San Francisco

Ok I'm behind again.

It happens *grin* I'm blaming it on arriving late at the campsites and hotels each night. Being worn out each day just doesn't promote consistent on time posting. Next trip I'll be sure to bring along an independent recorder to document our activities. I'll be sure to post the job on Monster *wink*.

From Hearst Castle, we went on to San Francisco via the Pacific Coast Highway. A windy twisty road overlooking the Pacific Ocean that runs for over 80 miles from the castle to Monterey California. We got lucky and missed the major portion of the fires. The fire crews seemed to have the fire in Big Sur under control or at least the part that was threatening the coastline. It looks like we dodged another disaster... first the hurricane in South Texas that landed AFTER we drove through and now the wild fires in California.

Before we had left on the trip, I arranged for Donna to arrive on the same day we hit San Francisco. A good friend of mine, Larry, used his Marriott rewards points to reserve a room at the Courtyard in Novato California, just north of the Golden Gate bridge.

She arrived early enough in the day to go to dinner with Larry and his family. It was pretty much a blind date for Donna. She had only met Larry a few times and had never met the rest of his family. Dinner went well and she had a great time with them. We of course arrived too late to join the group. Figures, I get an opportunity to eat a nice dinner on someone elses tab and end up going to McDonalds. *sigh*. Maybe next time. I'll have to plan better huh?

On our first day, Larry's daughter played tour guide and took us to the city for the day. We took the ferry across the bay over to the city. It definitely beat driving over to town.



It was the first time I had ever been into San Francisco without having to visit a customer and the first time Donna, Zachary and Ethan had been as well. It was fun seeing the town through someone elses eyes. Karen (our tour guide) took us to her favorite spots in town which as you can see involve some rather beautiful art work.



We had dinner at the top of a hotel which provides a great view of the city.


Overall a great visit to a beautiful city full of art I would have overlooked if it weren't for Karen. You know, there might be something to taking a guided tour when it is available huh? Maybe a business opportunity. I bet nobody has thought of doing such a thing. I'll have to file that away under my "Future Sure Fire Money Making Business Ideas to Try" file cabinet.





The picture above is from the area just outside of the pier where we docked. The art work / fountain in front of us is the Justin Herman Plaza Fountain which has been the center of controversy since its creation. Some say you either love it or hate it. I guess I'd have to say I'm on the "don't hate it side". It is pretty cool in my opinion. Bono thought it needed a bit of color...

The next day, Larry played tour guide and took us to Sausalito for some shopping and over to Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods. Wow. Talk about some big ole trees. And these were not the largest ones. There was a cross section of one of the trees at the entrance which demonstrated how old the trees really were. The oldest of them was around during the birth of Christ. That is just impossible for me to wrap my head around. That's older than Ron! (inside joke)



That's not a homeless man in the picture with the family. That's Larry *smile* What you are seeing to the side of them is a tree, yes a tree. Its easy to see why they were so sought after for their lumber. Cut down one and build SEVERAL houses.

The next picture is what is known as a Banana Slug which we found clinging to the side of a tree in the park. I think if we had these in Georgia, walking around barefoot at night would be out of the question. Larry said they can get up to 11-12 inches long...



The next day we were left to our own devices. My plan was to visit Alcatraz, a destination both boys wanted to visit. How was I to know that this was such a popular destination that tickets to visit the prison were sold out for over a week. so we had to settle for touring Pier 39 and Fisherman's Warf. I'm sure a few of you have heard the quote that was supposed to have been made by Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". I can vouch for the weather. It was windy, overcast and in the 50's. And this is mid July!

We had lunch overlooking the floating docks the sea lions had taken over.

After we left the piers, we figured we would try to find a movie theater to watch the new Batman movie. My GPS wasn't much help when we tried to find a theater. Maybe I should have asked the desk clerk at the hotel for directions... Nah.

The first one we visited was closed. *Shrug* No big deal. There have got to be more right? It is a major city right? The next one we picked was probably 20 miles away. When we got there, we found a very old movie theater that was only large enough for two screens. Neither of course were showing the Dark Knight. Ok, on to the next which was of course 18 miles away.

By the time we got to this one, the shows were sold out. Maybe asking for directions might not have been such a bad idea. Who woulda thunk it? (yes, maybe Donna did suggest it).

Since Donna had to get up very early the next day to catch her flight back to Atlanta, we decided to just eat dinner and head back to the hotel.

The next morning, I took Donna to the airport. Later in the morning, the boys and I headed over to Yosemite, probably one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I'll post some stuff on Yosemite a bit later.

Until next time!