After a short drive from Lodi which included waiting in a long line of cars and paying a toll, we crossed the Bay Bridge and saw the San Francisco skyline come into view!
We arrived at our next destination which was the San Francisco RV Resort in Pacifica, about 40 miles from downtown San Francisco. Our camping spot had a great view of the Pacific but the spots are
very close together. They manage to crowd a lot of people into a relatively small area. But this is the San Francisco area, and if you look at the high density housing everywhere in this area, it is not surprising that the campground would be the same way. Immediately we notice a change in temperature to chilly and windy. The day ended with a beautiful sunset over the Pacific.
Saturday we decided to do a scenic drive around San Francisco. We debated whether or not to pay the high price to take the sightseeing Hop On, Hop Off bus around San Francisco, but the campground office gave us a map of a self guided 49 mile scenic drive which highlighted famous San Francisco sights and we decided to give it a try. If the drive didn’t give us a good overview of the area, we could always do the bus later. The first stop on the map was Twin Peaks, which provided us with a gorgeous view of the entire San Francisco area. I kept hearing the sound of Tony Bennett singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in my head. It was extremely windy up there and we felt as if we were going to be blown away! We drove through the streets of San Francisco and went to Nob Hill and drove down Lombard Street which is the most crooked street in the world. We actually had to wait in a line of cars to drive down the street. We loved driving through Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Monday we took the BART into downtown San Francisco and rode a streetcar to Fisherman’s Wharf and walked around Pier 39 where we came across a sea lions viewing area with sea lions barking and sunning themselves. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe where Bill picked up a shirt to add to his Hard Rock collection. By the time we headed back to the BART station the streetcars were jammed full and we were sandwiched in like sardines. Just as it seemed as if another person couldn’t possibly fit in the door, one or two squeezed themselves in at each stop and we bumped and jerked our way down to BART. Since traffic is heavy and parking in San Francisco is at least $6.00 an hour, not to mention the price of gas it turned out well for us to ride BART from our campground and take public transportation in the city. Plus, riding the streetcars is fun, even when jam packed!
I really love San Francisco. Are you going to be able to do Napa Valley. When I was there we did a wine train ride to different wineries…it was so fun. Your pictures are amazing, especially walking across the Golden Gate bridge. So lucky to have great weather.