Again we were up at 6am, and after getting sorted we wandered down Beach Street (which doesn't have a beach) to the Beach Street Grill, great breakfast of Corned Beef Hash, Eggs and Toast. We had passed the Avis office getting to breakfast but they had not quite opened, but they were there as we walked back and with the paperwork done we headed on to Blazing Saddles. I had seen this company on someone elses trip report (sorry can't remember your name) and loved the sound both of cycling over the bridge and the name.
We arrived at 8:45 and were quickly fitted out with helmets, and bikes. I went of the standard Hybrid model, and Celia fearing the hills went for an Electric assisted bike. This has an electric motor and battery to help with hills, but you do still need to peddle. By just after 9am we were walking our bikes down the hill to the start of the Bike route.
The route heads out over Fort Mason, which is a slight uphill and the first time when as I was struggling but still moving uphill, I had Celia zip by with a slight wave. She did wait for me at the top of this hill and we continued down into the Marina district. The ride along the bay is lovely and as it was still early (before 9:30) there were few people around even on a Saturday.
After 30 mins we made it to the Warming Hut near Fort Point, where we stopped for some water and a decision on where we were going.
As the bikes do come with locks we decided to head to the Walt Disney Family Museum. This did involved another hill climb so again I was zoomed past, but I made it up Long Ave and Lincoln Blvd to the Presidio.
For any Disney fan, the Walt Disney Family Museum is a must do in San Francisco. This is dedicated place looking at Walt the man, it starts with a room filled with trophys, medals and awards that Walt was given during his life, including more Oscars than you can believe are in one place. You then go through a couple more rooms on the ground floor showcasing the Disney family and Walt's early life, until you get into an elevator and move upstairs to when Walt moved to Hollywood.
Upstairs is more of the history that is well known, the Alice comedies, the invention of Oswald and then Mickey Mouse, adding Sound and Colour to animation. The Multi-plane camera, into Snow White. They don't hide the animators strike or the propaganda they worked on during the war, and move on to the later movies and the growing family until suddenly you find a simple green bench, with a lovely few of the Golden gate bridge.
This is one of the old benches that Walt used to sit on in Griffith Park whilst he watched his daughters ride on the Carousel, and from there there is only one place to go...........
DISNEYLAND
The room on Disneyland is dominated by a full model of just rides and attractions in Disneyland that Walt personally worked on, to some degree.
The price is worth it just for this model and I could have spent hours taking in all the detail, but after the joy and wonder of this room, we move into the next one......
and then after 1 more bright room look at his legacy we were out, not straight into the gift shop but a small area with a small cafe, and the gift shop. After a quick snack of fruit and water and a wander around the gift shop we left the museum and got back on our bikes and headed for the bridge. In the end we were in the museum proper for about an hour but if you read every thing it would take days. If I ever make it back to San Francisco it will be on my list of things to do again.
The ride to the bridge from the Museum only included 1 little hill right as you go from the bike path onto the bridge. Now it was a little later the paths were much more busy.
Just after the bridge is a great twisting downhill, but I would not want to have to try and cycle back up on this side.
But you do get some great views of the bridge
The rest of the ride to Sausalito is quite hilly and you need to be fit to keep getting up the hills especially as the heat of the day was now in force as it was 12:45 by the time we road into Sausalito, checking the ferry times we realised that we had no time to look around if we wanted to get the next ferry, but the one after that was at 3pm, and two hours seemed to use up most the rest of the day. So we joined the queue. Actually a ferry to the ferry building was first, which we could not use due to the Electric bike so we found ourselves almost first on the Blue and Gold ferry.
Arriving back at Pier 41, we found somewhere to lock up the bikes and feeling hungry headed to Pier 39 for some food, We tried Fog Harbour Fish house near the entry to the pier and especially for a tourist area the food was really good and not to expensive, we got a window view and could see the seals basking in the sun.
After lunch we wandered around Pier 39 for a while, getting a better view of the Seals.
Leaving the Pier we grabbed our bikes and headed back to the main blazing saddles location to return them, from there we walked along North Point Street to Ghirardelli square in the hope of getting a Sunday, but it was a Wine tasting weekend and the place was packed, we grabbed some chocolate and headed back to towards the hotel, where there was a Ben and Jerry's.
We got back to the room at 4pm and had dinner reservations at 7:30, so after some downtime, I had a look on google and saw that we could get a public bus from North Point Street to Chestnut Street where the restaurant was and the cycling map showed Chestnut Street shops, so about 5:30 we headed to the bus stop with the hope that we could work out where to get off. The bus was 2 dollars each and is a great way to see a city as a local.
We got to Chestnut street around 6 but that was the time that shops were starting to close, we did have a good look around Williams Sonoma which is a great foodie shop and we got some nice rubs to bring home. We also found an Apple store so Celia offered to get my birthday present (which is in June) which is a new Ipod touch 64Gb as they are so much cheaper over in the USA. We spent some time in the store as the free Wifi allowed me to start to set up the Ipod and download some apps.
It was finally time for our reservation at Mamacita, which is a Mexican restaurant. As we walked in the couple in front of us were told it was an hour wait, which does make the reservation feel like a good idea. The Food was brilliant but very filling. It is supposed to be a sharing menu, but with Celia's intolerances to Wheat gluten and Dairy. We end up ordering too much food, but we really recommend the Jicama salad and the Enchiladas were very good but filling.
After dinner we got the bus back to the hotel and got some sleep, we were thinking that we might head to watch the bay to breakers but after the full on 3 days so far and especially the effort in the cycling today we decided against it, we would check out, grab some breakfast and head off to get the next car - The first convertible.
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