San Francisco

Sunday, Mar 10

This morning we met Bill and Jan who have been visiting their daughter Wendy at her and Jeff's home in Danville.  Their kids had swim practice, so we went to watch, then had lunch at the club where they swim. After lunch, we went back to Wendy's and visited awhile, then took off for a little wine tasting at one of the local wineries. Sure hope we will be around to see Emma and Chase swim in the Olympics!

Monday, Mar 11

We met Bill and Jan at the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) terminal in Pleasanton for a 45 minute ride on the train into San Francisco.

Clara DID NOT enjoy the BART train ride into San Francisco. There were few seats, and she got one, then this guy promptly goes to sleep on her shoulder.  Not a happy camper.

So far, our trip has been about seeing the natural wonders of the West.  When we realized that we were only a 45 minute train ride from San Francisco, we decided we might as well take it in.  We had been here when we were in B-52 transition training 45 years ago and wanted to see it again.

First of all, San Francisco is just another big city (I don't like big cities), however, it is on the San Francisco Bay and it has the world famous Golden Gate Bridge.  That made it different enough from every other large city to make it worthwhile to visit.

A big city

As soon as we got off the BART, we went to the Ferry Terminal and took a ride across the bay to Sausalito.  Primarily, we were interested in the ride across the bay.  We stayed in Sausalito about 30 minutes and caught another ferry ride across the bay back to Fisherman's Wharf.

The Golden Gate Bridge

As soon as we arrived back in San Francisco, we immediately took in a crab lunch.  We have really enjoyed the dungeness crab.  It's second only to Maine lobster.

After lunch, we went walking out to the end of the pier and saw Oracle, one of the Americas Cup sailboats out practicing maneuvers on the bay.

Oracle passing Alcatrez

Oracle passing an ordinary sailboat whose mast is probably 45 feet high

The seals are prolific in the bay waters.

Then we decided that the best way to see the most in a short period of time was to take one of the bus tours.  Unfortunately, the bus tour that I wanted which goes across the Golden Gate Bridge also went to Sausalito.  So for the second time in one day, we went to Sausalito.  But it was a fun tour.

 The Golden Gate Bridge in the clouds

Under the arches

San Francisco skyline

Alcatrez

We made a full day of it, arriving by BART back in Pleasanton around 7:30 pm - worn out.