Great San Francisco Day!

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Dan from Necessary Roughness, as my husband and I gave him a tour of San Francisco. I like the Dan, and we had a great time buzzing around the city, hitting the neighborhoods and highlights. The weather was perfect, as the fog burned off by the time we hit town. Taking the wheel of the Halliburton rental car, I started our tour at Dolores Park, for our picnic lunch. Then it was on to the upper Castro neighborhood, with the Sanchez hill, lower Castro, Divisadero/Fell, and out to the ocean by the Cliff House.

The ocean water twinkled in the sunlight today, such a beautiful sight. Wind surfers were out on the waves, and there were some good white caps for riding. The next stop was Sea Cliff, a very high end neighborhood along the water. Most of the houses there are French townhouse style, or Spanish inspired, with small lots. Robin Williams has a larger estate on a corner in this section. An entrance to Baker Beach provided a postcard perfect picture, with the water's edge in front of the Golden Gate bridge. I could swear this beach was/is the nude beach, or the gay beach, but luckily (?) nothing like that was going on. Unless Dan finds something interesting when he pulls up his photos.

Next was the Presidio and it's military cemetery. This area is gorgeous, right next to the Golden Gate entrance route. The cemetery is quite large, and kept up well. A quiet and respectful place for our soldiers, which you wouldn't expect in the current day San Francisco. The cemetery is set on a hillside, surrounded by trees and coastline.

Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf was our following location, with all the insanity of the usual boardwalk in America. Food, trinkets, noise, and sugar! Although we just cruised through on foot, with Dan taking pictures of Alcatraz at the end of the pier. Fisherman's Wharf has the antique Mechanical Museum, a display of the old coin arcade games and view finders. Plus a bit of Skeeball. Which I unfortunately have lost my talent for, at least with one game.

More walking, driving past our AT&T Ballpark, and then a quick tour of the Mission. Dan and I finished the day with a beer and cider at Vesuvio's in North Beach, the Italian neighborhood. Some pasta, Italian cookies, and more walking. And me bumping into Dan, because the guy is a giant. I felt like an ant next to him. When someone is 6'4", I spend a lot of time talking to their stomach!

It's enjoyable to do the city with a tourist, when I have the energy and the weather is good. So many areas that I never looked closely at before, or at least in many years. I haven't seen the ocean in so long, probably a year! That's too long.

Thanks, Dan, for being such a great guest. It was fun hanging out with you!