We left Marina, CA and headed north to San Francisco.
Instead of going through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge, I decided to go around through Oakland. I should have researched the road a little bit better because once we got to the bridge in Oakland we came to a toll……$20.00 later we were able to cross. If we had come across the Golden Gate Bridge we would have paid nothing. But I wasn’t really in the mood to battle with traffic through San Fran with our house attached to us. So I feel the 20 dollars was well spent, plus the views from the bridge were amazing….
Now as far as campgrounds go, there aren’t to many to chose from that are close to the city but I found one that was close to the ferry and a Trader Joe’s. Ha! Welcome to Marin RV Park. I didn’t get many pictures of this campground but here is our campsite.
California weather is amazing! I guess we would stay at this campground again because of how easy it was to get to the city but laundry is expensive and the guy next to us made sure that we knew where his spot was……
So we wedged our truck in every time and just barely fit. Anyway, as I walked around a bit I realized we were close to San Quentin State Prison.
At first I felt uneasy about this but considering all the large homes that were built around the prison, I figured we would be fine. The prison sits right on the water and not that I am jealous of the prisoners but they have an amazing view!
We didn’t go into the city on Friday. Actually, we walked down the street to Trader Joe’s for groceries and then we had a family meeting. This is when Micheal told us he was ready to go home. He missed his friends, his home and his family. This kind of made me sad because Mike and I really have enjoyed this experience with him but we did understand. So we planned on sightseeing that weekend and I would make plans to get us home. Now that all that was settled we went to bed.
The next morning we got up and walked about 10 minutes to the Larkspur Ferry….
We purchased our tickets which were about 60.00 round trip ….ouch! We boarded the ferry and away we went!
Along the way we saw some houses…..which only had boat parking. I discovered the parking lot for these houses on a walk with Max on day. They had to walk down a pier and across the street to get to their cars. Pretty interesting!
We also passed San Quentin again…..
The prisoners were enjoying some outside time.
I love a good windy ride on a boat!
Next we passed, Alcatraz! So cool!! We had tickets for Sunday so more on Alcatraz later.
and then…there it was! The Golden Gate Bridge!
Although it was a sunny day, there was a haze in the air. I can’t explain it but it is the best weather for city touring!
The ferry pulled into the Ferry Building. This was such a cool place.
The Ferry Building was filled with shops, restaurants and markets.
This one caught my attention…salted pig parts! Yum! Well not all the parts sound yummy.
Another food I like is cheese….
I was regretting that we had breakfast before we left……
After looking around some we headed out for Chinatown. Along the way we saw our first cable car.
What we found interesting about San Fran was the hills….. see the one beyond the cable car. I think we just didn’t realize that we would be walking up hill around town but we did.
We finally made it to Chinatown.
We love going to Chinatown in NYC and we enjoyed this one to. We made our way up the hill and into several souvenir shops.
One place I wanted to find was the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie company.
This is where google maps led us….to an alley and there it was.
It was very crowded inside so I was the only one that went in. I would love to show you pictures but they charge you to take pictures. I don’t know how that works for them but I wasn’t going to risk owing money for a picture. Anyway, there are bags of fortune cookies on a shelf that lines the wall and they were a couple of dollars for each bag. There were also women sitting at these machines, a flat cookie would come out, they would put the fortune in, and fold them up. I didn’t purchase any cookies because the craziness of the place but they did smell good.
After all the hill climbing, we were getting hungry. Micheal wanted pizza so we walked around looking for a good pizza place. Thats when we found these…
I believe a snack is always a good idea when walking around a city but we still need to find pizza.
Finally found a pizza place and funny enough it was named after one of our favorites….
We have a happy camper on our hands. We bought three pieces and went to a park that we saw down the block.
It was pretty good pizza and gave us just enough energy to finish out our sightseeing.
My sweet boys! After lunch we were ready for a little bit more sightseeing. We decided to head over to Pier 39. Along the way we passed…
Cost Tower. We also got some pretty awesome views of the bay.
This was one of my favorite parts of San Fran. You never knew what view you would get after each block. We finally made it to Pier 39
and we went straight to the sea lions. 
It was neat to see them but not so much smelling them!
This one didn’t make it long by himself and swam back over for cuddling with the others.
This one wanted his picture taken. After standing for a while to watch sea lions lay around we decided to head back to the ferry. There was a lot more to see at Pier 39 so we decided to come back on Sunday and see the rest.
We walked along The Embarcadero, which is the street that follows along the bay and led us straight to the Ferry Building. 
We found the building for Alcatraz Tours on this street. 
That makes tomorrow somewhat easier….I will explain later. We got back on the ferry and headed back home. What a great way to end the day!
I don’t usually get my fingers in pictures, but it has been a long day of hill climbing.
Tomorrow is the day for Alcatraz and more city exploring which we all were pretty excited about. What a great day we had.
Next up…Alcatraz!