San Francisco - Davenport

We’re ready to leave San Francisco – the hostel was a neat place to spend the weekend – we had facilities here to do laundry, make meals, eat meals, sleep, shower and whatever else we needed to do.  We were within walking distance of where all the city tours started and ended and all the attractions that make San Francisco famous.  September is the busiest tourist month in San Francisco – the temperature is the nicest in September  so we’ve also been told and that is probably true considering all the tourists we met.   The only attraction none of us were able to visit was Alcatraz – no tickets were available – we could see it in the distance if there was no fog.

Fog is something everyone needs to deal with – it rolls in as quickly as it rolls out again.  This morning the Golden Gate bridge was visible at 7:00 when we walked to go for breakfast – when we left the hostel at 8:00 you couldn’t see it again.  Yesterday it was overcast most of the day – humidity was very high – a bad hair day – needed umbrellas at times and everyone went their own way using up their 2 day bus passes from the day before.  No churches were right in the vicinity or within walking distance so we had our own service concluding with each of us blessing/offering words of encouragement to the person beside us – a very meaningful experience.

This was taken this morning as the cyclists were on their way out of San Francisco - the bridge is under fog.

A photo that Adri captured on Friday afternoon just before the cyclists got on the bridge - within seconds, the fog closed in and it was a very cold, windy ride across the bridge.

The Hop On – Hop Off bus system is the way to see San Francisco – the tour guides/drivers give us a excellent overview of the city – what to see, what to do, what to eat, etc. etc.  One of our tour guides called himself the, “the fat kid” so was quite up to date on all the good eating places in the city.  Apparently SF has so many restaurants, it would take you more than 1 year to eat all 3 meals  a day in their eating places. 

We remembered one in particular where Spencer told us they had the best chowder and we checked it out for a bowl of crab and corn chowder – he was right – it was the best and it came served in a sour dough bread bowl.  We learned that sour dough bread also originates in SF – a specialty still baked daily. 

We saw this windmill in the fog this morning - others saw it on Saturday....

SF is also famous for their street cars and cable cars – we saw them but were not willing to wait in line for 2 hours  to get a ride.  Segway tours were also very popular as were the, ‘GPS guided tour in “storytelling car” – a 3 wheeled car where the passengers wear helmets.

Many of us did our share of walking on the weekend – walking up the 16% grade steep sidewalks and then coming down again.   Some grades they say are as steep as 30%.  John did try cycling once he put his new chain on –  but the others parked their bikes for the weekend.  We had to make sure we did not get in the way of the joggers and cyclists who were out on Saturday morning.  We were near the bay too where we saw some brave souls swimming – some in wet suits but we were not enticed to join them.    

  Other points of interest that we were told about were: Nob Hill, China Town, Tenderloin, Civic Center, The Presidio, Fisherman’s Wharf, Sausalito, the place where Tony Bennett left his heart...

  We get the opportunity to check out these places later.  Downtown SF is like any other big city.  You have your Macy’s, Saks, and all the other big stores there.  Macy’s has a Starbucks sign in the window and it’s all the way up on the 4^th floor so you have to go through the store to get there.  The smell of coffee does lure you up to the 4^th floor.  

Now to get back to the route on Monday – the cyclists would be taking a different route out of the city as the van and we would meet up with them later for coffee.  It did get a bit confusing for the cyclists and it took them longer to get to our meeting place.  Fog rolled in and out so we did not get a good view of the ocean until a few hours later when all of a sudden it was gone.  The temperature changes drastically with the fog.    The cyclists are constantly pulling their arm warmers up and down to accommodate the change.

We did get some great ocean views and high cliffs – after a serious climb the cyclists had a great downhill for a long ways till coffee time.  After that they left Highway 1 and cycled bike paths for a while.  When we can’t see the coast on our right side, we are driving through farm country with market gardens on either side of the road.  The hills disappear for a while and we see dry barren hills in the distance. 

Lunch stop was at Pigeon Point – the site where the 2^nd highest lighthouse in the US finds its home.  The cyclists made it in record time with a strong 20 mph wind on their backs.  The paparazzi also spent time here taking photos.  With the aid of binoculars we spotted harbour seals sunning on the rocks trying to keep warm.  We were trying to keep warm on the shore so it must have been that much harder for them to keep warm with the frigid waves crashing all around them.  Pictures can never capture what we really see and hear at the coastline. 

For those of us with farming background in our blood, we could see/smell people planting leeks right at our lunch stop – brussel sprouts and pumpkins were also being harvested.

A little further down the coast were the windsurfers and kite boarders…

We all arrived in the hamlet of Davenport just after 3:00 p.m.- the cyclists were so blessed with a strong tail wind...we won't mention how fast they were going on the last down hill....

The church in Davenport

 

Total kilometers today was 122 - a tire was changed but it wasn't flat yet - preventative so it doesn't count.  A cyclist had a spill this morning - Ed was checking out the route ahead and hit a tree root and was down before he knew it - a twisted knee and some sore ribs...nothing that ibuprophen doesn't fix.

We went across the road after supper to check out the sun as it was going down..