Final days in San Francisco

After a good nights sleep I woke up refreshed to tackle San Francisco.  The biking was fun but today I am focusing on touring the city.

It seems the cheapest way to get around the city is on public transportation (ok walking is probably the cheapest but taking the bus is much quicker).

Our first stop today was for breakfast at Pier 39.  It is a pier (go figure) with lots of shops and lots of restaurants.  We have been here before but we had some time to kill before our tour started so it was a good time to explore.  They have some great views of the city and the famous prison from Pier 39.  

Alcatraz Island.

Looks like Coit Tower in the background.

After breakfast it was off to the Ferry Building.  For some reason there aren't any pictures of the building with me in front of it.  Anyway, the Ferry Building has a big farmers market and lots of good food to sample along the way.

Speaking of food, it's time for lunch.  Off to Chinatown for some Dim Sum.  I tried to get my roommates to stop and get me this duck for lunch but they declined my suggestion. 

The Dim Sum restaurant was more like a cafe but the staff was beary nice and patient with all of my roommates questions about this and that.  Chinatown, and San Francisco for that matter, are beary busy cities.  I consider myself lucky to get a picture of the paper lanterns hanging across the neighborhood.  I also visited a Buddhist Temple but no photos were allowed.   Trust me, it was beary cool. 

Last time we came to San Francisco we wanted to go to the Golden Gate Bakery in Chinatown because it has great desserts.  Last time we tried to go there (in August) it was closed for vacation, well guess what?  It was closed for vacation again!  

Someday it will be open when we visit. 

Sad to say, it's our final day in San Francisco.  We have a late flight so that means we have a full day to explore. Let's go!

We started off with a visit to the Mission Delores.  You can take a self guided tour of the old building, it's from the 1790s which is beary old history on the west coast of the US.  

Inside of the old mission building.

 

A quiet courtyard between the old mission and the basilica.

View of the basilica from the old cemetery.  Beary peaceful.

After the peacefulness of the mission we decided to take a walking tour of the Castro district.  It was an interesting contrast to the mission.  Again I don't know why there are no pictures.  Excuse me while I "discuss" this with my roommates.  

Now that the unpleasantness is over back to our regular scheduled blog.  Next stop is Fisherman's Wharf for a fresh fish sandwich.  They had many touristy shops that we didn't really explore but this bear looks like a cool dude. 

We started walking toward these old ships in the harbor.  Apparently, it's a national park.  How cool is that?  Whoever named this ship is a genius.  After a quick google search it seems that there are lots of vessels named Sea Fox.

As you can see the weather improved today.  The bay is alive with boats.

Interestingly enough we happened to be near a certain chocolate factory.  Luckily, there was some time to explore.  I think we should definitely go into the cocoa building. 

 Oh my, they give out free Ghirardelli chocolate samples.  This place is awesome. 

They have so many different types of candy here. I don't even know where to start and they have a chocolate shop that looks amazing.  I could spend hours here.

San Francisco was so much fun, now back on a bus to our hotel to start our travels back home. 

San Francisco day 2

My roommates decided to take Ryan's advice and rent a bike and travel over the Golden Gate Bridge.  It seemed like a logical idea after all of the food last night at the Tiki Bar.  I am ready for my adventure but might see that I don't have a helmet.  Another demerit for my roommates on their mid-year evaluation.

Along the route we came across some cool looking boats.  My roommates mentioned that we would be taking a ferry back from Sausolito on the other end of the bay.  I wonder if it's going to be fast and sleek like this ferry or

older and more rustic like this boat?

Along the route you could turn around and look at the city.  Even though it was a little cloudy you could still see a good view of the skyline. 

Before we get too far along the route I better see if anyone needs a coffee break.  There was a place that overlooked the harbor which had coffee and donuts.  This donut is the Droopy Special it has maple and bacon which I guess would make a certain dog happy.  

Along the way we stopped at Fort Point which is right under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was an old fort that protected the harbor from invaders.  The whole fort was open and one could explore it fully in an afternoon. 

Right inside the fort.

They built the bridge right over the fort many years ago. 

On the top of the fort looking outward.

Once I crossed the bridge it's all downhill from there. Lunch in Sausolito then a little time to explore before we head back on the ferry.

As you can see I got a prime seat on the ferry.  It's right next to the snack bar and some big windows. 

 The captain earned an A+ on docking.  Little did they know I was watching from my seat making sure we weren't going to hit the dock or any unsuspecting tourists.

Definitely an action packed day.  Perhaps my roommates want to celebrate the nice day with a big cup of hot chocolate, I hear this Ghiradelli place sells some good hot chocolate.  

Welcome to San Francisco!

Hello Blog Pals,
A few days ago I posted about snooping around the house and sneaking into my roommates bag.  Once inside I fell asleep and when I woke up I found out I was in San Francisco California!  Snooping and sneaking around really pays off.

Once we got settled in our hotel room and unpacked we all headed out for an adventure.  Surprisingly my roommates weren’t too upset with me for sneaking around, of course my half yearly annual review of them is coming up soon so perhaps that had something to do with their cheery attitude.

This trip we were very reliant on public transportation and our feet.  Our first destination was the Mission District.  Before we could go there our street car let us off in front of the US Mint.  We didn’t go in and ask for any free samples (I am sure that happens way too much) but I did get my picture snapped in front of it.  They have lots of fences around the building (kind of makes sense when you think about it).

Along our way to the Mission District we passed the Old Mission Delores and an awesome park with great views of the downtown area.

The Mission District is known for their street art and murals.  I don’t know why but we don’t have any pictures of the murals but if Beanie is ever to visit San Francisco this is the area to go.  There were full alleys painted with murals and you could watch the artists creating new ones as well.  The Mission District has some great dining options.

After our adventures in the Mission we decided to head back and rest a bit.  Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.  Where are we going?  Denny’s?  McDonald’s?  Taco Bell (oh wait we had Mexican food already today).  No, we’re off to the Fairmont.  A beary fancy hotel.   

We didn’t eat in the fancy (and expensive) lobby restaurant but instead we went to the Tiki Bar.  Apparently, they transformed their swimming pool into a Tiki Bar (complete with indoor rain storms every 15 minutes). 

My dinner of chicken wings, egg rolls (not sure how Polynesian those are) and cilantro noodle salad was beary good.  Of course I had to round out my dinner with a fancy island drink (Mai Tai).  Well, it was a beary long day but certainly worth it, San Francisco has so much for a little fox to do I wonder what is on tap for the next few days??????

Snooping around the house

The last couple of days my roommates have been a little too secretive for my taste.  For example, they called a dog sitter, cleaned up the house, did some extra laundry and made sure Sequoia has plenty of extra dog chow.

Sequoia and I are a little concerned that they might be taking a trip without us so we decided to snoop around a little.  Sequoia volunteered to keep watch on the door.  He is supposed to bark twice if my roommates comes near.

I came across a large bag with a TSA lock on it.  I can't believe this, they are traveling on a plane and there has been no discussion of taking me.  Humph, I will show them. 

Shh, I think this pocket will fit me perfectly.  Bon Voyage. 

Bridge Bike Trip

Hello Blog Pals,
I know it’s only been a week but I feel like I have been slacking on the blog posts.  Well, that is about to change readers.  This week instead of the regular hiking I got to take a tour of bridges on a bike.  Do any of my stuffy friends have bikes that are their size.  This bike is way too big for me (probably best for Uncle Tibbs) but I am going as a passenger, not a rider so I think it will be OK.

We traveled over about 7 bridges.  Some of them are brand new (could not stop on the new bridge) and others have been around since the stone ages.  The first stop is on the Marquam Bridge build in the 60s for freeway traffic.  It’s a 4 lane highway bridge only open to bikers today.  As you can see I have lots of options to travel.  Hmm, if I go to the airport I can see more of my stuffy friends and if I go North to Seattle I can go to cool places like Pike Place Market and the Space Needle.  Such tough decisions for a little fox.

The new bridge is in the background.

Do you see me hiding in the corner?  I didn’t want to fall off of these bridge so I tried to stay low to the ground.  This is the Burnside Bridge facing North; it’s a pretty nice day today.

Burnside Bridge facing downtown.

The next stop is the Fremont Bridge, another 4 lane freeway closed today for the event.  This bridge is the sister bridge to the Marquam, both built in the 60s and both built for freeway traffic.

I definitely stayed near the guard rail (don’t want to fall) and got some pictures of downtown.  Looks like they are building some big buildings, perhaps one of those will  become an exclusive stuffy social club?

There were lots of bikers out today.  I heard someone say over 20,000 people attended today, but I want to know how many stuffies attended.  Give me some facts I could use.  At the end of the event they had ice cream and I decided to treat myself to a chicken kabob and rice for lunch.  I figured I earned it.

Finally, a proper adventure...

It seems that all of my blog pals have been posting about great hikes, psychological breakthroughs, and taking driving lessons.  I realized that life is not all about lobbying for Stuffie Rights (although beary important) so I wrangled my crew for a short camping trip.

It's been unbearibly hot lately so we decided to go to a part of the state that is even hotter.   Did I mention it was hot?  Well, it was in case you didn't know.  The first day of our trip we decided to hike up to a place called 4 in 1 cone.

The trail started out in the woods and it was beary comfortable (of course it was 7:15am).

There was lots of lava rock along the trail.

I spy a mountain in the distance. 

Sequoia is raring to go but I prefer to rest and enjoy the view.

I am beary curious about this rock.

Ahh, made it to the top.  The views are amazing.  I believe this is North Sister and Middle Sister.

 Ohh, overhere is Mt Washington and possibly Three Finger Jack. This looked like a spot for a great early lunch. ter and Middle Sister.

After relaxing at the campground we decided to head out for some ice cream and a bag of ice (did I mention it was hot?). 

The flowers were beautiful and sadly I didn't see any beezzzzzz (sorry Jerry and Ben).   There were lots of friendly bears at this place as well.

I don't know if I should be excited about a honey flavored syrup or sad that they are kind of trying to pass this off as honey.  Although I must admit I like the name since It's the same as my bearista bear friend Little Bear

The next day we headed out again and it was not as hot today.  We wanted to explore a trail along the McKenzie River that led us to a place called Tamolich Pool.  Along the way I saw some more lava rocks. 

 

The river is far below.  I hope my roommates don't try and float me down this river in a homemade boat a-la Sandy's experience. 

 Ahh, made it to Tamolich pool, aka blue pool. It really was that blue. 

Sequoia was excited to be at the blue pool as well, one might say so excited he could not stand still.

After the blue pool we headed back home.  Stopped for lunch PB&J and got back in time to air out the house.