We left Sacramento mid-morning and headed towards San Fransisco. It was a little over an hour before we got there. Wanting to enter the city by the Golden Gate Bridge, we maneuvered around until we were just north of it. We stopped there to look at the bridge. It is amazing, truly amazing. That morning there was fog that enshrouded parts of it, but as the sun got higher, the fog started to pull back its tentacles and we could make out the bridge nicely.
Our first look at the bridge.
So that makes this our second look?? :D
We crossed the bridge and were now in San Francisco!!! Per usual, our first order of business was to find a place to stay. We scoped out a hotel in downtown from a coupon book. The hotel is pretty neat. It is totally a San Franciscan building. The stairs are my favorite, they curve up and around in a really cool way. Riding in the old-fashioned elevator was fun too! After getting that, we parked the red chariot and walked down towards Fisherman's Wharf. Along the way, we came across Lombart Street, which is the crookedest street in America (as you can see in the pictures).
Me at the bottom. It is so crooked that it looks like it isn't event there with the gardens on both sides.
We kept going down to the wharfs. Once we got there we stopped at an In and Out restaurant. The last time I was at one of those I was like six. We then walked along the wharf. We headed toward Pier 39 where there are Sea Lions. The funny thing was we walked around the pier for some time before we finally found the spot where the sea lions perch our on floating docks, but at one point we were less than twenty yards from a spot where we would have spotted them. Instead, we ended up going in the opposite direction! Oh well.
Sea lions basking in the sun.
I hope they use sunscreen.
They say, "Yep, SPF 15."
Also at that pier, we got a good view of Alcatraz prison, aka, the rock.
Alcatraz out in the bay.
We then started to walk back along the wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge. Along the way, we stopped at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park where we got to walk on several ships. One was a square-rigged vessel--my favorite--another was a passenger ferry, and we also boarded a tug boat.
At the helm of the square-rigged vessel.
Moving on, we kept walking, but only for a short bit. Near a beach, there were five seals out in the water. We watched for some time as they frolicked around in the bay. After we had snapped several pictures, we moved on. The walk to the bridge took us along the beach for some time, and we enjoyed the soft sand under our feet. As we got closer to the bridge, we climbed a set of stairs and followed a bike trail that led right up to it. We finally had reached it. We walked out onto it a little bit, but not all that far. We spent a good ten minutes on the bridge before we decided we should start heading back to the hotel.
A look at the Golden Gate Bride soon before getting on it
Me on the bridge.
Nathan on the bridge.
Taking a different route, we made our way to our hotel. For the most part, the walk was easy. As we got closer to the wharf we cut back in towards downtown. What that meant was we had to walk up a hill, a very steep one too. Briskly, we charged towards the top. And like the saying goes, "What goes up, must come down." We reached the top of it and started descended the other side. We got back to our hotel and settled in for a little bit. Hungry, we set out in search of food. A short walk from our hotel is Chinatown. Naturally, we headed there and found a nice restaurant. We had crab rangoon and sweet and sour chicken. It was good...and fast! Do you remember that train diner I wrote about? It would have put that place to shame! We had our food before they would have even taken our order there. After dinner, we walked back through Chinatown back to our hotel where we crashed for the night. Tired from the days activities, sleep came easy.
End day 20.
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