An unexpected journey

We had a terrible sleep last night - delayed jetlag? - both being wide awake at 2am and struggling to get back to sleep so that we had a later start to the day than anticipated.  Woke about 9 and Larry went downstairs and begged tea and toast from the breakfast room and brought it back to our room for me to have in bed.  We hit the road about 10.15 and caught the Powell-Hyde cable car down to Fishermans Wharf.  A much busier affair today than when we caught it on day one - we were packed like sardines and people hanging off every side.

Made our way to 'Blazing Saddles' bike hire and, having had an electric bike on Rottnest and appreciating their hill climbing abilities, hired a couple of those for the day.  Another beautiful warm sunny day and the fog stayed away today although it was a bit smoggy instead.  We cycled along the bay with many photo stops and at one point I put my foot down on the grassy edge and nearly trod on a gopher coming out of his hole - so cute!

We stopped at the Warming Cafe for a coffee and to appreciate the bridge view yet again.

Then put our electric bikes to good use and literally hurtled up the hill to the bridge ringing our bells at all the plebs on their normal bikes who were getting off to push.  Jenny felt very smug indeed as she zipped past much younger folk huffing and puffing!  Larry was behind and saw the faces on the people, they were incredulous that Jenny was going straight past all of them doing it easily.They had the last laugh though as you are required to turn the battery off when crossing the bridge due to the requirement to stop and start suddenly and not go too fast and the gradual incline and the heavy bike meant some actual serious cycling was required for a while!

Made it to the other side without issue and stopped at Vista Point to enjoy the vista (well duh!) and to eat our picnic (basically the second half of our lunch rolls from yesterday). 

We then hurtled down the hill and into Sausalito which is lovely little village albeit a bit touristy twee and with some lovely houses overlooking the water from the side of the hills.  We stopped at the Joinery Cafe for a drink (I had a very interesting maple cream soda, Larry a craft beer) and some 'dirty fries' - fries with pork crackling chopped through - interesting but a bit too greasy really.   We looked at the map and decided to keep going along the bike path for a bit longer as it was such a lovely day and the electric bikes made pedaling so easy.   So the unexpected journey was that rather than catch a ferry from Sausalito back to the city we instead cycled all the way around the edge of bay to Tiberon.  It was great as probably 90% of the tourists on bikes stopped at Sausalito so we had the bike paths pretty much to ourselves and we rode past 'villages' of house boats, flash condominium communities, some seriously expensive looking houses on the waters edge behind fancy gates, schools with ovals full of soccer playing children and so on. 

We eventually got to Tiberon and found that the next ferry wasn't due for about an hour so we locked up the bikes and headed off down Tiberon's famously short main street and looked at some quaint little shops and cafes before sitting overlooking the water with a black cherry and choc chip icecream.  The ferry rocked up about 4.30pm (it must rock sometimes alright based on the dents and scuff marks on the mooring up side) and we had a nice little cruise back via Angel Island and past Alcatraz (the other side from yesterday).  Larry reminded me of Pippin in the first LOTR movie when he saw a bloke on the boat with a beer - "They serve beer on the boat?  Right, I'm having one!"  "You've got water already" I shouted after his rapidly retreating back, just so I could sound like Merry!

A quick little cycle back to base and then we walked up to check out Ghiardelli Square and the famous chocolate shop.  Who's to say what it tastes like though as they don't give out free samples and too expensive to buy sight unseen (or taste untasted?).  A nice little complex though and beautifully decorated with pumpkins for fall/halloween.

There had been a huge queue of tourists at the bottom of the Hyde/Powell cable car line - a 30 minute wait at least so instead we walked up to the next road and immediately caught a nearly empty bus instead (thank you Muni pass!) straight into Chinatown.  Hopped off and ate at a Japanese sushi train place in the centre of Chinatown (as you do when feeling contrary) then walked a block further and on the California cable car so Jenny could walk down the Jones Street hill one last time.  By the time we got back to the hotel the temperature had dropped to about 13 degrees so we were glad after all for the jumpers we had carried in our backpacks all day.