San Francisco, Day 4

Our last full day in California has arrived, and my body is so tired I'm not sure if I'm totally sad or a teeny bit happy. Don't get me wrong, I've had the time of my life, but man we've crammed a lot of activities into one week. I'm still feeling the burn from that bike ride yesterday.

Today we decided to venture into a new part of town, so we hopped the cable car again and went down to Market Street where a homeless man told us which bus to take to get to Alamo Square. Nick gave him a dollar for the information. We had to hit this major tourist spot, the "Painted Ladies". You may not have ever heard the name, but you've seen these houses in countless photos and advertisements. Nick was singing the Full House theme song all morning. They are very beautiful homes, but the area they are located in was not exactly what I was expecting. Still very cool though.

I had intended to go ove rto Golden Gate Park while we were in that part of town, but we slept a little bit later than we have been so we didn't have much time to do anything else in that area because we had to head back to the Wharf for lunch and to catch our bus to the Muir Woods. We slipped in a small tour of another one of the ships on Hyde St Pier before it was time to leave. I've always wanted to see redwood trees, and this was our opportunity. Since we took a bus over we got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge there and back, so in all we got to cross it three times this week.

If you've never had opportunity to stand at the base of a tree that's hundreds of years old and stretches up farther than you can comprehend, then you are missing out. I was awe-struck at their size and beauty. It's hard to deny the existence of God when in this position. His creation is truly a marvelous sight to behold. I felt so insignificant walking through those giant trees. I almost expected a dinosaur to come walking by. They would have fit into the surroundings quite nicely.

Part of me also felt like Kevin Costner could have ridden by on a horse dressed in his Robin Hood garb at any moment. I almost felt like I had traveled back in time. Really the only sign of modern day life were the brightly printed sings reminding you to stay on the trail and the occasional trash and recycle bins.

Our charter took us from the Muir Woods down to Sausalito again. We spent a little time walking around the docks and admiring some of the sailboats and yachts that were waiting for someone to take them out to sea. Some of those vessels are awesome. I liked to watch the sailboats in the bay especially because they frighten me so much more than the bigger ships. I can't imagine what it feels like when you're sitting on the boat and it's leaning so far over you can touch the water with your hand. I don't think I'm brave enough for that.

We headed back to Pier 39 after our bus dropped us back at the Wharf and had dinner at Neptune Palace. Tonight we went all out and had clam chowder followed by lobster and filet mignon. It was so delicious and quite fun to eat. Nick managed to make quite a mess has he tore into that poor lobster, but I guess that's why they put those attractive bibs on you. Our table overlooked the sea lions on the pier, so we had some nice entertainment while we enjoyed our food, along with a beautiful sunset when it was finished.

We walked back down to our hotel to make a pit stop before heading back up the hill a way to Ghirardelli Square. It was my last chance to have one of those dark chocolate sundaes and I was going to take it. Nick ordered the peanut butter/chocolate sundae this time. We stuffed ourselves with enough chocolate to last quite a while and decided to ride the cable cars one last time. We rode all the way to Market Street downtown and walked around for just a little while before hopping back on and coming back to our hotel.

I've alread begun the packing process, and tomorrow morning we won't have time for much else than breakfast before our driver comes to pick us up, unless I'm feeling really productive and get out of bed around 5:30 or 6. I don't see that happening, LOL.