Last Day in SF

We started our last day in SF by going back to Pier 39 to see the Aquarium there. It was another admission we had on the City Pass. We got down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area before most places opened up. We headed up towards Ghirardelli Square. Penny wanted something hot to drink (it was chilly, foggy and breezy) and we ended up getting a hot chocolate and chocolate croissant in a Ghirardelli chocolate shop. We watched the activity outside while we ate and drank.

We spent enough time now that things were opening up. We walked back to Pier 39 along the waterfront and found there actually was a fair sized beach there. Some people were swimming laps in the frigid water.

The aquarium itself was disappointing. It provided information about ecology and scolded us for what we were doing to the oceans more than it did identification of what was in the tanks we were looking at. Penny and I like to spend time at each tank and see what we discover with a longer look. Seaworld has some neat tanks for this. Here in SF the displays were relatively less interesting—especially with the dearth of information about what we were seeing.

The aquarium has a lower level that is an underwater acrylic tunnel through indigenous sea life from the bay. T was better than the upstairs and here they did have identification signs. The best part was probably the tank of jellyfish at the entrance to the tunnel. Penny got a great picture of that.








We quickly walked through the rest of Pier 39. I took some pictures of the sea lions and seals on the docks to replace the ones we lost to our car thief.




We hadn’t been to the artsy fartsy rich town of Sausalito so we headed across the Golden Gate Bridge for lunch in Sausalito. Christian had mentioned a restaurant that sat out over the water with a great view of SF but we knew nothing of the area. We parked in the first public lot we saw and set out on foot to explore the area. Fog was cresting the hillside ahead of us and then dissipating.



We passed a couple of restaurants that didn’t fit the description and then came to a huge marina. A lady passed walking her dog “Wyatt”. Penny and Wyatt hit it off nicely. I asked the lady if there was another restaurant here (from where we stood it didn’t look like anything else was beyond the marina). She directed us to the “Spinnaker” a big restaurant built on stilts out over the water with a fantastic view of the foggy SF skyline in the distance.

We got the 2nd to last empty table. It had a great view. The food was wonderful. On our walk back we passed a "priceless" sail boat that a guy was working on. I took a picture of it

I also found this article on-line about the boat: http://www.universalrule.com/page1/body.html

and the sign in front of it. We thought Christian would be interested.

We headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and then go to the airport. I had hoped that the fog might lift and I could get a few nice pictures of the bridge but it was not to be.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We hung around the hotel and went to the airport. Reporting the damage to the car went smoothly. I had all the proper paperwork and information ready. The biggest problem they had was finding a working copy machine.

We had a red eye flight back east through Miami and Penny and I slept most of the way.

Thus ended our trip to SF

I’ve joked that we visited New Orleans just 2 weeks before Katrina hit so SF must be due for an earthquake now that we just visited. On the news today I heard a report that scientists have detected some deep rumbles in the San Andreas fault. H-m-m-m.