SO - to cut to the point- on April 9th we rode into San Francisco. It took forever! When we woke up at our campsite it was drizzling so we slept in until it tapered off a bit. After some procrastination, wondering if we should just spend another day at the campsite until the rain cleared or not--- we finally decided to take off and get into the city. It ended up taking us about 3:45 of riding to go about 34 miles... After a few miles we had a long steady climb to conquer, with a steady headwind. After the decent, we were on a lot of residential streets so had a lot of stop signs and having to stop to check directions. The directions were tough to follow- and while I think we stayed on route, the way we took to the Golden Gate Bridge just didn't seem right... we had to go down into a park, weave around, go through a gate that said "authorized vehicles only" with an arm blocking the road... but then under that it said "bikes use bike lane only" ! so yes it was the way for bikes to go. The bad part is that after this we had to go up and up and up a few switch backs to get to the start of the bridge. I can't help but think the way I saw another bike go- along the main road- would be the best way to go. BUT we made it and we could actually see San Francisco now.
The bridge was loud and windy--- but we luckily had a decently wide separate pedestrian path. After getting off the bridge it was more checking the map and getting lost--- our hotel was just about 4 miles away but none of it made any sense. The area we had to get though was insanely hilly, and had lots of streets that dead ended and were one ways. Not to mention how starving we were. We stopped at lunch and grabbed coffee and had a Clif bar- thinking we weren't far from our hotel. After that though, we had to go through 3 steep climbs that just exhausted us. (but hey at least the rain stopped!)
After getting at least to about the neighborhood of our hotel- we were so hungry we stopped for food- we shared a Pad Thai which was pretty darn good- maybe it was just we were so hunger and glad to be in the city finally? To get to our hotel we avoided any of the obscenely steep hills you'll see in San Francisco- and only had to go up one long hill. Worst things about these are hitting stop lights every block and having to start up again!
I thought we were finally done and could rest when we get to the hotel- but I was wrong :) You see, we decided to stay at a Marriott hotel. Cook has a credit card that gives you points towards free stays, and the more times we stay the more points we get (so like when we go to Heavy Rebel Weekender in SC every year, its a Marriott that gives us a special event rate since we were there for the concerts/car show)- we used one of our free stays in Austin, and had almost enough points for another free stay. So staying here would be not only an awesome way to spend my birthday (ish- few days early) but it would mean a free hotel later on. :) win-win!
Back to the point- this fancy-schmancy hotel didn't want our bikes in the room. Which is a problem since we don't trust their little storage closet with something as important as our bikes. Usually at cheaper places we explain how much they cost us (that they aren't $50 walmart bikes which people don't usually realize) - and that if they get stolen we have no transportation and our trip is over. But this hotel didnt want to budge-- after we finally agreed to let them store our bikes, being promised they'd be under 24 hour watch of hte front desk people- they realized they didn't have enough room for the bikes and trailers! Final conclusion- they stored the trailers and we took the bikes up with us but we were fully liable for any damage they did to the room.
We showered- relaxed- got some delivery for dinner (falafel!)- then ventured out for a beer. We do love that we didn't have a hard time finding a place within a few blocks that let us come in with the dog. We went to one with horrible loud techno music- but a block away there was a smaller one with a decent little jukebox playing 'normal' music. When Cook asked if the dog could come in, they asked "is it fluffy?" haha of course! They loved her and she loved the attention.
Whew. Finally. In San Francisco.
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