Sept. 17 - Bike, Ferry, Train

San Francisco to Oakland to Amtrak

Friday - September 17
We stowed our panniers behind the hotel's front desk and headed off to check out the ferry terminal and ferry schedule. We think it will be a better choice than BART for crossing the bay. The Amtrak train doesn't leave until 10:00 tonight so we have plenty of time to explore San Francisco by bike.

Complicated.......it is hard to tell how each bus knows which wire to follow.

We wandered through Ghiradelli Square in the daylight but it was still early and most of the shops were not open yet including the chocolate shop.

Still a bit foggy up the hill.

We visited Coit Tower a couple of years ago when daughter Megan lived in SFO. It was December and sunny. Mark Twain did say the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

All these rental bikes are made by Co-Motion, the same people that built Donna's bike earlier this summer. We saw a lot of these bikes yesterday going across the bridge. Many of those people were in shorts so we bet they were a little surprised by the difference in temperature between the Embarcadero and the bridge.

The Gold Man...we've seen at least blue, silver, and green in our travels the last few years.

Pier 1, the Ferry Building. The ferry takes bikes without a problem and has a sailing just when we need it so now we can just play tourist for awhile.

Not your everyday bike fairing!

Alcatraz with the Golden Gate Bridge behind it........don't you see it? This was the best view of it we had all day.

Donna doing a little contract inspection just for practice.

This is the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. An outdoor museum seemed like the way to go on what was turning into a sunny day.

There are a wide variety of boats/ships to explore....old...

.....and quite modern. This carbon-kevlar boat was rowed across the North Pacific from Japan to SFO in 2009 by 2 men from Britain. It took them 189 days and one helicopter food drop only 3 days from SFO. They had been rationing their food for a month already and just weren't getting enough calories. Otherwise they had been totally self-sufficient using solar panels to generate electricity and their muscles for movement.

This wooden ship was built to haul lumber.

The highway before the Golden Gate Bridge was built.

The ferry had a wonderful display of old cars.....

....and also horse-drawn transportation.

Another view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a break for lunch at Fisherman's Wharf then came back to tour the square-rigger, Barthcutha, also known as the Star of Alaska. We observed a number of swimmers using this area for their lunchtime exercise.......brrrrr.

It was a very impressive ship and had been quite nicely restored.

Another view of the Barthcutha with Alcatraz behind it.

We started moseying back to the motel about 2:30 to pick up our gear.

A few more people at this hour of the day than when we here this morning.

There is a year-round farmers' market in the Ferry Building as well as quite a few restaurants and shops. There were lots of tables outside on the bay side so it made a great place to do some people-watching while we waited for the ferry.

Here it comes! Looks a little faster than the one we toured at the park. It is also strictly a pedestrian ferry, no vehicles, except bicycles.

One last chance for the Golden Gate to show itself but it was not to be. The Bay Bridge, however, was totally fog-free.

It was very pleasant out on the water and the ferry ride did not last nearly long enough. We did have a chance to talk to a couple of locals that use the ferry to commute to work everyday.

There was a boat show occupying the harbor and there were LOTS of yachts.

Jack London's Cabin

This is how we get across the tracks to the train station.

We boxed up our bikes, turned them in to the station agent then walked back over the Skywalk to find dinner in Jack London Square. We ended up at Cocina Poblana, which served Puebla style food. Donna's Aunt Dimna came from that part of Mexico so it seemed like the perfect choice and it was delicious. If you are ever there, try their Chili in Nogada. The train arrived on time while Doug was in the restroom so we had a little excitement right at the end of the day. Didn't take long for us to start snoozing to the swaying of the train. It had been a very pleasant day to end a really nice tour.

Todays's miles = 11.2
Total miles = 457.3