2 weeks in San Francisco

We have had a wonderful two weeks in San Francisco and it is with some sadness we leave this great vibrant city.
We were anchored for the most part in Sausalito which is one of the trendy suburbs of San Francisco and of course is one of the most expensive—why do I only want to live in the most expensive areas of any city I would choose!! Apartments are around $1,000,000 and houses $5 or $6million!! Oh well I guess I will have to be happy with Saltspring.
We were welcomed at the cruising club where we were given a key and could shower at no cost and attended their Friday evenings where dinner is $8 to $12 and they have live music and all cruisers in the area are welcome.
Managed to be here when the annual chili cook off took place where for $5 you could taste all the chili you wanted and vote with the 5 beans you had been issued. Much bribery from the cooks went on, usually in the form of tequila or beer so was hard not to enjoy. It is a laid back friendly community which is a 30 minute bus or ferry ride to downtown San Fran.
Had couple of trips downtown where of course we experienced Fisherman’s Wharf with its buskers and bustling tacky tourist trade, a lot of fun. Pier 39 is a focal point with the colony of resident sea lions entertaining all. Another day we went into Haight Ashbury which is really “out there”. The centre of the drug and gay lifestyles but also touristy and non threatening. Lunched at Cha Cha Cha’s, the tapas bar Kristen and I had gone to on our previous visit. We did walk by a “vapor parlor”?? Anyway the smell coming from there made us think that Ross Regliati (sp?) was justified in saying he just hung around the marihuana guys and must have inhaled their 2nd hand smoke. The rest of the day I dragged Ken all day for miles exploring across the city ending up in China Town where the fruit and veg prices are super cheap.
We had a couple of great bike rides on our new “Bike Friday” bikes which are working out very well. We biked to Tiberon one day which is a nearby, perhaps even more expensive area than Sausalito and on another over the steep hills to Point Bonita lighthouse which we had sailed past on our way from Bodega Bay so was very cool to see it from the land side.
We had met Julia and Jim on Papillion, a 50 foot fancy cat in Canada and enjoyed meeting up with them here. They were moored in Vallejo and came over to Sausalito with their rental car a couple of times here joining us at the chili cook off and driving us up to the redwood forest area. We sailed up to Vallejo which is at the bottom of the Napa Valley and had a day driving up the beautiful valley and tasted many wines—felt like the actors in “Sideways” with the pinot noirs!!! We forsook buying any of the wines at the winery’s as our budget is feeling a little strained and instead went to the amazing discount markets where all wines are cheaper than anywhere else I have ever seen. Julia and I had a great “shopping day” where we hit Costco and various other eclectic markets. She being a gourmet cook was fun to shop with and also of course eat the great dinner she made for us.
We then came back to Angel Island, which is a state park and had a great walk to the top of hills to a panoramic view of the whole of the bay area.
Then back to Sausalito where we are now readying to leave. We will take one more day in San Fran to purchase a new camera. Ours is frustrating us with its lack of a decent telephoto capacity, anyone who has been following our blog site and saw the orca pictures; I have to confess these were taken by Kristen with her awesome camera. We found a great price on the same one and now have decided to “suck it up” and get one too. Can’t be outdone by a daughter!!!
We also have to sample some of the burritos which are apparently famous and a local reporter did a best 10 of the 100 or so he tasted so will seek some out.
Our next stop is Halfmoon Bay which is 20miles down the coast where apparently the tuna are running and Ken hopes to try his luck!! Oh boy more fish!! We will then go on to Monterey for a couple of days, then Morro Bay and down to Santa Barbara and the islands in that area.