Riding bikes, cable cars, and trollies

Did I mention...
 -You can click on all the pictures in this blog and see them in better (HUGE) detail, if you'd like.
-GORMP is my made up revision of GORP because it's deluxe and includes Gold Old Raisins and M&Ms and Peanuts... 


I think we left the last blog as we headed out, me still mumbling about the lady at the hotel, and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge.  I'd seen an interesting landmark online called Fort Point, which is right near the beginning of the bridge, so I thought "good place to start!"

So, I put it into our Garmin, named Val (it was our romantic Valentine's Day gift...)  The drive to the bridge was actually very enjoyable because we took the long stretch of road that runs along the bay, where there are all kinds of people walking dogs, riding bikes, jogging, and picnicking with the GGB in the backdrop.  We got a bunch of pictures and wished we had such scenery for our daily jogs...

When we arrived, we were surprised to find that we couldn't actually FIND any fort.  Not sure if there's anything to visit at Fort Point, or if it was closed, but we had some bike riding to do, so it worked as a parking spot... relatively well.

From our parked car:

As you may have guessed from the angle of that picture, we had a bit of a ride ahead of us, most of which would be pedaled in the lowest gear.  Here we are about halfway there:

A nice tripod shot, believe it or not...

And after about a half hour of pedaling and passing the unfortunate souls whose spirits were broken by the 80-degree hill,  WE MADE IT!

As you can see, it was a bit of a labor:

But it didn't take long for those frowns to be turned:

It was quite a thrill, and to our good fortunte, it wasn't too busy. That meant we were much less likely to get in a wreck and fall over the edge--yay! And we could take pictures like that one--yay!

And more:

And in response to last blog's question--it would seem so!

-Look at how sweaty that guy is! (Is this the hottest day of the year in SF?)

Lovely scenery, though...

With the big city skyline:

And with my Navy Memorial friend:

So after that, we headed back across and stopped at the GGB Gift Shop, after taking this last shot with my phone:

Pretty.

We picked up some postcards, and most importantly, a Pressed Penny ANNND  Collector's Commemorative Keepsake Penny Book, WITH Limited Edition GBB Penny... It's quite an item.

After that, we headed to where every SF vistor must head, Pier 39. We got tired of driving around figuring out parking, so we parked at World Market (just like at home...) and bought some silverware on sale for the apartment we would be moving into. That got our parking validated for the few hours we would spend getting pulled into tourists traps, and getting bothered by street performers, like this guy!

Yep, that's the answer to last blog's questions:
-Why does that guy have his arm around your wife? And why's he SILVER??


He was silver because he, and his friend behind him, were statues. (duh) And he has his arm around my wife because...hey wait... why exactly DOES he have his arm...?  No, it was fun, and we got some film, along with some silver paint on Cara's shoulder.

Easily the most memorable thing at Pier 39, the REAL reason you should go, is the answer to the other question:
-What's are those blobs behind Cara?

Thos are big, blubbery SEA LIONS! Honestly the best thing to just stand and stare, and laugh, at.  They just roll around, bark at eachother, hack up a lung occastionally, and struggle to get back on their pads after they take a dip. 

And actually, I started to write as I was typing this, which is wrong, and when I looked it up and found out they're sea lions, I also found this site. It is dark right now as I write but MIGHT be fun during the day:
http://master.livetrac.com/cgi-bin/pier39marina/live?pset=pier39marina&template=restaurant

So, we hung out and ate some clam chowder in a sourdough bowl--quite good, despite the warmth. Then we saw an exciting sign:

As you can see, I was running to see my friends, but since we'd already eaten, Cara said no...


That's OK! We went on the cable cars:

See the bus driver about to give me a hard time? He did, perhaps because I didn't know how the ticket things worked, but probably mostly because we were holding him up by taking this picture. Who knows.

Out the back window, lotsa cables:

The ride gave us a nice view of the city, which was fun, but it was a bit longer than we expected.The fun and interesting thing was where they drop you off for the turn-around.

I call this picture, "Why yes I just got done riding a lady's cruiser bike."

 

I'm not sure if the SF transit system has a sense of humor or it's just a coincidence that many tourists find themselves at this stop daily, but I giggled thinking about the expressions on some faces.

After our ride back, and after Cara's seeing the AWESOME downtown shopping, we were destined to end up staying juuuust a little longer.

So we ate some pizza, at Blondies:

 

We walked through this little square, which had neat little trees with hanging flowers. Pretty as a flower:

 

And, finally, we road the trollies downhill! 

 

And that was just about all the fun we could handle, although NOT quite...

It was imperative that Cara go back and pick up the cute dress she saw, which was fine because she did indeed get a (some) lovely dress(es) and looks dashing in them. However, she also didn't quite make it out in front of the store by the time Adam returned from the parking spot 5 blocks away...

And, because Adam had foolishly turned his Garmin on Pedestrian mode while walking back to the car, and because he foolishly forgot to turn it off, thus began 40 minutes of being told to turn down one-way streets, "make a u-turn" in the middle of traffic, and just general mayhem between him and his friend Val.  Plus it was dark. And a big city. (Val was right, you can go the wrong way down one-way streets WHEN YOU'RE WALKING).

It was a true trial.

But we made it! And all that fun couldn't be undone by a itty bitty little meltdown! So, off to Sacramento we went, to stay the night and get the thing we'd been waiting for: the California Nursing License...