Part two

On Saturday we had a leisurely breakfast in our hotel, because we booked on a tour to Muir Woods which meant being collected at 11am.
We have never done a “tour” before, and it took a lot to persuade Simon to agree to it, but I really wanted to see the woods, which are about an hours drive out of town, so it was our only option.
We picked up lots of old people on the way to the tour office and I was starting to feel very afraid. And when we arrived to pay there was a HUGE coach outside and I could tell Simon was considering doing a runner, rather than spending the afternoon with 300 OAPs. But there was also a little mini bus which thank god turned out to be for us, two other couples and a family.
Our tour guide (from tower tours) was Larry and he was ace. Never has there been a man who was more proud of his city, or enjoyed his job more. He was hilarious and took a bit of getting used to, but by the end I loved him.
At one point he was telling us about how you can see a certain famous image in the local hills if you smoke some weed, so you know, it was entertaining!

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Muir Woods which was fun but the view was slightly blocked by thousands of Girl Guides on a sponsored walk.
When we got to the woods we had an hour to walk around, so we just stuck to the little paved trail, but you can go on full hikes if you have more time and the right kind of shoes. Simon was in loafers so there wasn’t much chance of that for us!
I also had a run in with the woman at the counter who was adament that I couldn’t take a picnic in, so I mentioned I just had some crisps, full international miscommunication ensued, until Simon stepped in and just told me to say I had no food. So I did.
The woods are amazing, very very tall trees and its really peaceful and beautiful, so much so that a fawn was nonchalantly having a bite to eat right by the pathway.
It was well worth going on a guided tour for.

Larry then gave us a bit of a drive around the area, with some stories about famous locals as well as local history, before dropping us off in Sausalito. He also took us via the actual house boats where Otis Reading wrote “Dock of the Bay”, and was very proud to actually have it on CD ready for us as we went past.

Sausalito is a really sweet town in Marin county, which pretty much feels like a lazy Sunday afternoon. There were lots of restaurants, ice cream parlours, shops and people driving around in convertibles.
We had another great lunch, at Poggio, with lots of nice wine, watching the world go by.
Then we had a quick stroll round town before heading back for our ferry home.
It was a great ferry ride as it goes right between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, so even though we didn’t have time to do that tour as well we went right past the island and got a pretty good view.
And coming back into San Fran you get a really good view of the whole town, and it looks much more city like from the water than it does when you are in it.

Back at the ferry port we saw all the seals who hang out in Pier 39, there were so many of them they barely fit on the pontoons.
We took an electric bus to the end of all the piers to wait for the cable car.
This was quite possibly the best bit of the whole trip. It was so exciting.
I stood on one of the side platforms, hanging onto a bar and literally leaning out into the traffic. They don’t go that fast, but they go up and down those huge, steep hills and looking backwards is quite frightening, I wasn’t sure we’d make it to the top!
And the guard still has a hand bell, to go “ding ding” when they are ready to move, its all very old fashioned and sweet and I loved it. I could have gone up and down for hours.

But instead we went back to the hotel before going to Sutro at the Cliff House for dinner.
It is, surprisingly, right on the cliffs looking over the Pacific, and we were there in time to see the sun set and enjoy the view before the fog came rolling in.
Another really nice place, a bit less cosy than the night before but the food was great.