I slept well… until the garbage truck arrived very early!
 |
| Sausalito street |
Breakfast was definitely of the continental variety, just juice, apples, pastries and coffee but it filled the spot and fired us up for our day. Before we checked out we went for another short stroll around the streets on Sausalito – the only people out were tourists, we had earlier watched the real, working people racing to catch the ferry into work in the city .
Back in the car but only briefly today – our first stop was the Golden Gate overlook in the Marin Headlands National Recreation area, just on the northern side of the bridge. It was so close you felt like you could reach out and touch it. From this side we were looking into the sun and the bridge had a mysterious misty quality. We were pleased to see the traffic moving smoothly across the bridge, we’d heard that some days it could be a carpark.
 |
| Golden Gate Bridge from the north |
It’s a good long drive across and just on the other side we pulled off to the right to see if we could find a park in the tiny lot up near the bridge visitor centre, but it was already chockers with tourists. Instead we drove down through the Presidio. The Presidio was formerly a military base belonging to the Spanish but it was seized by the U.S. Military in 1848, at the start of the Mexican-American war. Now it is a huge park covering the north-western tip of the San Francisco peninsula. We found a parking spot down on the flat near the water at Chrissy Field and strolled along towards the bridge, taking lots of photos. From this angle the bridge glowed very red against the bright blue sky.
 |
| Shy dolphin |
Neil spotted a dolphin in the bay and then we noticed a small pod of them popping up and down, so we could add yet another creature to our wildlife collection for the holiday! At the very tip of the point and directly under the bridge is Fort Point, a large brick fortification completed just before the American Civil War by the United States Army, to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships. It’s now managed by the National Parks Service and has some interesting displays inside about it’s history.
 |
| Looking up to the Bridge from Fort Point. |
We climbed to the top of the fort where you get an extraordinary view f the bridge immediately above you and a fine view both into the bay and out to sea. While we were there we noticed the saw fog that had dogged us yesterday starting to creep into the bay As we walked down the stairs and back out along the bayfront the fog blew right across the Golden gate and almost totally obscured the bridge. Where 20 minutes ago there’s been bright sunshine, now there was just grey mist!
 |
| Fog starting to roll in from the ocean |
 |
| Where’d the bridge go! |
The foghorns started sounding on the bridge, a very mournful sound. They are mounted a two spots on the bridge and are turned on by bridge workers whenever the fog rolls in. We felt very sorry for some of the busloads of people arriving who only had a short time at the bridge – no lovely pictures for them! And it must have been particularly frustrating because over the next half hour the fog gradually lifted so that by the time we got back to the car it had almost completely disappeared.
We drove back up through the Presidio to it’s eastern entrance where Neil managed to flook another great parking spot right in front on the Palace of Fine Arts. It’s a gorgeous monument originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition ( which was an enormous Worlds Fair held only 9 years after the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906) The Palace is the only structure that was retained after the end of the expo, and it’s now one of the signature sights of San Francisco. We strolled around it’s pretty lake and gardens and watched the turrtles and herons in the lake tussle over prime perching space. I’d not seen so many turtles in one place!
 |
| The heron kept trying to push the turtle off the rock! |
Finally we negotiated the city streets and climbed up through the Haight-Ashbury district to Twin Peaks. haight-Ashbury is a pretty area with many of the lovely pastel coloured Victorian terraces that give San Francisco it’s distinct look, but it’s probably more famous for the fact that it was Ground Zero for the hippie movement in the 1960’s. Lots of psychedelic decorations on the shop corners – Peace, man!
Twin Peaks is a pair of peaks that provide a panoramic vista over the entire city. It must be all those pastel buildings but San Francisco really looks white from this height. We juggled for a parking spot and fought our way through the forest of selfie sticks to reach the edge so we could take a picture or two!
 |
| Pale city viewed from Twin Peaks |
Finally we headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf and checked in to the Courtyard by Marriott – valet parking $36 + tax per night. Ouch! but cheap by San Francisco standards – this is an expensive city! We were hungry after our light breakfast so walked straight back out and down to the wharf where we grabbed a seat at one of the many seafood cafe’s. I’d been anticipating some clam chowder n a bread bowl for weeks! It was delicious, well worth the wait.
 |
| Yummm! |
We walked up to Pier 39 and goggled a bit at the crowds. The last time we’d visited this city was in January 2005 and the difference between January and September was significant – the place was heaving with people! The sea lions were still there, bellowing and fighting each other in a lazy way, but ironically there seemed to be fewer of them than the last time we were here – I guess they don’t like all the tourists.
 |
| Sea Lions on the wharf. |
Heading back we passed the cable car turnaround and the long queue of people waiting to get a ride but we’d done our ride last time so we waked on past to visit Ghirardelli Square, a shopping and dining centre built into the old Ghirardelli chocolate factory, the chocolate samples were yummy!