I went through The Presidio area of town and arrived at my first stop of the day, there would be many. It was the Palace of Fine Arts, a fake Greek temple built for the 1915 Panama - San Francisco exhibition. The city residents loved it so much the paper mache/ chicken wire original was replaced with a concrete copy.And it also featured in the movie "The Rock", I was very happy. Seriously, this is a really beautiful structure and the only remaining building from the exhibition.
After the palace it was on to Fort Point, one of three forts constructed to protect the San Francisco bay.The three forts form a triangle, the second is on the other side of the bay and the third is Alcatraz. Alcatraz was a military fort before it became a military prison and then a federal prison and now of course, tourist attraction.The settlers of the time decided that California needed to be protected because of the gold being found there. They were concerned that the British might try to steal it!!!
Then it was on to the bridge, the main event. I do have a fear of heights but I try not to let it stop me from doing stuff like this. It did stop me from climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge, but... The bridge isn't that great from up close, the walkway is crowded and you have three/four lanes of traffic thundering past you. The view is lovely, especially on a clear day, but I think that In prefer the Bay bridge. I don't like the international orange colour of the paint that they cover the bridge in. It was supposed to be the primer, but again the city people liked it so much, they prevailed.It is true that it makes the bridge stand out against the fog so it can be seen. I wonder how many days a year you could see the bridge if it had been painted grey as was proposed originally.
Down from the bridge I cycled into Sausolita, I didn't stop here as there isn't much to see. My plan for the day was to cycle on to Tiburon, on another peninsula opposite Sausolita and then catch the ferry back across the bay to the city. It was a lovely ride, made better by the sunny weather. It was also a slow ride, I made Tiburon in about four hours and it was only a seventeen mile ride. In my defense I had stopped a lot and taken tons of photos. Anyway I felt justified in having a huge sandwich and root beer float for lunch. It was my first root beer float since I had arrived in America. I love root beer and when I found out that I could have it with vanilla ice cream, I was very happy. The place that seems to do this the most is a fast food chain called A & W, but I had only seen one of their shops and that had been closed for years. I had to settled for an ordinary restaurant, but the float was great.
It was about this time that I realised that I was very sun burnt. I foolishly hadn't put any sun screen on as I had never previously needed it in the city as the weather had been cloudy and cold. My face and lower arms were beet red, not attractive. I headed to the pier and waited for the ferry. The ride back to the city was lovely, with amazing views of Alcatraz and the Downtown area. I cycled back to Fred's and stayed in to nurse my sunburn.
I did have another reason for staying in, I was going to Sonoma and Napa the next day for a wine tour. I was anticipating a long day drinking wine and didn't want to handicap myself before I started. I got up early (again) and cycled down to the wharf and returned the bike. I got my ticket for the tour, but the woman behind the counter was so snippy with me, downright rude. I don't what upset her, but I know it wasn't me!I hate service staff like that, there's no need for it.
There was about fifty of us on the tour and it was nice to see that I wasn't the only person travelling by themselves. We set out from the wharf and headed to the Golden Gate bridge, we would drive across it. This is a nice way to start the tour, followed with a drive through Marin County. We reached the first winery, Kline, about 10.30 and we had a little walk around the grounds, it was the site of one of the original Mexican Missions in California. The tour was very short and we were hustled into the tasting tent. The wines were OK, but I can honestly say that I didn't really like any of them, not enough to buy them anyway.
The second winery is connected to Kline through family ties but is called Jacuzzi. There were seven brothers and two sisters in the Jacuzzi family and one of them bought the winery. One of the others invented a whirlpool bath for his sister as she was ill with arthritis. I had got talking with a couple, John & Margaret from San Antonio, we all agreed that they should have changed the name. When I think of Jacuzzi I think of a bath, not wine. Although I do like to have a glass of wine when I am in the bath. I can't remember the last time I did that, it's been showers for so long, if I've bathed at all!! Despite this I found a wine here that I really liked and wanted to taste more of, so I went back for seconds, thirds. You get the picture.
I had lunch with John & Margaret at a Mexican restaurant in Sonoma.Sonoma is a pretty little town, constructed around a green town square. On one corner of the square is the oldest mission in California. I did go in, but it wasn't terribly interesting. By this time the food and wine were beginning to take their toll on me. Drinking that early in the day is never a good idea and should not be encouraged. I will not remember this and will probably drink in the morning again at some point in the future. I guess there are some lessons that you never learn.
After lunch it was on to the Madonna winery. I never thought I would say this but I wasn't looking forward to this. I had found a wine that I liked and didn't really want to drink anymore of anything, even free wine. Maybe I am growing up after all. However, of course I did try some more wine. And I didn't like it and I didn't finish the samples I was given. I did finish up the crackers and cheese that Margaret had brought along. Wine and cheese, great! At the end of the tour we were supposed to go to the Napa Valley visitors centre but it was closed and it was off back to the city. The traffic was with us and we made it before 6pm. I headed back to the apartment with the full intention of hunkering down for the night and planning the next leg of my trip./ I knew that I was going to visit Mo and Scott in Corvallis, Oregon, but I wasn't due to arrive with them until Monday, what was I going to do for the weekend.
I got back to Fred's, no one was home so I turned around and was going to walk down to the local internet cafe when I bumped into Shani. She had just returned form another busy day sight seeing. We stopped and chatted, it made me feel a lot better about some of the things I had been thinking about our host. It confirmed that I wasn't imagining things or taking them out of context. While we were stood chatting outside the apartment we saw three motor cycle cops followed by a long procession of cyclists. On the last Friday of the month, cyclists gather together and stage this huge cycle ride around the city. We saw all types of people, some dressed up, one not dressed at all. And more than one cyclist towing a huge sound system and blasting out music. How cool is that? Shani gave me the number of the place she would stay in for her last night in SF. I booked a night there and decided to leave town on the Sunday. I hadn't had any responses to my couchsurfing emails, everyone either had plans or were already overwhelmed with couchsurfers and couldn't host any one else. I needed some computer time to find somewhere to stay or something to do on Sunday night.
Shani and I headed into town to a restaurant that she had been recommended. We found it and ordered what she had been recommended by the girl she had met travelling. When the food arrived we both took photos!!! The food was delicious, as well it should have been as it was my most expensive meal of the trip so far. I am not sure what that says about me, does it mean I am cheap? Or I just demand value for money? In all honesty I think it says that this was my first visit to an expensive restaurant. The food was good, the service was OK but I wouldn't say that the food was so much better that what I had eaten in other cheaper restaurants. Most of the other couples in the restaurant were guys, so we didn't really fit in. But that's what I like about SF,it's so diverse and people seem to be so accepting. So it doesn't matter if you don't fit in, in fact it's positively encouraged.I think I could live in SF,maybe.
We caught a bus back to Fred's, he was sat outside on his steps talking to Anna, a German girl that was also couchsurfing with him. We said goodnight and said we say goodbye in the morning.
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