Biking and Baseball

Today is the big Biking adventure, very excited looking forward to this for ages, the Hotel had a continental breakfast and this was our first experience of American breakfast, it consisted of some sweet rolls and a couple of containers of chopped fruit, Melons mostly.

A communal breakfast area down in the lobby gave it a bit of a family feel and it was fun to see all the other Hotel guests also getting ready for their adventures.

First stop Powell street Cable Car station, somehow we headed off in

the wrong direction for a block and ended up going through a less than attractive bit of town, which had quite a few homeless people and the stench of urine, still felt quite safe and eventually we headed in the right direction and arrived at the cable car.

Some guy was there telling people to get in line and was speaking to each person recommending which ride to take, he looked a bit scruffy so we both wondered if he was just some random or actually an employee, it became obvious that he was a random who did this to earn a few bucks, he was pleasant enough so no one minded. Waited about 15 Minutes to get on the cable car.

We took the Powell-Mason cable car ride was half an hour to get us to Basically Free Bikes located down by Fisherman’s Wharf.

We picked up the bikes at around 9 AM and headed off, first stop Fisherman’s Wharf and the USS Pampanito, our first submarine. We took the guided audio tour that came with admission to the sub and wandered around the submarine. There was hardly anyone else on it so it was awesome to just wander through at our own pace.

After we looked through the sub we spotted an Arcade museum next door to it which has amazing arcade games and amusements from way back in time and up to the 80’s loads of the games I played as a kid were there and Matt and I played the Terminator game 2 player fantastic memories.

Up the road a little bit was In N out Burger where we stopped for food and were served by the most enthusiastic and genuinely nice fast food waitress I have ever encountered her cheerful greeting made for a fantastic start to the day. The burger bar only had three kinds of burger and all the ingredients were fresh, very tasty.

Hit the bikes again and head off toward the Harbour, first stop the tide organ out in the harbour, bit of a let-down to be honest but nice views back toward the city. Then we biked to the Palace of Fine arts, it’s a fairly overcast day so biking is easy. Locked the bikes up at the Palace of Fine arts and spent about 20 Minutes walking around having a good look at it, it’s a beautiful of structure and a pleasant park surrounds it.

From there we biked a short distance to the Sports Basement to cash in our vouchers, what a great outdoors shop, we spent about half an hour here but I could have spent all day looking at all the cool stuff they have. I brought a non-spill drink bottle and a blue wind breaker jacket as the Merino one was proving to be a bit too hot.

Then it’s off to the main part of the day, the bike over the Golden Gate Bridge, as we get nearer the crowds biking start to build up to the point where our pace is dictated by those around us, it’s a pretty easy bike ride and really exciting to be ticking this one off the bucket list. We had a rest stop up by the entrance to the bridge at the visitors center and I put on my head camera on to tape the adventure.

A pleasant Hour and a Half biking across the bridge and down into Sausalito. From there we waited for the ferry back to San Francisco. The ferry ride back provided some great views of the City and Alcatraz.

Upon arriving back in San Francisco we biked a under the Bay Bridge where we spotted a little bar called the Hi Dive, stopped in for a beer and a bite to eat.

Back on the bikes for about 4 KM and off to Pier 39 for a look around the shops and catch a look at the famous seals on the wharf, then another 20 minute bike ride to drop the bikes off back at the shop.

Because time was getting on we decided to go straight to the Ball Game rather than go back to the hotel, we wandered around a bit and eventually worked out where to get the tram back to the side of town with the ballpark.

When we got to the ballpark there were crowds lined up, the people lined up were friendly and cheerful, had a bit of a laugh with some of the locals joking about missing Tony Bennett, had no idea what they were talking about till later apparently it is some pre game tradition honouring his 90th birthday as he is a Bay area local, we popped into a bar opposite the park to wait for the game to start before going to the park.

The Lucky Strike bar looked out onto the ball park and there was a ten pin bowling alley in the bar. The baseball game was fantastic, such a caravel atmosphere, we had a great time, certainly something I would do again.

After the game concluded we walked back toward the hotel, feeling quite safe as there were crowds of people all stumbling along in the same general direction.

We stopped at Lefty O’Doul’s where a bunch of drunk middle aged ladies were pouring money into the piano man’s tip jar vying for his attention from there it was a short walk to the hotel to end a great day in San Francisco.