San Francisco trip highlights, Part I

It was over three weeks ago, but I never really wrote anything about our fantastic trip out to "Shaky Town." (OK, does anyone actually use that nickname? I read it here.)

We arrived very late Wednesday night, and Matt picked us up from the airport. Our first impression of their apartment- wow. Really nice and spacious, lots of windows, and only a couple blocks from the bay. As the weekend progressed, we realized even more what a great location they're in- tons of good restaurants and bars right down the street, and running/walking/biking paths along the marina 2 blocks away. Rather incredible.

Thursday morning Jenny and I took the 40 minute walk down past Fisherman's Wharf, in order to take the ferry over to Alcatraz. We had heard nothing but good things about the Alcatraz tour, and we weren't in the least bit disappointed. It's a surreal experience. I highly recommend it.



We met up with Matt, grabbed some lunch, and headed to North Beach, old Beat stomping grounds. We hung out in the fabulous City Lights Bookstore (no Lawrence Furlinghetti sightings), then over to Vesuvio, where Kerouac and Neal Cassady used to have drinks and read poetry.

On Friday, Matt and I rented mountain bikes. On the way there we walked down Lombard, "The Crookedest Street in the World." I took the obligatory photograph, and cursed the bad grammar.

We biked down to the water, over to the Golden Gate Bridge, and then crossed it into Marin. After an agonizing climb for 20 minutes or so, wondering out loud why we weren't on road bikes, we found a trail to ride. That answered our question. We didn't find much singletrack, but there were some nice steep hills to bomb down and climb up. A suicidal green snake slithered out in front of my bike, and I didn't have time to stop. He limped (what's a snake's version of a limp?) off into the brush, and I can only hope he survived. We were without a map, and got a little lost, making our trip last a bit longer than planned. But it meant a detour through beautiful Sausalito (complete with pizza). On the way back over the Golden Gate Bridge, the winds were some of the strongest I've ever felt. Extremely frightening on a bicycle.



Since I've been working on this post for more than two days, and I'm not even halfway through my recap of our trip, I'll post this much, and say to be continued...