22. San Francisco

San Francisco Photo Album

Oh boy...we were excited to come to San Fran for a couple of reasons....firstly we felt that after this stop we are officially heading east ...towards home and secondly we were going to stay at Ilona's  sister's house in Danville ( about an hour east of san fran)  Maggie and Max.  Upon arrival we were greeted very warmly in their  beautiful home. They had prepared a wonderful meal which we ate by the pool,  After supper we cheered to their 38th wedding anniversary....chatted for a while then off to bed.

The next morning Maggie and Max t made us delicious breakfast and

cappuccinos....yum....then took us to Mount Diablo State Park, which right in their back yard.....we drove to the very top as it was too hot to walk..( plus we''re not in shape ) . As we switch backed up this 3800 foot mountain, we saw many, many road cyclists scaling this mountain, it was quite something to watch and max said it was grueling since he had done it previously. Once at the summit it saw a beautiful 360 view of bay to the coast. We also went to the museum, took some photos while being attacked by earwigs.....yukkkkkkkkkkk ...I would even go as far as saying it was in infestation....so we quickly descended from the observatory deck.

The descent down from the mountain was worse for me as I actually got nauseous. That evening we were treated to fabulous meals at the Metro Restaurant in nearby Lafayette.. We met Max and Maggie's friends Mark and Heidi, also former Canadians living in the area. They were very nice people. We exchanged stories and ate some pretty scrumptious meals. I had the homemade pasta dish and peter had pork loin dish.

On Sunday morning we headed toward downtown San Fran to go watch the Bay to Breakers run...it was interesting to say the least...we didn't want to go by car so we took our bikes on The Bart (their metro).  The race began on the bay side and headed west 10 km to the ocean side. After the run we thought we'd bike to the golden gate bridge....well I certainly chewed off more than I could

chew....OMG I thought I was gonna die riding my bike in the hilly city....there was no way I  was gonna make it...so we took a public bus back to the downtown core ( it's cool that we can put our bikes on the front rack on the city bus). After eating a spot of lunch and downing a very good Starbucks Coffee, I found my second wind 
 So we bike to the pier and headed over to pier 39. The place was buzzing with people, we were treated to the sea lions sunbathing on the docks, a close view of Alcatraz and many street performers.  after several hours of strolling the pier we headed back to the house...i was absolutely fried....it was a very long and exhausting day .....

Monday was a complete rest day...I was still recovering from the excruciating bike ride of the day before...so we chilled by the pool all day long. When Max and Maggie got home we had a delicious stir fry and went our for an ice cream to cap off a perfect relaxing day.













Our final day in San Fran was Tuesday and we had 1:30 tickets for visiting The Rock. we started our day in San Fran on Lombard Street. I had NOOOO idea the street would be so beautiful and very winding and decorated with beautiful flowers. So we drove down the street in delight ( Plz see video in our photo album) Afterwards we went to Coit Tower; another great lookout, unfortunately the Golden Gate Bridge was covered in fog. So off we went towards the pier. 












We had found a cheap parking through SpotHero app near Pier 9. We hopped on our bikes and cycled to pier 33 to board our cruise. Alas we had arrived on The Rock. It was a short boat ride as it's only 1 1/4 miles away from San Fran.  I had no idea this prison was a military prison before is was turned into a Federal Prison. Alctraz was reserved for uncooperative prisoners regardless of their crime. we visited the c -d blocks, mess hall, morgue, library , isolation cells.  We enjoyed our visit here. 

I've included a video on the most infamous escape of all!!


Alcatraz video



Finally after our informative visit at the Rock we decided to try to see if the Golden gate bridge was still shrouded with fog. We drove as close to it as possible at Fort Point and were surprised at how beautiful this bridge was, even though it was still covered in some fog.  We decided to take the bridge back to Maggie's house and that was a treat as well.....san fran was a definite hit for us!!

love always
Mary and Peter