Day 12 San Francisco

Friday 8/6 – 9445 steps

We took a hop on hop off bus as is our tradition to get an overall feel of the city. Very disappointing.
We went through town. The city hall looks very much like the one in Denver. I have to research that. I was hoping to get off at Haight-Ashbury, home of the flower power counterculture movement in the sixties, to absorb some lingering love vibrations, but frankly, from where I was sitting, the whole area looked quite sad. I stayed on the bus and kept my illusions intact.

Maybe my mind had been shut by the tour guide. He must have had illusions of being a stand-up comic and was extremely irritating, trying to be funny with his sexist comments. If anyone has to tell his audience to lighten up and smile, he should know to leave the stage. His accent was also difficult to comprehend. Only time constraints prevented me from getting off the bus to wait for the next one.
From there we went over the iconic Golden Gate. It was freezing. It is apparently not unusual for 60 mph winds to blow across the bridge. All David’s desire to cycle over the bridge was completely blown away – thank Heavens!

On the other side of the bridge, we opted for an additional tour through Sausalito, and this was a completely different story. Sausalito has a military base that was decommissioned and handed over to National parks, who together with a private group, took over the upkeep and now the former military buildings can now be rented as upmarket residential units and there is also a hotel. There is a small village and we stopped to share a pizza, As our first meal of the day at 3:30, it was delicious. Great guide and very interesting tour. Lovely sunny spot and great pizza.
When we returned, we had great fun at Madame Tussards.

Then we took a trolly bus up the hill to Chinatown. On the way, we saw the hill where Steve McQueen’s famous car chase from Bullit was filmed. It is very steep. By the time we got to Chinatown, most of the shops were closed. It was already 9pm (felt like 7, the sun was just setting). David was desparate to wee and there was no restroom in site, so we went to a restaurant we happened to be passing and ate there. Surprise, surprise, It was a Michelan recommended and the food was delicious. We then had to climb back up the hill to catch a trolley downhill.