I had no plans today, but I knew I wanted to see more of the city. With two days left in-town, I knew sometime soon I had to see the Golden Gate bridge. I got up and started my day. Within the first block, I slammed my foot into a broken pipe coming out of the ground. It smarted like a motha', and I just hoped as I started hobbling down the street that blood wouldn't come rushing out of my toes. Lady luck wasn't smiling. My big toe started bleeding, and didn't want to heal as I walked (obviously). Great way to start a day of walking, huh?

I continued on, catching the streetcar from Market Street. The trip helped me get more familiar with the layout of the city, because I had a backseat view of everything as we travelled around. The car stopped at the piers, and I got out at pier 39 to walk around. I had a quick bite at a burger place and walked the pier. The day was gorgeous. I saw a sea lion swimming around the pier, which was a nice treat to see one not in captivity. The others have migrated northwest (according to the signs) and will return here in the fall. Apparently, the entire pier gets full of them most days.

In a spontaneous moment, I decided to rent a bike. I rode it throughout the Wharf area, and up to a park near the Golden Gate bridge. The view was awesome from there. I kept on biking (up some pretty steep hills) and ran into some more incredible views. My legs felt great....they were burning like crazy. I hadn't felt that full of energy since the half-marathon. My lungs were burning too, so I pressed on, up another huge hill to the path that would ultimately take me up to the Golden Gate bridge.

It's a long way up there, above the Bay. The wind was fierce, and it was a bit creepy when other bikers whizzed by me on a lane no wider than a sidewalk. Cars were flying by to the right, and the bay was off to the left. I took a few breaks to shoot the view and all. It was a long way to the water, and the hills of Sausalito were approaching.

I made it across the bridge and took a photo for posterity. A Korean man approached me with a map and asked where he was. The poor guy thought he was south of the city, and he was so north, he was actually out of the city. I pointed him to the right direction (a freakin' long bike ride) back to San Fran, and got back on my bike.

The view from the north end of the bridge is just as pretty as it is from the city. I rode on, following my map, to the docks in Sausalito. What a beautiful city. I rode through downtown and finally found the dock area to pick up the ferry back to San Fran. It would be too dark/cold to ride home by bike.

The ferry took us along the bay, so we got yet another perspective of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz Island, the Bay bridge, and the cityscape of San Francisco. We pulled into the main dock area of San Fran and I took my bike out onto the street.

The bike shop dudes told me I had the bike out for 5 hours. My legs corroborated their story, since they felt like Jell-O, but I was thrilled to have that experience. What a great day!!

For dinner, I decided to hit the highly-recommended "Stinking Rose" restaurant. It was a LONG walk from the bike drop-off point, but I had the energy. I walked uphill for what seemed like forever, until I found it. Here's a shot of the front of the place. heh. I ate like a champ there, trying everything garlic... from the garlic soup, to the garlic rabbit (yea, I tried that... it's strange), to the garlic ice cream. I think the garlic ice cream was really just vanilla, but who knows. My pallette was all screwy from the garlic food. heh.

Sunday was pretty uneventful- I went to church (a huge cathedral) and spent the day in the room... I'm doing classwork and blogging here, so that's taking up my day. I'm done with SanFran stuff now anyhow, and tomorrow I hit the road for my first road trip. Redwoods, here I come!

(I'll write in later, but it might be from my place in Hollywood)... until then, peace!