Sunday
The plan is to spend the last few days in San Francisco. We don’t really need a care there so we decide to return it earlier. Easier said than done though, we struggle a bit to find a gas station and then to find out where to return the car… Back to the city by train, we lost half a day with all that but it had to be done, driving around in San Francisco would have been too much of a pain.
We start our visit by the famous golden gate park. We hop on the subway/tramway to get there and have a laugh at the size of the trains in SF, they are like 3 times smaller than in NYC! We walk aimlessly in the park and stumble upon the lake with the paddle boats. Joining the crowd of tourists and escorted by the local birds, we do the mandatory circle around the island for a good hour. We spend most of the afternoon in the park, see the Shakespeare garden, see from afar the twin peaks in the clouds for a change and finally exit at Height-Ashbury. It feels good to walk around without a plan. We stop at local shops for coffee or just to have a look. We pass by Height-Fillmore before arriving at Castro.
There we see a very long line in front of an ancient looking movie theater. They happen to have a mute film festival these days and they have seats left for today. We buy too and go across the street to have a bite before it starts. Yelp advised us a really good Thai that lives up to its expectation. Back to the theater we are treated with 1 Russian short movie about a postman “Pochta”. It’s from the twenties and deliciously soviet/communist :D The other one is a classic Buster Keaton – The navigator, a silly adventure/comedy/love story. Unexpected experience but with the live music it’s really fun to watch a mute film.
Monday
We were not very efficient taking care of lodging so we actually have to start the day by changing hotel. It does not take too long and we’re on our way to rent bikes and visit the jewel of the crown – The Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a typical summer day in San Francisco, on the cold side and overcast! Before reaching the bridge, we stop at the palace of fine arts. This neo-classical construction is a remnant of the 1915 universal exposition. We grab lunch in the area and join the crowd of cyclist on the bridge. It’s windy, chilly but the best way to enjoy the bridge (and the bay!) in all its majesty. We go up to the old fort (best view of the bridge I think) and then on to Sausalito. The bike path follows the bay, mostly away from traffic. We have a few more vista points on the way before reaching the ferry. We close the loop with a ferry ride past Alcatraz and back to the city.
We want seafood tonight. One place to get it is usually on the port (unsurprisingly). It happens that one of the piers is also where a colony of sea lions decided to live. Sensibly, the city decided to let them have that pier. It’s a win-win, the sea lions have their spot and we can watch them from up close. These guys are noisy. You can hear them from far away and the show is really fun. There’s clearly a hierarchy in the group and not everyone is welcome on all the floating pallets. It leads to funny scenes of wrestling amongst sea lions while others just want to sleep. I take a few pictures and we leave them to their internal politics and go eat.