After the festivities in Chico, our next stop was the beautiful San Francisco. Google Maps confirmed that it was not too far a drive, roughly again about 200 miles if you go through the Napa Valley, which was the plan for the day:
The fresh morning confirmed again just what a stunning place Angus lives in:
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| If the tree house move proved to be unsuccessful, there is always the river to romantically float down. . . |
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| The bridge leaving Angus' property |
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| I hope Angus knows which one is his! |
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| An orchard somewhere between Chico and Napa |
Before you could say knipmes, we were nearing Napa. It was yet again a beautiful drive to approach the valley from the North East:
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| The Lake Berryessa dam wall |
And Napa certainly is a stunning place. We only had time to take the shortest route to the town, but as you can see, very pleasing on the eye:
The town itself was also good to see, although we only realised afterwards tat we did not take any pictures. Brenda did capture this "ghost" sign which sees to have become very popular in the US
I was keen to see the Golden Gate bridge again. In 1993 I worked in the San Joaquin Valley, about 2 hours drive outside of San Francisco, and during that time managed to visit San Fran and the bridge a few times. From what I can remember the bridge was ALWAYS a great experience, regardless of the weather.
Our timing was such that we arrived from the northern side just before sunset. And what a sight it proved to be yet again. We took hundreds of photos, and the selected few below are probably not even the most beautiful ones.
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| The view from the bridge on the road to the Point Bonita lighthouse |
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| Cape Aghulas Lighthouse |
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| Looking towards the lighthouse, way in the distance |
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| When the sun came out , it softly lit up the bridge every now and again |
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| Downtown San Francisco |
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| This time with the zoom to get a better look at the TransAmerica Building |
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| The Rock |
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| 3 lanes going out and 3 in. |
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My beautiful wife in front of the beautiful bridge
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It really was a stunning sunset:
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| We weren't the only ones enjoying the end of this day |
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| Every time I drive over a bridge in California I hope there is no earthquake! |
From here we made a bee line to our hotel in Fishermans Wharf, ready for what San Fran will bring the next day.
The following day we were up late, despite our (my) best intentions :-) and it was raining.
The famous tram was unfortunately in maintenance mode, so we initially just started to walk around the city to visit places such as:
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| Lombard street |
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| Coit Tower |
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| Chinatown |
In Chinatown I wasn't to keen on a Facial Wax. I like my snor, thank you.
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| Look. Fook. |
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| Ain't that the truth! |
The rain proved to be too much and we Uber'ed our way back to the hotel, where we made the impulsive call to go and cycle across the Golden Gate bridge - an attraction that we just could not get enough of.
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| Not so colourful now, eh? |
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| Brenda bluntly refused to be photographed with her cycling helmet on. In fact, it took this bikerboy a lot of nagging to get the ER doctor to actually agree to wear one. Friggen chicks. |
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| Methinks she looks stunning. And of course very safe. |
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| Somewhere between Fishermans Wharf and the bridge |
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| This time from a different angle |
Cycling across the bridge all the way to Sausalito was really a fun idea, despite the weather. I will do that again when I get back to SF.
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| You can get really close to the ships passing underneath |
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| I'm watching you! |
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| She seemed to have lost a few on the way in . . . |
Our very expensive bicycle rental deal included a ferry ticket back from Sausolito, where we arrived quite late back in An Fransisco.
Yet another wonderful few days in one of the amazing cities in this world.
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