Bay Cruise

With the game not until this evening, I had the day in San Francisco.  I decided to go on a boat tour around the bay in the afternoon, as it would finish at a nice time for me to get to the ballpark for the game.

I started with lunch at Boudin Bakery up near Pier 39.  Their speciality is the sourdough bread that they bake - a lot of it, and they make some fun shapes too.  They have a giant crocodile in the front window, but it's hard to get a picture of that with so many people watching them through the window as they make the bread.  So here are a couple of teddy bears and some turtles instead.

It's strange how I don't usually have any trouble with things for years and then one trip, several things go wrong in the same way.  I had the Fawlty Towers hotel problem, and the Country Inn & Suites problem within days of each over in 2012.  This time, it has been a less serious problem of food not arriving having ordered it.  Just yesterday, a starter took 30 minutes to come.  Today, a tomato salad took over 20 minutes to come, again just after my server had gone to chase it up.  Bizarrely today though, my chicken main course arrived just two minutes later!  The manager appeared moments later to apologise and asked whether it should stay or be taken back.  I asked for it to be kept warm, but they decided it was better to just cook me another one. 

Afterwards, I went on a Bay Cruise.  I think I may have done this cruise before, but it was nice to go out on the water again and see the Golden Gate Bridge and the other sights.

The sea lions were in residence as usual, slumped over the platforms by the dock, although I think most of them must have been asleep, because they were very quiet - usually they're making a racket.

The weather seemed changeable throughout, as it was warm and sunny in some parts, and dull and damp in other parts.

Here's two photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, from either side, taken just a few minutes apart.  There were quite a few wind surfers and yachts out on the bay today, taking advantage of the very strong winds.  Even then , in some parts of the bay, the winds dropped to nothing and it was extremely pleasant on the front deck of the boat.

This tour takes you along the north coast of the peninsula, under the bridge, back under the bridge, along the south coast past Sausilito and Tiberon and Angel Island, past Alcatraz and then back to the pier 41 dock (past the sea lions again)

It really was a nice day, mostly, as you can see from this photo of Alcatraz Island.

The tour lasts an hour, and has a commentary coming from loudspeakers on the boat although you can use a smart phone or a tablet to connect to the boat's network to get it in different languages if you wanted.