Cycling San Francisco Part 1: Downtown - Fisherman's Wharf - Golden Gate Bridge!

The best thing about going through my backlog of photos from our August trip to San Francisco is recalling the great fun we had through the photos. Upon my request, hubby took care of our itinerary - where to go, what to see and what food to eat - and we both enjoyed swapping roles for a change. He did a really good job too! For our second day, we hired bicycles and a child seat, and cycled the whole day from 10am to 8pm. This was the highlight of the trip, and it is with pleasure to recount that day's activities. The weather was typical of San Francisco, and not much like the sunny blue-skied San Diego we'd experienced the day before, but we liked it because hubby didn't get sunburnt and we didn't get too uncomfortably hot. By the way, the San Francisco Bay Trail is an awesome project in the works, and we only rode a tiny fraction of it (currently the SF Bay Trail is only ~65% completed; its total length will be 805km).

Helmets on, kid belted in, and we're ready to go!

Arriving at Pier 39, at one edge of Fisherman's Wharf, a highly commercialised and touristy location:

An amusing sign:

Alcatraz Island as visible from Pier 39 (click to view larger image):

The Pier 39 sea lions. That sign says "HAPPY 22ND ANNIVERSARY SEA LIONS!":

A lone sea lion that had just jumped out of the water, shortly before it joined the colony of others sunbaking:

Another angle of Alcatraz Island, as we were cycling across the Aquatic Park:

We cycled past Ghirardelli Square but didn't stop for a closer look because we still had a long way to go to the bridge:

There was a massive hill to climb on the bike trail from the Aquatic Park to Fort Mason, but cyclists and hikers were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Marina with the Golden Gate Bridge in the far distance:

We rode through a park near Fort Mason, where there was an intriguing gnarled tree leaning away from the Bay - perhaps the result of prevailing winds:

The Bridge from the Marina Green - so close, yet so far, and the worst (incline) was yet to come:

And I leave you with this panoramic shot of the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge just after we'd cycled up the steepest point of the trail leading to the bridge (click for larger image):

Stay tuned for the second part of our ride, where we rode across the bridge into Sausalito.