Day 19: Rest day in San Francisco!

Hank has been sleeping all day!!

I don't blame him this is a very comfortable hotel room.  But really, look at him, he hasn't moved in 24 hours!  I'll just let him rest because tomorrow he's back on the job!

So I obviously left Hank in the room to rest while I went out and about in the city.  It was a fun day roaming around and seeing things I haven't seen in many years and eating really good food.  San Francisco has some of the best food I've ever eaten.  Well compared to some of the things I've been eating while camping it wouldn't take much to top that!  I used the local rail system here called B.A.R.T. (Bay Area Rapid Transit).  It is much like the Max trail in Portland, but covers a much larger area and seems to run more efficiently.  I got off of the BART right in downtown San Francisco and wandered around for a while until finally coming to one of my favorite areas in the city, China Town.  Below is a picture of one of the main entrances into this 16 block area of the city.  It is called the Dragon Gate.  Once you walk in it's like being transported into another part of the world.

 There are a lot of things for sale in China Town that you wouldn't normally find in American stores or malls.  For example, below is a giant turtle that reminded me of Shelly.  This one was about three feet tall though.

From China Town I wandered toward the Fisherman's Wharf area.  Along the way I had to stop and get a picture of the iconic Transamerica pyramid.  It is the tallest building in the city at 853 feet.  You can see it from almost anywhere in the city.

From there I continued on down to the waterfront and the Fisherman's Wharf area.  When you come over the hill and drop down into that area one of the first things you can't help but notice is Alcatraz Island.  My third grade readers may or may not have ever heard of Alcatraz, so for them they may have to ask their parents for a little background info.  Also in the picture below is one of the many ships that are in the harbor.  As you can see it was foggy again today, so no pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge again.

Another one of my favorite places in San Francisco is Ghirardelli Square.  Of course!  I love chocolate!  There is plenty of it here.  There are gift shops, restaurants, and ice cream shops all dedicated to Ghirardelli Chocolate.  They even give you free samples of some flavors!  Of course I got some!  

 In one of the gift shops they had bin after bin of their famous little squares of chocolate.  They even had flavors for sale here that you couldn't get anywhere else in the world.  I wished I could have bought some but I would have had to have Hank carry it for a few weeks in the hot sun.  Actually I probably would have eaten it all over the next few weeks and that wouldn't be a good thing either!

From there I wandered around a little more in the Fisherman's Wharf area, had lunch and coffee, and then my body reminded me that we have ridden over 750 miles and needed some rest before heading back out on the road tomorrow.  So I went to REI to get a couple things for Hank and a couple things for me before heading back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for tomorrow's day of riding south.

More to come soon as the adventure continues!  

Thank you for reading and following me!

I hope everyone is enjoying summer break!