20100410 – San Francisco to Pacifica

I woke up to dense high fog and cold temperatures this morning. I brewed coffee in my room. The hotel has no restaurant so I wandered over to Pat’s Cafe on Taylor and met some of my tour mates at the 7:30 opening. It was a good breakfast spot with a large selection. I had oatmeal that had apples and cranberries baked in it. It was covered with a sliced banana. I added some brown sugar and milk and it was ready to eat. Along with whole wheat toast, my meal was filling.

We loaded the van at 9:00 and then met for our bicycle tour of San Francisco at 9:15. Pat Greene and Chris Witt, friends for GPC who are on this ride, created the day’s route. We headed up Columbus towards the Pyramid Building, turned left on Bush, went down Market and found the Embarcadero. Being Saturday morning, traffic was very light.

We went south on the sidewalk to view one of the strange sculptures.

We reversed directions and headed north on the Embarcadero all the way past Fishermen’s Wharf, Fort Mason, The Marina Green and Crissy Field until we reach Fort Point. After a short visit, we reversed direction and met at the Warming Hut to take care of nature calls.

The weather was getting windy which made it colder. This made me a little anxious about crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We did it though and the wind gusts were not too bad. There were more cyclists on the bridge than I have ever seen. It made it a bit tricky maneuvering around inexperienced cyclists.

We went up Conzelman and stopped at Bunker Spenser to look at the view back to the city.

After that it was back across the bridge, through Pacific Heights and up to the Legion of Honor. Then it was over to the Cliff House and out the Great Highway. We stopped at the Beach Chalet to look at the murals. Then, because we were all getting hungry, we turned on Sloat and went to the Java Beach Cafe for lunch.

I had a good chicken sandwich with jack cheese, avocado and a sweet sauce.

We left the cafe and made a beeline to Pacifica to get into our hotel rooms and get warm. On the way, I road past Jeff’s old apartment. We are staying at The Best Western Lighthouse Inn.

Here is a link to today’s ride.

Happy Hour was at 5:30. After that I went to a hamburger restaurant with several of my riding friends. I won’t describe my hamburger. It was big and tasty.

Tomorrow is predicted to be very stormy. Because of this, we have rented a bus to drive us to our next stop in Santa Cruz.

It’s now 9:00. I almost done with the blog but I can’t finish it because I can’t get to the internet. So I’m going to read for a while and then go to sleep.