May 17, 2012 - San Francisco Tour

We drove about 40 miles from Santa Rosa today to tour San Francisco. We chose the Ride the Ducks - San Francisco Duck Tour. :-) We did the Duck Tours in Seattle, WA and again in Dells, Wisconsin and loved both of them. Today's tour was just as much fun. We saw parts of San Francisco we didn't know existed. After the land tour we splashed into McCovey Cove. Jerry even drove the duck boat with his duck quacker quacking while he pretended to be blowing the horn with his arm. :-) McCovey Cove is the unofficial name of a section of San...

May 11, 2012 - San Francisco

Today we ventured in San Francisco for a little bit. Our main activity on the list was seeing Alcatraz. The arrival time for the tour was 1245 and the boat left at 1pm. We left 2.5 hours early for a 30 minute drive just to make sure we had time to park, eat, and venture around for a bit. Traffic was so terrible that we got to the boat with one minute to spare. Luckily we made it because the tickets were non refundable. It was such a mess. On a brighter note, we had a good time at Alcatraz island. The history we learned from the audio tour...

Apr 22, 2012 - San Francisco

Today was a nice day for us. We hiked the Golden Gate Bridge, 1.7 miles each way, without seeing the top of the bridge. Today was about 30 degrees colder than yesterday, and the fog covered the bridge. Even when we were right under the main towers we couldn’t see the tops. It took us about 45 minutes each way to walk the bridge. After the bridge, we spent some time in the Haight-Ashbury district. There still are “hippies” around, except these look more like the homeless people you see in other cities. We both smelled the marijuana when we...

Apr 21, 2012 - San Francisco

Today we spent most of the day getting acquainted with San Francisco via a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. It gave us a good idea of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to spend more of our time. The day was bright and sunny and around 80 degrees, quite unusual for San Francisco in April. Both of us got sunburn on our faces and necks. We spent about an hour in Chinatown, visiting many of the shops in the area. We couldn’t understand why everything was made in China! We took the night cruise to Alcatraz and both of us enjoyed in tremendously. The...

Apr 20, 2012 - Eureka to San Francisco

Awesome Day!!! It began as another foggy day, but after a few hours the weather was magnificent. The only thing better than the weather was the sights we saw. We began our trip south by driving the 35 miles of the Avenue of the Giants. It’s an alternate and parallel route to the 101 and runs through enormous Redwood groves. We think these trees may be higher (and older) than the ones we saw yesterday in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. We then drove over to the coast on California Hwy 1 and headed south along the Coast Highway. These coastal...

Apr 14, 2012 - Back Home!

Made it home. Not much to say now, but to find a job and hit the books! And time to climb hard as I am hoping Topo and Carla will join me in Yosemite for a couple months in the summer of 2013...better get training. Also, going to start volunteering at a local community organization to work on my Spanish while helping out the local community, I start Tuesday the 24th!

Apr 12, 2012 - San Francisco

Destination # 86: San Francisco, California Mileage: 120 miles (from San Simeon, CA) Arrive: Thursday, April 12, 2012 Depart: Monday, April 16, 2012 • Thursday, April 12  Our plan to travel to San Francisco through Monterey along Coastal Highway is thwarted due to the wind and driving rain making travel on Rte #1 a bit treacherous , especially for a 35 ft motorhome towing a car. We adapt and head straight for San Francisco on the 101 instead which turns out to be a beautiful drive with the weather giving way eventually to sporadic glimpses...

Mar 19, 2012 - San Francisco

We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge shorty after 5:00 am today. The rough seas subsided a few hours earlier. We had almost 24 straight hours of high seas. Everyone visitd with US Immigration on board but the dismbarkation did not commence on time for some unknown reason. I think it was about 9:30 before the first passengers left the ship. We walked off with Barbara to meet Peter, and said our goodbyes. We said goodbye to Pam & Jack earlier on the Ship. Today is School day for John and errand day for us. John is on the boat working on...

Mar 17, 2012 - Happy St. Paddy's Day

We made it to San Francisco even though it was snowing in Seattle when we were leaving! We watched the Indiana basketball game and ate some Mexican food while we were waiting. We are about to board our flight so I'll have to sign off. I'll try to upload a picture of the huge plane we are on. Can't wait to get there! Catch you on the flip side;)

Feb 19, 2012 - SFO Day 5. Last day, low key

Day 5: Going Home tomorrow Yes I am tired and ready to go home. Tons of walking, tons of fun. But there is no place like home. I hope you enjoyed the travel journaling. I know that I enjoyed doing it. This is the final installment on my last day. It was a low key Church then lunch day and that is it. I've been holed up in the hotel room since. *grins*
Started my day with a trip over to Grace Cathedral, the Episcopal Cathedral here in San Fran. Took pictures and went to the 11am service.
The outside is fashioned after Chartres in...

Feb 18, 2012 - SFO Day 4. Some things new, some things old

Day 4 began with new adventures repeated some things in the middle and then continued on with new things. Started out on the California line of the Cable Car.
A brief stop at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill.
Then on to China Town. Lots of good shopping for gifts there. I could not believe how inexpensive things were.
Street performer in China town.
Then, back to investigate Forbes Island on Fisherman's wharf. Had to double check it. It is definitely an Island on a boat, but not as large as I had imagined. They...

Feb 18, 2012 - SFO Day 3. Some shopping, but not much else

Day 3: Light shopping and Not much else. . . This was a light day. So tired from the previous day. So, today was going to be an all day shopping day, but became a 4 hours shopping day and then vegetating in my Hotel until Dinner and not straying past the quaint Mel's Dinner attached to the hotel.
So, started out on the Muni bus down to the Bart train. I'm getting better with busses and trains. Still Inbound/Outbound concepts not second nature. So, I often end up on the wrong platform and have to go back up and down to the other one....