MORE GREETINGS FROM SAN FRANCISCO,
California, (CA), USA
Not much driving today, just a little, to get across the Bay and around a few areas a bit too far for walking.
After a short walk around the foreshore again, from Sausalito, we literally drove “up the hill” to a lookout above the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful clear and sunny day.
Golden Gate Bridge (north side)
The trip across the bridge was easy as the traffic was quite light and once across the bridge we turned off to go to the area below the bridge known as the Presidio.
This was originally a military establishment created on the west coast by the Spanish in 1776. It passed to Mexico before transferring to the USA in 1848.
Golden Gate (south side) & Fort Point
There is an extensive area of historical military buildings – barracks, offices, stables etc and right under the bridge (before it existed) a fort was built in the early 1860s. It continued some military role right through to the 1990s and is now under the control of the National Park Service.
We parked the car and walked to the fort. As we walked along the waterfront, we sighted dolphins swimming just offshore. From the top of the fort, there is quite a view across the Bay in most directions.
And then it was gone !
Out to sea, we could see the coastal fog similar to yesterday. As we started to leave the fort, the fog started rolling in and within minutes it was upon us.
Where minutes ago we were taking photos of the bridge in full sun, the bridge was now blanketed in fog !
We walked back to the car and by that time the fog had almost lifted again. Quite an amazing phenomenon !
Palace of Fine Arts
From here we drove around the Bay a little to the Palace of Fine Arts. It was originally built for an Exposition in 1915 in order to display fine art. It’s design was taken from Roman and Greek Architecture. It is now a popular place for functions and exhibits and is a lovely green space popular with the public.
Next stop was the top of San Francisco at the lookout at the Twin Peaks. It gives a full panoramic view of San Francisco and the Bay. It was now early afternoon and Adrienne was in need of a fix – of clam chowder in a sourdough bowl ! So we drove to the hotel – located right in the middle of the Fisherman’s Wharf area on the Bay – and we were able to check in. We walked along the street and found a café for lunch and Adrienne tucked into her chowder. I had a shrimp creole.
This is a real “tourist trap” area. Streets lined with souvenir shops, cafes, street performers and more. We were serenaded over lunch by the street performer across the road – a guy doing various music “hits” but the pick was Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York accompanied by his marimba drums – or at least the cd player behind him was playing the marimba drums.
Sea lions – all the pontoons were packed with
them in 2005 – and we were about the only audience then !
After lunch we walked to Pier 39. It is full of shops and cafes. There are also pontoons in the water where large quantities of sea lions sun themselves. Compared to when we were here in 2005, numbers have changed dramatically – both in people and sea lions – there were so many more people around and so few sea lions !
The Pier itself is very well maintained and there are a few levels to wander around. We then walked back toward and then beyond our hotel.
There are a couple of iconic stores here. For the savoury tooth – one is the Boudin Bakery which has been baking sourdough in San Francisco since 1849. For the sweet tooth – the other is the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company started here in 1893. (Luckily for Adrienne the later was handing out free samples !)
At Pier 39
With our feet weary, we went back to the hotel until dinner when we just walked up the street a little way to Caporo’s Fish Restaurant. We shared calamari for starters then Adrienne had Roast Chicken and I had Fish & Chips.
We are heading into the home stretch now and tomorrow it is on to our second last stop – Morro Bay. The weather forecast is good but we are hoping the fog stays off shore whilst we do the iconic Big Sur drive – we’ll see what happens ….