2013-04-01

Bus tour day in San Francisco.  We start with the Ferry approaching the dock in Vallejo at 7:35am.    We walked down to Pier 33 to see how long it would take – approximately 20 minutes.  When we do our Alcatraz tour next week, we hoped we would not have to take the 7:45 ferry waiting around for our 12:01pm tour.  We decided that we could take the 10am tour arriving at 11am should give us time to get to pier 33 to get our tickets and get on the boat to Alcatraz by 11:50.  That is the plan.

We returned to the Ferry Building.    Then, after a breakfast sandwich, we checked in with our tour bus company for our 5 1/2 hour torur on The San Francisco Comprehensive Shuttle Tours.    Then it was time to meet our tour guide Judith.    First up on the tour was a 30 minute ferry ride to Sausalito, where we had lunch.  The ferry took us past Alcatraz and our first view of the the Golden Gate Bridge.    After lunch, we met up again with our tour guide, and our bus driver in front of the two elephants.   Nest was a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and a stop at Fort Point for pictures.    And we get another picture of Alcatraz from another angle.    We then drove through the Presidio (Marilyn’s father shipped out from the Presidio to his WWII post in Military Government on Okinawa) on our way to a stop at the last remaining building from the 1915 World’s Fair – The Palace of Fine Arts.    There we saw the swans cordoned off because one was sitting on a nest.    Next was a stop to see the Six Sisters.  Man built a house in the 1890s for himself and his family.  Then he built 6 more homes to sell for $8K each, so there are really 7 houses painted in different colors..    Next up were Grace Cathedral and City Hall.    The Cable Car Museum is fascinating because the cables, which are gripped between the wheels of the cable car, are all turned by electric motors in this building for the three cable car routes in the city.  The cables are able to pull the cars up San Francisco’s hills.   San Francisco has the largest China Town in North America.   The second picture shows a man playing the Star Spangled Banner on a  Chinese instrument with its odd notes.    Next we walked down Lombard Street’s crookedest block.    The day was over when we were driven back to the Ferry Building about 4:55.  We managed to catch the 5:15 ferry back to Vallejo.  We thought it was a wonderful tour to see the highlights of San Francisco.

Type at you later.