San Francisco, 28-Oct

Our first full day in San Francisco started near Fisherman's Wharf and ended at the Golden Gate Bridge, with plenty of walking throughout. After eating our free breakfast (supplemented with things we got from the store) we set out to buy Muni passes to allow us to make our way around the city. We had hoped to be able to put the pass onto our Clipper cards, but after asking around in multiple places, we decided to just get the paper passes; we can still use the Clipper cards for BART and CalTrain, and they didn't cost us anything.

Boarding the Powell St. cable cars

Our first trip of the day was on the Powell-Hyde cable car which took us a couple blocks from Ghirardelli Square, where we planned on going on a guided walking tour. We were early, so after cruising quickly through the chocolate shop we made our way to the café and enjoyed some sipping chocolate.

Fishing boats

The walking tour was enjoyable and the guide did a great job. We started at Ghirardelli Square, down to Aquatic Park, and worked our way over to Fisherman's Wharf. We walked through some of the Dole canning building and by the fishing boats, off the beaten path. The group was larger than we expected, about 15-20 people, and everyone stuck through to the end.

Boudin bread factory

When the tour was done, we were right at the Boudin Bakery, where we had lunch (clam chowder in bread bowls, of course). Afterwards we went upstairs to go through the museum and got to look down at bread being made. Unfortunately, the tasting room wasn't set up at the end of the tour (it was when I took the tour several years ago) so we went on to find the first bus we needed to get to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge

The bus and transfer went pretty well, and before too long were standing at the gardens on the south side of the bridge. We started across along with many other pedestrians and bikers, and were rewarded with great views. We weren't able to walk all the way across, since the east side was closed a bit after the north tower (the west side was reserved for bikes which wanted to get to Marin).

Container ship leaving San Francisco Bay

Bussing back to the hostel was uneventful, and we settled for fast Thai food for dinner and a quiet evening.