S.F. Day 6 Begins

Sausalito, a small picturesque town across the bay was our destination on the morning of April 18th. We had originally planned on biking to Sausalito, but in retrospect we probably should have done it at the beginning of our trip. After climbing up and down hills for 5 days we were questioning whether we had it in us to make the journey. Additionally I had some personal concerns about leaving our rented bikes locked up so we could explore, however given the number of people who were making these bike trips, I suspect it would not have been a problem. Instead we took a ferry across the bay which I think headed out around 11:00 am. This photo was taken on the approach to Sausalito.

Below can be seen the main street along the Sausalito waterfront. It has that standard touristy seaside village feel, although Sausalito had more high end boutiques in place of the typical galleries and gift shops we are used to seeing in New England. The weather was spectacular, quite possibly the best weather of the trip. It was in the 80s this day and we were loving it.

Looking back towards San Francisco and Bay Bridge.

This is where Kate and I went for lunch. It is simply called "Hamburgers" and they grill hamburgers and chicken sandwiches on a large rotating grill. There was a huge line to get in
and we waited 15-20 minutes for our food. They were pretty good, although they could have been great and weren't. This was largely because they cook all of their burgers well done, and the juicyness was essentially gone from my cheeseburger, however you could tell it was good quality meat. The rolls and toppings were fresh and the fries were tasty. We found a park bench across the street to wolf down our food.

A few random shots of the waterfront. Unfortunately we did not make it to see the area with the houseboats which Sausalito is famous for. Apparently this town inspired the Otis Reading song "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" which had its origins from a stay in one of the house boats. The song ran through my head the whole time I was there, and it seemed to capture the atmosphere well.

Some people taking in the rays in the park.

A reminder of home.

After taking in the waterfront we hiked up the steep hills that make up most of this town. The placing of the buildings on cliff sides and hills reminded me a bit of some of the villages I saw in Spain and Portugal. One of the comments I had to someone in Spain is that I wasn't used to construction that was actually on the hill sides. In New England typically the larger hills are mostly untouched and the towns stand in the valleys. This certainly is not true of these communities in the San Francisco Bay area.

Kate wanted a picture next to the flowers, which were everywhere. This photo totally does not do them justice.

A typical street on a Sausalito hill side.

Exotic? Utopian? Spectacular, that is for sure.

We took a different pedestrian stairway back down. There are some of these in Brookline where Kate lives, but none quite like these that we saw on this trip.

The colors were incredibly vibrant. It was very therapeutic to take all of this in.

What better way to end our time in San Francisco? Ice Cream! We had spotted Lappert's Ice Cream on our first run through of the "downtown" and were determined to drop in before we left. I had mint chocolate chip, I can't recall what Kate had, but I'm betting it involved chocolate.

Next up: The cable car museum, Grace Cathedral and more of San Francisco.