Sunday – July 19, 2015
We enjoyed another wonderful healthy breakfast at the Hollywood Cafe and then boarded an empty Grey Line tour bus right across the street. We had great seats upstairs and upfront on the double-decker bus. San Francisco was having a ‘heat wave’ which meant bright sun, low humidity, 80 degrees, and a slight cool breeze over the water. Ideal weather to me!
We started our bus tour of San Francisco and passed Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Crissy Field, the Palace of Fine Arts, Pixar Studios, and entered the Presidio. It was Sunday and the northbound traffic was very heavy. We were on our way across the Golden Gate Bridge when we entered a tunnel and the bus stalled to a slow stop. The driver pulled onto the shoulder and the tour guide announced that another bus would pick us up in fifteen minutes.
Thankfully, we were in the shade of the tunnel and a new bus arrived in a short amount of time. We were able to get upper level seats but the traffic across the bridge was very heavy so the bus turned around and we did not go across the bridge. We were disappointed, but we enjoyed the rest of the three-hour tour of beautiful San Francisco.
San Francisco City Hall
Chinatown Gate
Trans-Am Building
Later in the afternoon, we got off the tour bus at Pier 41. We stopped off at Boudin Bakery for cold drinks and looked in at their bakery and shop. They bake 20,000 loaves of sourdough bread daily for most of the restaurants in the city. We continued back to the Argonaut Hotel to rest and refresh.
As the afternoon fog began to roll in from the Pacific Ocean beyond Golden Gate Bridge, we walked to Ghirardelli Square. We found three chocolate shops and several other stores selling a variety of interesting items.
We shopped for a while and then had dinner at McCormick & Kuleto’s overlooking the bay. We saw a beautiful colorful sunset by the end of our delicious seafood supper.
The Girls wanted to take photographs, so we hurried out to the lovely beach. Many people had gathered to watch the incredible kaleidoscope sunset beyond the bridge. Perhaps that’s why it’s called the Golden Gate Bridge.
Of course, we had to return to the square to sample the famous Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream sundaes for dessert! It exceeded all our expectations. :-)
