In the morning after breakfast, on the spur of the moment, Lynn and I decided to see if we could go by boat to San Francisco. The hotel found us a taxi to take us to Alameda, but en route, the driver suggested that it would be better to catch the ferry from Oakland. The driver, therefore, dropped us off at Jack London Square in Oakland.
We had come across Jack London before whilst we were in the Yukon in Canada. He was an American writer who moved to live in the Yukon for a year for inspiration. He wrote 'Call of the Wild' after this experience. As Oakland, California was his hometown, he also wrote whilst living there. There is a large bronze statue of him looking out across San Francisco bay in the port area of Oakland. Oakland is also a port mentioned several times in my great-grandfathers travels when he was a seaman.
After a wander around, the ferry arrived and we boarded for the 20 minute trip across the Bay. It was a beautiful morning, so we were able to sit outside at the stern of the boat. The port area of Oakland is still very busy and there was a large boat, perhaps a giant ferry, which was transporting cars and goods to and from Hawaii. Oakland is also a huge container terminal as witnessed by the huge numbers of containers stacked on the quays.
As we headed towards San Francisco, we passed under the Bay bridge, a road bridge connecting Oakland to San Francisco. The bridge is in two halves, from the mainland to Yerba Island and from the island on the mainland again. It is a huge bridge and the section from Oakland to Yerba Island is being doubled in size. The trip also afforded us excellent views of Alcatraz Island, site of the notorious prison, now closed. In the distance we could also see the Golden Gate Bridge.
The ferry stopped at the Ferry Buildings on Embarcadero first and then went on to Quay 41, near Fishermans Wharf, where we got off. We had a brief wander around again as it was warmer than the day before before catching a trolley-bus to Stockton Street in China Town. Like all china towns, the streets were lined with Chinese shops and thronged with people. We eventually found our way onto Grant Avenue which was decorated with chinese lanterns. As it was lunchtime, we went looking for food and came across a Vietnamese Restaurant with a table available. The food was excellent and reasonably prices, my noodle meal came in a noodle basket and was extremely tasty.
After lunch I went for a wander around and took some photos, I also came across a small chinese 'orchestra' perfoming on a street corner. From here, we walked on down Grant Avenue, through the China Town arch, to the junction of Market and Geary Streets. Here we caught a bus out to Park Presidio Boulevard and from there another bus to Golden Gate Park.
The park is located at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge and provided great views of the bridge stretching across to the Marin Peninsular. The weather was extremely kind to us and unlike yesterday, we had cloudless skies and no mist! As it was 'Fleet Days' at the weekend, the US Navy were practising their flying display over the bridge, regretably I wasn't fast enough to catch the F-18 flying between the bridge pylons! It is possible to walk or cycle across the bridge, but it is a bit of a hike so I contented myself by walking about 100 yards onto the bridge for more photos.
After looking a the museum and gift shop, we caught another bus which took us to Fort Mason, an old Army base and we walked through the National Recreational Area there to Ghirardelli Square, home to a very famous chocolate factory. The factory is also famous for its icecream parlour! Needless to say, we felt obliged to sample the wares and enjoyed a huge icecream sundae each.
By now it was getting towards evening so we caught yet another trolley-bus back to Market and Powell street and from there the BART train back to San Leandro. We were lucky with transport back to the hotel as another guest had already phoned for the minibus to collect him and we hopped in too when it arrived.
Back at the hotel, the duty manager, who also appeared to be the marketing manager of El Toritos, suggest we eat there as he had some vouchers for tacos and margaritas; both were good!
Hotel - Marina Inn
Weather - Clear skies and sunny with some cloud around. There was a breeze, but not unpleasant, temperatures in high 60s
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