What is there to say about today? As Jason just put it, “Ass whooped”. We have a tradition when we come to San Francisco. We always spend a day riding a rented bicycle all over town. Today we continued that tradition – WITH AUTHORITY! A 30+ mile bike ride which included a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge, riding through 3 different cities and I think we may have actually climbed every hill on the San Fran peninsula – twice.
Here’s a map of our adventure.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103005025912010123926.000489444180173bed887&ll=37.843953,-122.4646&spn=0.189782,0.291824&z=11&output=embed
We fueled up for the bike ride at Lori’s Diner first. 2 eggs, over easy, bacon, hash browns and the best pancake I’ve ever eaten. Yum.
From there it was 9 miles over the Golden Gate to the town of Sausalito where we ate at Fish & Chips where we had…you guessed it…fish and chips. They were good. The batter was nice and cripsy. The chips were just okay but over all a solid meal.
More biking, 9 more miles, to Tiburon, where we discovered our new favorite San Fran area dining location, Sam’s Cafe. We just wanted to sit and have a drink while we waited for the ferry to arrive but the food looked too good to pass up so we ordered mussels and crab cocktail. It was absolutely fantastic.
At 3:00 p.m. we got on the ferry and started the trip back across the bay to San Francisco. The ferry was cold. Very windy. But fun!
Jason got the hair-brained idea that we should ride to Golden Gate Park after the ferry ride so we got back on the bikes and went another 11 miles down the Embarcadero to Mission Street where we were pedaled for our lives trying to dodge traffic. From Mission Street we just followed the signs…the ones that pointed straight uphill. Ouch.
Once we got to Golden Gate Park we decided that it was getting late and time to head back but not before taking care of one last San Francisco tradition…biking down Lombard Street. The unfortunate thing about biking down Lombard is that you have to get UP Russian Hill first. It was worth it though. The ride down was fun and I even risked life and limb to take a video!
After we returned our bikes and limped back to the hotel we changed clothes and went to Washington Square Bar & Grill where we had some marginal crab cakes but a kick butt burger with…are you ready for this…DUCK FAT FRIES. Double yum.
A short cab ride later and we were back to the hotel and about 10 seconds later, in bed, asleep.