San Francisco City Tour

Monday:  October 08, 2012 

We decided to take a commercial tour of the city of San Francisco.  The decision was based on the fact that neither of us has been here before and we don’t know anything much about the city including the layout.  We found out a few years ago while visiting the Vatican that a tour gives you so much more information and perspective than just walking around. 

We took an early ferry at 9:15 am from the Larkspur terminal on the Golden Gate Ferry to the Port of San Francisco arriving at 9:45 am.  I have to say it, another great day of weather.  It was a little cool in the mid-60s but bright sunshine.  We dressed with long pants and light jackets for the first time in months.  The only time we needed all of these clothes was on the deck of the ferry.  We arrived an hour and a half before the tour so we could get our bearing some and to get a light breakfast.

The Port of San Francisco building was built in the late 1800s before the great earthquake in 1906.  The clock tower on top of the port terminal has been visible for over a hundred years on Market Street.  That’s it for history from me.  I just like that sort of thing where the old meets the new.

First time in SF.  Note the great weather that follows us!

View from Market Street.

 The tour started across the street from the clock tower. The first thing we were to do was to take another ferry to Sausalito.  Sausalito is where we ate lunch and got on our bus for the tour.  First stop on the tour was the Golden Gate Bridge.  That was pretty cool seeing it and going over it.  The rest of the tour will just be pictures with captions.  The tour completed at 5:30 pm for about 6 hours of touring.  We were pretty tired at the end of the tour.

Our tour guide, Ron.

Ferry to Sausalito.

A remaining Americas cup boat.  Americas cup was held last week here.

Lunch place in Sausalito.  The tree on the right is 53 years old!  Our table was in the center back.

Wine with lunch.

Nice spot in Sausalito for a picture

The bridge is the best know bridge in the world.

I didn't want to wait for this person to move as there was a line of people to stand there next.  This is cross section of the cables holding up the bridge.

View from the GGB of Alcatraz.  We tour there on Wednesday.

This was built as part of the signing of the opening of the Panama Canal.  

A Segway tour of Golden Gate Park.  We need to do a Segway tour somewhere.

A museum in Golden gate Park.  We are not museum people.  However, this museum has a grass roof and solar panels as a canopy. We couldn't see much of the park as they were still cleaning it after a free Bluegrass concert over the weekend.  Wish we could have been here for that!

These are the houses that survived the earthquake in 1906.

Grace Cathedral.  3 interesting things about this church.  First, the plaque for the signing to start the United Nations is located here.  Second, George Bushes Great, Great Grandfather was the first minister at this church.  Lastly, these doors are from the same mold as a church in Florence Italy.  There are only 2 sets of these doors.

The plaque commemorating the start of the United Nations.  Some time after, NYC took over.

Cable car.

Very steep walk down this street.  It's something like 24% grade.

View from the bottom of  Lombard Street.  The street now has a grade of 16% with the additions of the curves.  The home owners are responsible for the upkeep of the grounds on this street.  That was the agreement when the city built the curves.

At the entrance to China town.

Another sign near China town.

Near China town.

China town.  Mostly just like NYC.

On the way back to our RV on the ferry, we met our tour guide who takes the same ferry to go home.  He has to drive to this ferry terminal and drive another 45 minutes north.  Just sounds like being back in NJ with the big commutes. 

We were back at the RV by about 7:00 pm and went down the street to Price Plus get some wine.  We tried first Trader Joe's but all of the box wine they had was out dated by 1-2 months.

We cooked some franks for dinner and watched 2 recorded movies and went to bed at 1:00 am, very late for us.

Tomorrow we will sleep late and go into the city to have a late lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf and ride a cable car.

Stay tuned!