Current Location: Alameda County Fairgrounds RV Park, Pleasanton, CA

This morning we got up pretty early and headed out the door just before 7:00 AM. We drove the truck a couple miles up the road and parked at the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station, bought tickets and rode the BART train all the way in to San Francisco. That definitely was the way to go. It took about as long as driving would have and we didn’t have to hassle the busy downtown streets in the dually, let alone find an appropriate (and expensive) place to park. All told, we paid about $33 for the three of us to ride out and back.

We took all the warnings about the weather there seriously and were dressed in walking shoes, long pants, long sleeve shirts and jackets. We wore our jackets most all day (Malcolm shed his a couple of times, but ended up putting it back on). The first order of business was hopping on the California line cable car and riding from Drumm Street all the way to the other end of the line, then back to where the tracks crossed Powell Street. We hopped off there and waited for the Hyde/Bay car to pick us up and take us to Fisherman’s Wharf. We bought all day passes for the cable cars at $42 for the three of us, which saved paying $6 every time we got on (we would have paid $30 apiece since we rode five different segments).

Fisherman’s Wharf

Once at Fisherman’s Wharf, we walked down to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, but it wasn’t quite open yet. We wandered through a gift shop and browsed for a bit, then returned once it was open. We didn’t carry our National Park Passport Book with us, but we got some stamps on slips of paper to stick in it later. We wandered down the pier and looked at the boats from the pier, but didn’t pay to go inside them. Very interesting history. There were good views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island from the pier.

Golden Gate bridge from afar.

Alcatraz from afar.

We wandered around some more shops and ran across a cool old penny arcade collection at the Musee Mechanique (there should be some accents on those letters, but oh well). We got a handful of quarters and Malcolm and David ran around playing games and enjoying the old devices. We then wandered down the pier with a submarine and battleship. We didn’t tour either one, but they looked interesting.

After wandering up the street some more, we decided to eat lunch at The Franciscan Crab Restaurant, downstairs, where Malcolm had an excellent Fishwich and Val and David enjoyed baked mac and cheese dishes.

After lunch, we bought tickets to ride the Bridge 2 Bridge tour on the Red and White Fleet boat. While we waited for our boat to leave, we wandered around Pier 39 and visited a few of the shops there. We also wandered across the street to Boudin Bakery to sample some of their famous sourdough bread. We didn’t buy any, however (we still have some Amish bread in the freezer from Indiana).

Malcolm and David enjoying the Piano Stairs at Pier 39

The Piano Stairs from a distance

The boat trip was fascinating. They gave you headsets and a receiver that you carried with you and listened to a narrated tour. A lot of neat history in San Francisco and the area. The boat traveled out to the Golden Gate bridge, went under it and turned around, then passed by the far side of Alcatraz Island, then circled under the Oakland Bay Bridge before heading back to dock.

Passing by Alcatraz

San Francisco skyline

Oakland Bay Bridge

After our boat ride, we went back over to Pier 39 and had some crepes at the Crepe Cafe upon the recommendation of our daughter, who had been there before. They were delicious.

Crepes

After the crepes, we decided to walk back up the wharf to where we got off the cable cars so we could ride back to our BART station. When we got there, we found a huge line waiting to ride the cable cars. We waited with everyone else. It took over an hour and a half before we got on a cable car and started back from where we came.

Roundtable at the cable car station

View out the front window

We rode back to Drumm Street (end of the line) and found a place to eat dinner at Ziggy’s Burgers. We wanted something fairly quick, but not fast food, and Ziggy’s delivered. Plus, it gave us time to rest our feet.

Once dinner was done, we got back on the BART train to Pleasanton, hopped in the truck and headed back to the campground, filling the truck with fuel on the way ($4.39 a gallon). Tomorrow, we head on to the San Diego area.