a glaze from the night before.  The murals on the walls were great, with trippy bold colors and themes that are expected in the epicenter of the counter culture.  Breakfast was outstanding.  Amy got a Caliscracious omelet that was great.  We hit a couple of open stores, a cigar shop and small market.  Put a kale salad and an orange in our day pack and strolled off toward the Pacific Ocean.  We walked through Golden Gate Park and accidentally sneaked into the Botanical gardens.  The gardens were beautiful, but we got turned around pretty quickly on the winding trails and without having paid were a little hesitant to ask for help.  We found our way back into the sprawling acreage of Golden Gate Park and the statues around de Young Museum.  We popped out at the Beach ...

  We rented bikes, at first a tandem that we weren’t coordinated enough to ride, and then more traditional two-wheeler single seaters.   Rode them along the bay North and over the Golden Gate Bridge with the Pacific Ocean and traffic on our left.   Just off the bride we took a steep hill descent into the town of Sausalito.   A crafty little town with great ice cream.   We used out sports, because we had them, to eat the ice cream from out waffle cones then we pushed on north and out of town.   There was a bike trail that was urbanized, sometimes it followed city streets and sometime sit was a paved entity all on its own paralleling the 101.   We missed a sign as we headed for Old Mill Park and the giant sequoia and travelled twice or maybe thrice on Sycamore St.   It was a wonderful sleepy little street with a pleasant smell.   The Park was nice with a little stream and benches to sit on.   The trees were immense as expected and the shad...

  We are headed to San Francisco almost…..our flights out of GB were delayed.   Amy called and we were able to get an earlier flight but had little time to spare.   We dumped our Bloody Mary’s in the sink and raced off to the tarmac.   The flights were great and we checked into the Chancellor hotel and headed toward Pier 39.   We walked the hills and wandered through Chinatown to find the most amazing Dungeness crab we had ever eaten.   The wharf was active and I was sure the sea lions/harbor seals barks were being piped in for audio to the information kiosk.  Amy rightly pointed out the actual seals laying all over the wharf.  We watched them and listed only to hear “Mr. Evenson!”  We traveled all day and literally to the other side of the country to find a student.  We spent the evening watching the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bride and a Sailboat cross the bay in a misty twilight.  Wandered back through the commercial distri...