Early this summer Don asked Marty if she had any ideas for a trip. Marty said she had always wanted to see the Redwoods and so a trip was born. Or rather a trip was conceived. After at least a hundred hours of gestation (discussion, AAA book and internet research and reservationing) it was born.
We took off on the air leg of our trip from CMH in midday on Sept. 21st and landed in early evening at SFO after a pleasant flight connecting at DFW. Map. We had arranged for transportation to San Francisco since we decided to forego a car during our stay there. We easily found the SuperShuttle attendant and stop and had an uneventful ride to our Holiday Inn on Fisherman's Wharf. Map. It happened that our driver was from Russia (quite noticeable accent) and after he unloaded our baggage Don ventured one of his few words of Russian. He was duly complemented by the driver on his pronounciation but the tip was already in hand.
After settling in to our room, we decided to take advantage of the friendly concierge and inquire of the best way to get to the Ferry Building the next day for our nine o'clock tour. He was very knowledgeable and made sure we did not spend a quarter more than necessary. At this time it still was not dark but we were tired and had already had three (small) meals so we just had a snack and went to bed, local time being three hours earlier than our body clocks.
Wednesday morning we took the concierge-recommended "F-Line" down to the Ferry Building (Map) where our tour was to start. The "F-Line" runs only along Fisherman's Wharf and its vehicles are "antique" rail cars from all over the world. Cable cars are not the only public transportation in SF.
We arrived at the Ferry Building in plenty of time for our tour group assembly under the Pier 2 sign.
Our tour guide was a delightful lady named Angela. After a brief introductory lecture we boarded a bus and sallied forth. I wish I could relate the tour with all of Angela's stories and commentary but I guess you have to go there instead.
Angela, being a self-described "foodie", was an encyclopedia of restaurants. She also was familiar with real estate prices. One has to accept downscale residence to get below half-a-million in his city. Don't even think about a view until about $2 million. A lawn? You gotta be kidding. Beautiful Victorian restorations are plentiful. Here are three of the famous "seven sisters": seven nearly identical houses shoulder-to-shoulder. If you're into that, think about $75,000 just for the exterior paint job.
Toward the last of our tour we were driven across the Golden Gate bridge to charming Sausalito. Map
where we had lunch with great views of the San Francisco skyline,
and of houses 10 times as expensive as those in the city across the Golden Gate. Angela told us that often one cannot see a fraction of the distance across the bay because of fog. It turned out that we were very lucky with weather the whole trip: no fog in San Francisco, no rain in the Rain Forest, no drizzle in Seattle. It was 106° in Fresno, but we didn't get out of the car there.
After lunch we boarded a ferry (as pedestrians) to complete our tour back to Fisherman's Wharf. As Marty had anticipated when she booked the tour, it was an excellent start to our vacation.