Around the bay in a day.

San Francisco Bay Walk

Not for the armchair traveler but if you have reasonable fitness and a good pair of walking shoes or boots there is no better way to see this city. Our starting point was Sausalito, a very trendy and expensive resort on the north shore. Nothing much to recommend this place except that it's connected to the city by regular ferry services.

We chose to do the walk first and finish with the ferry, it's a good option. By the time you have walked 22 kms. the ferry is a very welcome sight, it also means that you are walking in the opposite direction to the thousands of people who have rented bikes to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and then take the ferry back to the city. Most of the cyclists appear to have never ridden before and most can't decide which side of the shared path they should be on. Add a few idiots on road bikes with whistles in their mouths, riding at full speed on the shared path and you have the recipe for mayhem and possible disaster. There are signs every 50 metres warning that jumping from the bridge can be tragic and possibly fatal but I can see why people would do it to escape the bikes. When I read the sign it reminded me of the movie Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, ''I cant swim!! don't worry the fall will probably kill you''.

Our GPS got confused when we went into Pier 1 to buy our ferry tickets and a late lunch but the actual walking section was approximately 22 kms.this was not the shortest route, we added about 5 kms. around the Bay Bridge looking for the Golden Gate Bridge toll office, we never found it but were able to buy a one way toll pass for our car online when we got back to the hotel, the ferry added another 11 kms.

Sausalito

 

There is a very good walking path via Fort Baker, it's not well signposted but does avoid two busy roads.

The Americas Cup races will be held later this year, the US challenger Oracle looks very mean but how can an event with things so fast take 6 months to decide. While we were there they were trying to work out who the US would beat, those races had been going on for about two months, then the actual cup races would start, should have a decision late 2013.

Lunch consisted of two kids meals from Gotts, Sue had the endless 7UP option while I passed on that and had a beer which cost as much as the two meals. Not much though as they were only $4.59 each plus tax plus tip. Tasted so good.