San Francisco

We stayed at the KOA campground in Petaluma (to be woken up by donkeys in the morning - see the Canadian flag), about 40 miles north of San Francisco. We wimped out and took a bus tour from the KOA. I have to say it was great, we saw Chinatown, the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Warf, Financial District, rode a cable car, Haight/Ashbury district, Victorian homes, and all the usual "stuff" tourists do. NOW, some of you will wonder why the heck did they take a tour? Were they afraid to ride their bikes? YES YES and did we say YES. Do you remember the movie "Bullit" with Steve McQueen? No way we're riding bikes on those roads! One of the pictures shows the roads but the perspective is difficult to capture in a picture. Some of the roads are at 31 degree angles. The cars have to park perpendicular to the direction of the road. I can't imagine opening a door without the weight making it fly into the next vehicle!

We also visited a Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, which had amazingly intricate shrubery and artifacts, buildings and statues. Our oldest son, Brent, spent about 1 1/2 years in Tokyo and so I know he will appreciate this.

We were quite disappointed that we couldn't book a tour of Alcatraz so we just took a picture....we would have had to wait 3 days to get to the Rock.