The Grand Tour...Day 3 in San Francisco!

[charly77]

We didn’t really have anything planned for the day today, we kept it clear so we could catch up with anything we had missed or wanted to do again. However we did have a baseball game booked for tonight!

As we wanted to leave early tomorrow (picking up the car at 8am) we packed as best as we could, we used packing cubes for this trip and so far so good! What’s nice about them is that everyone takes charge of their own clothes.

After breakfast we walked up to the Sheraton as this is where we are to pick up the car tomorrow, we loved the outside fire pits! DH checked in Dollar car hire that they had our booking which they confirmed so he was happy.

So what to do today? All we knew is that we wanted to see the Yoda statue at the Lucas Film Campus in Presido. We had been in contact with another Dibber ‘andreab’ who was doing a similar trip to us at the same time and she had mentioned they had cycled the Golden Gate Bridge the day before… I mentioned this to DH who seemed keen, DD and DS were up for it too! Off we went to Blazing Saddles to get us some bikes! They were great here, the workers were all Irish over in San Francisco working their summer, what a great idea DD certainly took note of this! We picked up our bikes after a little safety video and off we set. We walked down the steep hill towards the Aquatic Park by the Maritime Museum, first we got photos (of course!) and then we set off towards the bridge!

We cycled towards Fort Mason obtaining some great views.

We were near The Palace of Fine Arts so popped in again as we felt we didn’t fully appreciate its beauty whilst on Dylan’s Tour. We had to walk the bikes around which was fine, it was certainly worth a return visit.

We took a bit of a detour here and headed towards Presido Park, we were all (well, all except DD) wanting to visit the Lucas Film HQ and see our friend Yoda. We eventually found it after discovering Starbucks by the Google HQ first. The grounds here were beautiful, it’s so nice to sit back and appreciate your surroundings sometimes. DH spotted some Hummingbirds darting above a tree so he went off to try and get some photos, he failed but was buzzing that he had seen them.

Anyway back to Yoda, it was so cool, just sat in the middle of a water feature, Fantastic! The HQ was great too, we went into the reception area where they had lots of artefacts on show and the staff were so kind answering any questions and taking our photos, definitely worth a visit! DD discovered free Wi-Fi so she stayed outside with the bikes!

From here we headed to Crissy Field, we cycled the shoreline of San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in our sights! It was such a lovely cycle. It is here I would say don’t forget to apply sun cream! Although it was not scorching it was very breezy and we were very aware of windburn…

We make it up to the bridge, the last bit was rather strenuous! It was also rather busy with people which made it quite tricky to cycle so we walked up and DS sped up like a crazy kid, love to know where he gets his energy from sometimes. We decided to cycle some of the bridge to say we’ve done it but we were conscious of the time and making it to the game tonight!

We head back cycling past the Walt Disney museum which looked really cool but we couldn’t stop unfortunately. We were all getting peckish so decided to grab some lunch, we locked our bikes up at Fisherman’s Wharf and headed into Boudins. Our luck was in, a table became available just outside so we snapped that up. I had the clam chowder and the others had chilli in a bread bowl. All was very, very nice!

Bellies full we went back to the hotel, locked the bikes up in the car park and went in to freshen up and to get our layers on for tonight game! One thing we were all desperate to do was to go on a cable car, it’s like the done thing in San Francisco isn’t it? There was a Blazing Saddles up by the turning point for the Cable Cars so we dropped the bikes off and went to join the queue for a car. It seems everyone had the same idea today… The queue was ludicrous however we had plenty of time so thought we’d stick it out. It was soooo cold, I’m not kidding, if it had snowed I wouldn’t have been surprised.

We eventually get on a car, no way were we going to stand on the outside so we get a seat inside the cab. It cost $7 per person and if I’m honest it was great fun and we were all happy we had experienced it. We got off at Powell Street and walked from here to the AT&T Park which took around 20 minutes.

We found our seats first then we headed back to the info booth as a friend had informed me that you can get a certificate if it was your first visit. Once we had received that we headed back to our seats eyeing up the food choices on our way. Not a huge array of choice, mainly hot dogs, chicken tenders and chips but many different vendors to choose from.

We waited for the game to get started before getting food as we were hoping the queues would die down…famous last words. We watched the first two innings and then left the kids to enjoy the game. Typically whilst we were in the longest queue yet SF Giants scored two runs (the only runs of the whole game!)

We purchased 3 hot dogs, 1 chicken tenders, 1 plain chips, 1 garlic chips, 2 soft drinks and 2 beers, have a guess at how much that cost…
$112! I kid you not… DH had to scoop my chin up off the floor. One of our most expensive meals and certainly the most expensive fast food we experienced in the US on this trip. The thing that annoyed me most was that the beer wasn’t even a full pint!

I will add the food was very nice, especially the garlic chips. When the kids asked for a Ghirardelli hot chocolate as they were so cold we opted to leave rather than find out the cost To be honest the game was quite boring, the best bits happened whilst we were queuing for the food

We used the Uber app and requested a pick up. The road was closed outside the park so I’m glad we had the car registration and a map so we could flag our driver down. It was a speedy ride back to the hotel, again another thumbs up for Uber! We watched the end of the game all tucked up in our warm beds.

Final score; Washington Nationals 4 v SF Giants 2

Steps Walked; 10,298

Miles Cycled; 10 miles approx.

Floors climbed; 48

*Tip of the Day…Use packing cubes, an absolute god send! *

[tartan tink]

Another great day x

[Melbatb]

Eek at the food prices for in the stadium!

Sounds like a lovely day though!

[tocpe321]

Great day. Love the bike hire. Presume you book for x hours and they give you an idea where you can get to etc?

Don't think I'll go to a ball game and certainly not buy snacks!

I had heard SF can get cold even in the summer. We better take jumpers.

[mick]

That food was expensive we went to SF late June a few years ago and as you say really cold, we were surprised.

Joan

[Guest]

I only have to see a Boudin's bread soup bowl full of chowder and I'm back in San Francisco, my favourite US city. Glad you all had a great day and especially at Lucasfilms.

[andreab]

Great to read. It's like re-living our holiday all over again. X

[charly77]

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Great day. Love the bike hire. Presume you book for x hours and they give you an idea where you can get to etc?

Don't think I'll go to a ball game and certainly not buy snacks!

I had heard SF can get cold even in the summer. We better take jumpers.

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Yes we just booked for a day as it seemed the best option and I believe we got a discount by booking online...they were a great company and good quality bikes and equipment too.
blazingsaddles/san-francisco

[charly77]

Originally Posted by andreab

Great to read. It's like re-living our holiday all over again. X

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That's exactly why I'm doing it! I need to remember it all

[charly77]

Originally Posted by geoffa

I only have to see a Boudin's bread soup bowl full of chowder and I'm back in San Francisco, my favourite US city. Glad you all had a great day and especially at Lucasfilms.

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Its funny as I hear really mixed reviews about SF, I absolutely loved it and would go back in a heartbeat. Just wished they would turn the heating up...