09/17/2011, San Francisco
Monday morning came, and I have to admit, I didn't sleep very well last night. You see, we were going into the city, San Francisco and I was excited because I get to go along!! I have never been here, and Jeanne and Tom told me that we are going to do some really cool stuff!
The first thing we did was walk up to the bus stop that is right here near the marina. We were only waiting a few minutes, and along came a bus to pick us up. We have the boat in at Treasure Island, in a cove that that is part of an island, in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. There is a really big bridge, the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge that touches down on our island, so we can catch the bus and then it climbs a hill to get on the bridge going into town. My first bus ride, my first really big bridge...this day is going to be so cool!
Once we get into town, and get off the bridge, we started to walk toward the water front. The buildings are really tall here...some times I can't even see the tops. When we got down to the waterfront, we still had a pretty long walk, so Jeanne said that we needed to catch a ride on the trolleys that run along the waterfront. They are really old, and cool looking, so we catch a ride all the way down the road, called the Embarcadero, until we got to Pier 39.
Our first stop was the Aquarium by the Bay. We got to walk through this really big glass tube, that was inside the water. There were all kind of fish and rays and sharks all around us!! I tried to get close to them, but for some reason, they were afraid of me...what ever could that be all about? We also were supposed to get to see an octopus, but all we got to see was a big statue of one. Tom said that it was just about the same size as the one he caught when we were up at Sucia island. I didn't get to see that one, so I was pretty bummed. Oh well, one of these days I will. I did get to meet a lady who was showing us how to pet the sharks and rays, but Jeanne wouldn't let me!! Said I would get all wet...duh..isn't that what it was all about? Before we left, I got to hold a shark though, but he wasn't wet!
After the aquarium, we went down to look at the rest of the Pier 39 area. There are a lot of really cool shops there, and you can see all the way out to Alcatraz island. That looks like a scary place, especially since it used to be a prison where they kept the really bad guys!!
Then we came to the coolest shop ever!!! Lefty's!! It was a shop that had my name all over it. There were Lefty pens, Lefty cups, books about Lefty and even some really awesome shirts. One of the shirts said "Lefty Rules".
After all this walking we needed to get some food, at right there in the middle of all this was, The Eagle Cafe. The food was excellent, and Tom said it was one of the best Bacon Blue Cheese Burgers he had ever had. Almost as good as the ones at the Elliot bay Brew Pub, back in Burien.
Then we stopped into a really huge place that was full of nothing but chocolate. Every kind you could imagine. We only bought a few things, but I guess they are for later tonight after dinner. Jeanne said something about really good dark chocolate, with nuts and chewy caramel. The sign said they were turtles, but they don't look like the turtles I saw in the Aquarium.
Then we got to go for a boat ride...like we hadn't done that before. I guess we had free tickets so we went, and we got to go out under the Golden Gate Bridge again. We all got very excited when we were going under the bridge, and there was a boat sailing out in front of us. It was our friends on SV Pearl. They are going to go to Mexico too, and wanted to get going so they already left. We will get to see them later when we catch up.
When we got back to shore, we walked some more and got to see a submarine, and a really big battleship. Then we went into the building that was full of really old, very cool arcade games. I got to play with a couple of them, and Tom and I played Pirates of The Caribbean pinball. We had a lot of fun. I even got to ride a pony!! It was a plastic pony, and took quarters, but it sure was fun.
By now we were getting pretty thirsty, so we stopped at Starbucks, and had a small drink, Tom used his computer to send out a couple of e-mails, because we don't have e-mail while we are in the anchorage.
OK..I am tired now and need a nap! That was a very busy day, but I had SOOOO much fun!! I can't wait til tomorrow. I don't know what we are going to do, but we have so much fun every day out here on our adventure!!
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09/16/2011, Downtown San Francisco
Taking advantage of the City Pass we purchased last week, we headed back into the city yesterday. Boy, did we get our money's worth out of that little coupon book! We headed out to The Exploratorium, and the Palace of Fine Arts, a ride on the cable car- for Lefty, a quick trip through the Rice-a-Roni museum and a visit to the SF Museum of Modern art! Stay tuned for Lefty's take on the day! He was a 'ham' at several of our stops! See him hanging with the greek godess's!
We're anchored in Clipper Cove on Treasure Island right in the middle of what will be the 'dragon boat' races for the next two days! We've been watching them set up the race course and a few boats out practicing. So, far, there's one other boat anchored nearby, so we may have front row seats of the finish line, right off of our bow! The races start at 8am, and from the sounds of the loudspeakers on shore, we'll be up well before that. The race course hugs the shoreline and of course is the route we need to take to safely get out of this harbor on Sunday morning! Weather permitting, we're heading for Half Moon Bay, then later in the week to Santa Cruz to hopefully meet up with some Seattle and Oregon buddies.
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Thanks again for the kind words. :)
09/14/2011, Clipper Cove
Way back in late July, while we were in Jones Island, in the San Juan's, we got to meet a great couple, who upon sailing into the bay, had just about everything that could go wrong, do so. But they did it with such...well humor, that we felt compelled to lend them a hand. Since then we have gotten to know Bryn and Cierra much better, and they are just great people. They have such great attitudes about life and having a good time.
When we heard that Cierra was going to be in the San Francisco, we sure hoped that we would be able to catch up with her. This afternoon, she drove to Treasure Island along with her daughter, Julieanna (I hope I spelled this right) Her grams and friend Al. After a great lunch together at the marina bar and grill, we took a run out to the boat. Julieanna got to meet Lefty, and they were best friends right off! There were flying lessons, a rousing game of hide and seek, and a short nap together.
It was so great to see Cierra, and meet her family today! We really cherish the many friends that we have met out here on this adventure, and she is with out a doubt gem!
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09/13/2011, Clipper Cove
We are anchored in Clipper Cove, on the south side of Treasure Island. This is for the most part a man made island. In the mid 1930's the shallows east of Yerba Buena Island were filled in order to form an island that would be used to host a world fair and celebrate the completion of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges! This filling caused a cove to be formed, that has great protection from the winds in the bay, and still have great views of the city. It has been predominatley a military area until 1997, when the goverment pulled out, and returned the island to the city.The anchorage is free with a permit being required.
There is going to be a huge day of Dragon Boat racing here on Saturday, and then we are going to plan on heading down the coast, weather permiting
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09/12/2011, San Francisco
We took advantage of the city pass we bought, and took in as many of the sights as we could today, as the sun was out, the wind was down, and there was no fog!!
We did the down town Aquarium (a disapointment) and walked around to most of the other major sights.
The coolest thing was when we decided to take our free one hour tour of the bay and get to go under the Golden Gate Bridge, again. Now the trip it self was some what of a bore, but just as we go to the bridge, we looked up, and who do we see sailing under......none other than SV PEARL!! Unfortunately, we did not really get a good picture while they were close to the bridge, but we certainly did get a few close up's after they went under and some after they were on the other side. As soon as we catch up with them, now that they got a head start down the balace of the coast, we will print out a couple of the good ones out as post cards for them, but for now, the picture above will have to do.
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Tom. Get a good night's sleep, Lefty. There's more to come.
09/12/2011, Treasure Island
We had a great run from the Clipper Yacht harbor in Sausalito, to Clipper Cove on treasure Island. The wind was a steady 18 knots, the seas were pretty flat, and we got to sail around, and sometimes in with the Rolex Big Boats that were racing.
We were cruising right along at 7-7 1/2 knots, sailed right past Alcatraz Island, and then ran into a wall of racing boats. We had to gybe the boat and run right through one of the groups of boats, all of them on a close hauled tack.
We are going to go into the city tomorrow, so I am sure we will have a story or two from that adventure!!
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