San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA, to POMO RV Park, Ft. Bragg, CA:  Left this morning at around 9:30 and headed north on Rt. 1 across the Golden Gate one last time and then the 101 north to Cloverdale under a cloudy sky.  Then we took Rt. 128 northwest which was a windy, twisty road up through the hills.  A beautiful drive through a mixed conifer and hardwood forest.  We pulled over at an entrance to someone’s ranch to let the traffic behind us go by.  It was so pretty and peaceful there.  A nice sunny day now that we drove out of the marine layer.  And warm—by their standards anyway—68 degrees.  Maybe we’re getting inured to the cooler weather out here.  There were a lot of vineyards on this road.  We could have drank our way west.  Well, I could have anyway.  Mike was driving.  When we got closer to the coast we started going through a stunning redwood forest.  It was a beautiful, magical place of huge redwoods, the forest floor covered in a verdant layer of  dark green thick moss and huge ferns.  Primeval.  I wanted to put on my hiking boots and hike in this beautiful place.  We finally got to the Pacific Coast Highway for a short 20 miles to Ft. Bragg.  The coast seems different here—what little we saw of it since we couldn’t pull over at any of the viewing areas with the fifth wheel in tow.  There seems to be more little bays and the ocean seemed flat.  Tomorrow we’ll go exploring.  Made chili for dinner.  This new park we’re in is great.  It’s more like a national forest campground.  We’re in a really private site surrounded by pines and other trees.  But we have full hook-ups.  Mostly in the mid-60s today. We got here and were set up by 2:30.  The drive took a while.  Can’t go very fast on those twisty roads.  But so beautiful!

On the PCH south of Ft. Bragg

A little bay on the PCH

San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA:    Another sunny, pretty morning.  We’ve been really lucky as far as the weather goes since we’ve been here.  Got the laundry out of the way and then around 1:00 we headed up the highway a couple of exits to the BART station.  Took the BART up to the Powell Station and then had planned on taking a Powell Street cable car, but the queues to get tickets were bad, and then you had to queue up to get on a car.  So we walked up Powell, stopped at Union Square for a while and then continued on to Chinatown and had a late lunch at a great restaurant.  Walked around some more and then back to the BART station and back to our park.  A great way to get downtown.  Tomorrow we leave for Ft. Bragg which is about 180 miles north on the coast. 

Chinatown

One of the street lights in Chinatown

The beautiful Tiffany dome in Neiman Marcus department store--Union Square, SF

Tiburon

San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA:  Our objective was to drive to Muir Woods today and then have lunch in Tiburon.  Back on the PCH which is a twisty, windy, narrow road up through the hills.  There were a lot of bicyclists on this road.  It’s in the 50s, foggy, and windy.  No shoulders on this road.  And these people are up there biking.  Their legs were huge.  Masochistic if you ask me.  When we got to Muir Woods there was no place to park.  They were parking on the road as far as 2 miles from the entrance.  Decided to forget that.  Way too many people out here.  Drove to Tiburon which is one peninsula over from Sausalito.  Drove the whole peninsula taking in the beautiful homes and vistas.  We had lunch in a little restaurant with a view of San Francisco across the bay.  Drove back and sat outside on our bluff reading for a while until the fog rolled in.  Did some grocery shopping and had a light dinner at an Italian restaurant in Pacifica.  Mostly in the 60s today.  

View of San Francisco from our restaurant at Tiburon

San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA:  Today we drove the PCH north of San Francisco.  Got on the 101 and then Rt. 1 which eventually ends up on 19^th Street on the western side of San Francisco.  So, you’re basically on city streets.  But it’s three lanes and we’ll be fine when we leave with the fifth wheel.  Drove over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time this trip.  I drove over it back in 1982, but it bothered me a lot.  Not sure why, because going over it today wasn’t bad at all.  Of course I wasn’t driving.  After exiting the Golden Gate we took the first exit for Rt. 1.  And the road was incredibly windy and twisty.  Had some gorgeous vistas, but no place to stop and take pictures.  Drove up only to the cute little town of Tamales and turned around, because we passed a place in Tamales Bay that the owner of a restaurant in Santa Barbara where we ate one night highly recommended—Nick’s Cove in Tamales Bay.  So we went back there and had lunch with a view of what we thought was a lake, but it’s an inlet off the Pacific.  There were some cottages on the shore and some floating docks, but what good is this place.  You can’t swim.  The water temps are in the 50s.  But we had an incredible lunch.  I had Dungeness crab eggs benedict and Mike had a dozen oysters on the half shell from different areas in the Bay.  After lunch we decided to take the Marshall-Petaluma road over to Petaluma and get the 101.  It took so long to travel the 40 or so miles on the PCH that we decided to take the 101 back.  We went through some cute little towns though—like Dogtown, population 30. and Tamales, another cute little town.  Like stepping back in time.  Some of the buildings I’m sure go back 100 years.  We were going to do Muir Woods and Tiburon today also but ran out of time.  As it was, we hit rush hour traffic again in SF.  Fortunately, most of it was going the other way.  Back to our site on the bluff overlooking the Pacific and sat out and read for a while, listening to the waves pounding the beach.  Then had dinner at a little Italian restaurant in a strip mall just down the road.  Temps were all over the place today.  63 down by the water and 80 up in the hills.

Going over the Golden Gate

The little inlet we thought was a lake.  The great white sharks breed here in the winter.

The traffic coming out of SF into Marin County.

San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA:  Drove up Rt. 1 through Golden Gate Park to a place called Lands End, which is a high point of land west of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Beautiful up there with old growth pines.  Smelled wonderful!  Drove through the Presidio which is a lot bigger than we thought.  Dropped back down to the Palace of the Arts, parked on Marina and walked a mile or so back to the Palace of the Arts.  Beautiful buildings that were part of the 1915 Exposition.  Walked back to where we parked on Marina past some beautiful town homes with great views of the bay.  Drove down by Union Street, parked, and browsed the tony shops on Union St. and had an early dinner at a neat little restaurant on Union.  Drove back in rush hour traffic again.  Mike is a saint!  A beautiful day today.  Sunny and 71 in San Francisco.  65 here at our park and clear skies.

The Golden Gate taken from Lands End

The Golden Gate from another perspective.

Lands End

Some of the housing at the Presidio

Palace of the Arts

Alcatraz

San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA:  Drove back to San Francisco this morning.  Had to be at the tour office on Leavenworth St. between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. to pick up our Alcatraz tour tickets.  Luckily, our tour was at 12:30.  At least that’s when we boarded the ferry.  So we walked down North Point and stopped at the Hollywood Café and had breakfast.  Then continued walking down to Pier 33 and got in line for our ferry.  After we boarded, it was a short ride out to Alcatraz.  Another beautiful day.  It was a very interesting tour.  There were about 70 employees out there and their families who lived on Alcatraz in employee housing.  Actually, it was a great place for families.  There were several boats over to San Francisco every day.  And the children of the workers took a ferry to San Francisco to school every day.  The cell block was on top of “The Rock” and we had an energetic walk up the equivalent of a 12-story building.  One of the amazing things on this island was the gardens.  They built a fort out here in the 1860s during the Civil War.  And then it became a military prison.  That’s when they started the gardens.  They took soil from the adjacent islands and brought it over to Alcatraz which was basically a limestone rock.  During the time of Alcatraz as a federal prison, the families, and even the prisoners, worked on the gardens.  And they’re thriving today.  I bought a book, “Breaking the Rock” by Jolene Babyak who lived on Alcatraz as a child.  Her father was the acting warden.  It’s about the amazing escape in 1962 where four convicts escaped after placing dummy masks in their beds and spending months of digging through concrete, stealing supplies to make life vests and a raft.  Three of them were never seen again.  Should be a good read.  After our tour we had dinner at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant on the bay.  Then walked back to our parking garage and headed back.  We thought we’d head east on North Point to the Embarcadero and then on to the 280. That would have been a great way to get out of town if the Giants hadn’t been playing a game tonight at the AT&T Stadium on The Embarcadero (sigh).  We were in gridlock traffic until we passed the stadium and then it was clear sailing.  Made it back okay.  And no marine layer tonight.  70 today in San Francisco!  A beautiful, sunny day!   

A hang glider sailing along the bluff behind us.

A little bird has a nest on the edge of the bluff behind us.

The lighthouse and Warden's quarters on Alcatraz.

Approaching Alcatraz.  Power plant on the right.  Storage building in the center.

One of the cells.

View of San Francisco from Alcatraz.

Some of the gardens.

San Francisco

San Francisco RV Resort, Pacifica, CA:  Drove into San Francisco today.  Found out the Alcatraz tour was sold out until the end of July and the only way we could get out there was to take a city tour.  So we bought a 48-hour hop-on/hop-off tour which included Alcatraz.  Took the double-decker bus around San Francisco. Tomorrow we go back in and go out to Alcatraz and can jump on the bus again if we want.  After the bus tour we had lunch on Pier 39 at a really nice seafood restaurant with great views of Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then walked down to Ghirardelli Square.  Wanted to take a cable car, but people were lined up to get on, so we didn’t bother.  I liked it much better when I was out here in 1982.  I did all the driving back then and it seemed very easy to get around and not as many people.  Today there were SO MANY PEOPLE.  Of course Fisherman’s Wharf is a very touristy area.  Drove back to Pacifica.  Mike did all the driving—bless him!  As we were driving back the fog started rolling in.  The view in back of us is now shrouded in fog.  70 today.

Coit Tower

Ferry Building Spire

Beautiful City Hall

China Gate--Chinatown

Alcatraz

Golden Gate with the fog rolling in

Little seal on the dock--Pier 39

Ghirardelli Square

Same shot back in 1982

Homes on the hills around San Francisco.  Would you want to live here?