The morning broke with no fog to speak of, but being wary of the deceptive weather I decided to go with jeans for the day, which turned out to be a solid choice. We left at about 10am on our bike tour of the city and didn't return until 6pm. Our first stop was at the Golden Gate park, which was very close to Lance's house. It was a nice park to ride through, though we didn't really stop to enjoy it very much. We made our way through the park until we reached the street that would take us to The Presidio, which is a national park that provides access to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Our tour through the Presidio gave us our first taste of how hilly San Francisco is. By car it's easy to underestimate how steep some of the hills are, but when you travel by bike, even some of the lesser hills can be agonizing. After a particularly grueling climb we made it to the top of the Presidio which offered a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as the part of the city that juts out into the bay. More than just being an incredible feat of engineering, the Golden Gate Bridge is a spectacular work of art. It's signature red expanse just completes the image of San Francisco in my head.
Once we had our fill of the view from the Presidio, we took the much easier ride down the hill to come directly to the Golden Gate Bridge where we got to ride our bikes all the way across the San Francisco Bay. It's incredible how deceptive the length of the bridge is. We made it to the south tower in what seemed like a short amount of time, but it felt like it took quite a long time to get to where the main cable almost touches the bridge, marking the center. It was also much higher above the water than it seemed. As we were stopped at the south tower to take pictures of the bridge and the bay, including Alcatraz in the distance, I watched a man drop a banana peel off the side, and it took a good 20 seconds for it to reach the swirling waters below.
Since there wasn't much to see on the north side of the bridge but the bridge itself, we made our way back across to continue our tour of the city. On our way to Fisherman's Wharf from the bridge we took Lombard Street, which is absurd in about every way a street can be. We didn't even bother biking up the comically steep hill, passing cars that looked as if they were on the verge of tipping over and toppling down the street. Once we reached the top we made it to "the crookedest street in the world" which followed a path that might have been drawn by a polygraph down an only slightly less steep decline than the other side of the hill.
After our ordeal with the hills of San Francisco, we arrived at Fisherman's Wharf, which as we were warned was bustling with tourists. Being tourists ourselves, it didn't bother us much, and it was a pretty novel experience with the cool ocean breeze, and the countless street performers crowding the streets. At Lance's suggestion, we tried out Boudin's Bakery for lunch, where we got the traditional clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl. It was the perfect lunch for the day: both delicious and filling, since it basically amounted to a whole loaf of bread with some excellent clam chowder added in. Next we took a brief trip to Pier 39, which is basically just a mall on one of the piers in the bay, and then hopped on our bikes again to explore more of the city.
On our way out of Fisherman's Wharf we passed through Chinatown and North Beach again, but stopped to savor it this time as we went to Z Cioccolato, another suggestion of Lance's, where we got some amazing saltwater taffy to bring back for our host (and ourselves). Next we made a brief stop back at the Union Square area to pick up some photo prints before heading out to the Mission district centered around the old Delores Mission, one of the oldest buildings in the city if not the oldest, dating from the 1700's. While in Mission, we stopped at Bi-Rite Creamery where I got some of their famous salted caramel ice cream.
Finally, on the last leg of our city wide biking marathon, we passed through Castro, the gay district, and went almost up to Twin Peaks, the tallest point in San Francisco. We made it up about half the slope before we decided it would probably be a better idea just to head back, which we did. We arrived at Lance's just as he completed his afternoon run, and hung out for a little bit before Lance made us dinner again. This time we had salmon, burgers, baked potatoes, and brussel sprouts, which were all excellent.
It's going to be tough to say goodbye to San Francisco since it was such a vibrant and fun place to be, and because our host showed us an excellent time, but tomorrow we'll be headed off to Portland and hopefully another great time.
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