July 12 – We attempted to repack the pilot before leaving Yosemite which led to an argument and ended with silence as we drove out of the park to San Francisco. (There’s definitely a trend here. We are working on it!) I ended up driving the whole way so Chris could try to get some Dockem work done. After paying a $21 toll to cross the bridge in our 4-axle vehicle (again, California is expensive), we checked into Marin RV park located about 20 minutes outside the city in Marin, CA. We showered and changed and made our way into the little town of Sausalito in search of seafood. We found a nice chart-house-feel restaurant on the bay called the Seafood Peddler; ordering clams, lobster bisque, fish, and salad to share. Service was rather slow but I didn’t mind because we were tucked into a cozy corner next to a huge open window with views of the boats on the water. The plan was to walk around Sausalito a bit after dinner and check out the jazz festival that was going on but by the time we left, it was rather late, so we made our way to the Marin headlands in the dark to take some night shots of the Golden Gate bridge. What we did not expect when we got to the Golden Gate viewpoint – was to see nothing. The fog was so thick, you couldn’t even make out the lights. We only heard fog horns blasting from ships somewhere out in the water amidst the eerie fog.
Strike out number 1 with seeing the Golden Gate and we got back in the pilot to head to the Honda dealer in Serramonte to drop off the car to be serviced. While waiting to drive over the bridge, we watched a bizarre thing happen where police stopped all traffic and one cop car led all traffic very slowly to the beginning of the bridge just like a pace car does in Nascar. The car right behind the cop was a Tesla and it knew to stop when it got to the bridge and then the police car continued by itself, swerving back and forth on the road like it was drunk. Then, traffic continued as normal. We still haven’t figured out what that was about. We made the 30-minute drive to Serramonte, dropping the Honda off during after-hours to have an oil change and get brakes checked, and then catching an expensive Uber all the way back to the RV park to end the night.
My alarm went off bright and early on July 13 so that we would make it into the city for our Alcatraz tour. After taking an Uber in to Pier 33, we stopped in the Alcatraz gift shop and Chris decided to buy an Alcatraz Swell water bottle before even seeing if Alcatraz was cool or not. The line to get on the boat over to the island was already extremely long and it was only 8am. We saw a sign that said the next available tour wasn’t until August 18. So, if you ever want to visit Alcatraz, buy your tickets early like we did! Something that we were not prepared for about San Francisco is that it is COLD in the summer. Come to find out later that Spring and Fall are actually warmer there. So, we stood in line, huddled together for warmth, taking an obligatory photo with a picture backdrop of Alcatraz on a nice day as part of the line progression. Another note on San Francisco – the fog. We didn’t really realize just how foggy the city is. Waiting in line on the dock, you could barely make out the water in front of you. So naturally, for false advertising purposes, they make you take a picture in front of a picture of Alcatraz on a nice sunny day. (We didn’t buy the $20 photo.) We finally boarded the massive ferry boat which slightly reminded me of the Titanic with the interior decorations (or what I know from the movie anyway) and made our way to the top deck to sit in the freezing cold and watch as we slowly ferried over to the island. Eventually, we made our way inside to watch in the warmth through the windows as a smart person would.
Alcatraz was very intriguing and has a lot of history. It was not always just a jail – it served as a military base/fort before that and then a platform for Native Americans to protest (for 19 months) and reclaim some of their homeland after the jail closed. Now, it is not just a tourist attraction but home to various different water birds and hundreds of different flowers and plant species.
We were actually there during nesting season so some of the walkways and areas were closed off in order to protect the birds and their chicks. (It also smelled very strongly of poop on the whole island.) Another thing I never knew about Alcatraz is that the prison guards’ wives and children lived on the island with them, taking a boat to the mainland for school every day. So, the island had a play area, apartments, and a social club for the families’ entertainment. We received an audio headset tour for the cellhouse and listened to “Sounds of the Slammer” presentation on how the doors opened and closed and what it was like to be in jail on Alcatraz.
We spent about 3 hours on the island before catching the ferry boat back to the mainland.
Chris finally got a hold of the mechanic who was working on our Honda and found out that they couldn’t read his handwriting of his cell phone number and therefore, hadn’t even started working on the car yet. To kill time before having to pick up the car, we walked over to Pier 39 which is basically a double decker Ocean City boardwalk on a pier with three times as many people. In search of food, we finally agreed on a Mexican place for fish tacos and made our way there just to find out it was closed for reconstruction. Fortunately, we had a backup plan of sushi overlooking the bay. More time for me to practice using chopsticks – it has been a struggle!
After lunch, we walked the boardwalk and did a little shopping, ending at an Ice Cream place called “Dreyers” – Breyers copycats! Turns out that we also have Dreyers on the east coast but they changed their name to Eddy’s so as not to be confused with Breyers. Sick of being knocked into every step and not wanting to wait in the 120-person bathroom line, we decided to leave Pier 39 in search of a nail salon so I could finally get my acrylic nails from the wedding removed. (Sidenote: These nails have proven to be very difficult in the way of functionality on this trip and Chris has become sicker of them than I have since I basically have to ask him to do everything for me.) I found a salon who would remove them and then Chris set off to pick up the Honda which was now ready. Our first time intentionally flying solo on this trip – it was glorious! As I waited for my own Uber back to our RV park, I was able to do quite a bit of people watching which was very entertaining. I even saw little yellow go karts that you can rent to take you on a guided GPS tour through the streets of San Francisco.
My Uber driver was a very nice lady named Patty who, once she found out we were on our Honeymoon, took me on a scenic tour of the city, explaining some of the history and different areas as we detoured around (and seeing a pretty sweet outdoor gym).
This was a great ride back but it did take twice as long as expected so I had very little time to change and get the things we needed to meet Chris back in the city for our culinary walking tour experience. In addition to that, the traffic back in over the Golden Gate was horrendous. So, I had to text Chris to find the group on his own and that I would be late. His answer – “Surprise surprise”. I met Chris and the rest of the tour group at the Dragon’s Gate in Chinatown.
Our tour guide – Brian – was another interesting character who looked exactly like Robert Downey Jr. and seemed to have dabbled in it all – acting, the music industry, and he owned a night club just to name a few. (This probably explains a little bit what level of ‘sober’ he was at.) Our first stop on the tour was a tea shop where we learned all about the different kinds of tea, how to properly make it, and how much America rips you off. Chris was so intrigued that he bought some black tea leaves and of course, another gadget. A tea steeper. As we continued to walk along, we nibbled on some pork baos and listened to Brian tell long-winded stories about the history of Chinatown.
We had some very interesting interruptions along this 4-hour tour – an obnoxiously loud motorcycle who was also blasting music that he still couldn’t hear over his engine, firetrucks, ambulances, a trash truck that seemed to be following us, multiple homeless people, angry city residents, and Brian’s phone ringing a different ringtone about every 5 minutes. At one point, he answered it in the middle of his sentence saying in a low voice, “Hey I’m working. I know the Warriors lost – just roll over my bet. You know I’m good for it.” Wonder what he does in his free time lol. Next, we wandered down a back alley that also happened to be filming a commercial and stopped in a place that makes 12,000 fortune cookies by hand – daily. We were able to write our own fortunes and the ladies put them in a cookie for us.
Right before our Dim Sum sit down dinner experience, we were interrupted by a homeless guy on lots of different drugs who came up and put his arm around Brian, offering him an orange and then saying, “This guy – he once shoved 3 bananas up his a**” and then continued on with a crazy story that none of us could even follow because of the disbelief we were in. Not to mention he was carrying a tire over his shoulder. After Brian defended himself with the disclaimer that he had no idea who that guy was, we set off for Dim Sum. We had a family style meal of tea, sesame buns, spicy green beans, Peking duck, shrimp & pork shumai, pot stickers, and then moon cake for dessert. Brian told us the legend of how the pot stickers came to be and also gave us a lesson on tea and chopstick use and etiquette which was very helpful. We did get to know the other people on the tour as well – one couple barely ate anything at Dim Sum because they were too scared to try it so Chris of course was the garbage disposal and ate about 4 helpings of dinner. After dinner, it was dark and we made our way towards the North Beach section of the city, stopping for fresh cannoli’s along the way.
Yet again, that couple didn’t want to try the cannoli’s. We were wondering why they chose to come on a food tour. After cannoli’s, we went to a fudge shop and got a bag of free fudge. Chris was in heaven with all this dessert. Currently, his bag is gone and mine is untouched. On the way to our final stop, we were again rudely interrupted by a lady screaming her head off from the 4thfloor down to a guy playing guitar and singing to classical music on the street. She screamed, “Shut the **** up I’m trying to sleep and I have a migraine! You play every f****** night until midnight SHUT UPPPPPP!!!” His response (still singing to the tune of the music) – “You piece of trashhhh!” You think you’ve seen it all until you’ve seen it all. Our last stop was an Italian pizza place where the owner came out and poured us very large glasses of wine counting the number of children he wanted us to have as he poured. I got 7. Don’t know about that. (Picture below is 2/3 gone.)
Sitting outside under heat lamps, we enjoyed more of Brian’s historical stories and a Margherita pizza. Of course, not without being interrupted by a homeless lady who told a man passing by that she loves him. His response, “I don’t know you.” Her response, “Well don’t go do what I know you are about to do!” And then they were gone. We ended our tour with a surprise Tiramisu cake in celebration of our honeymoon, thanked Brian, and made our way back to the car to drive home. Finally, on our drive back, we were almost able to see all of the Golden Gate bridge without it being covered by the fog. We stopped and jumped out to take a few pictures before we froze. A nice ending to a great day!
Sunday morning, July 14, Chris set off to Home Depot just because that’s what men do, I guess, and I folded laundry and phoned home. 2 hours later, Chris returned from Home Depot in a much happier mood. What that place does to the male population, I do not know. In his defense, he also took the pilot through the car wash but there were still lots of bugs all over it so either we should be demanding our money back or we should be making glue from bug guts. We packed up with minimal fighting and then set off to REI to improve MY mood. After spending way too much time and money at REI, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local spot called Blue Barn (which was delicious) and set off for Lassen Volcanic National Park. The drive was quiet as I wrote blog posts the whole time and Chris listened to his audio book on headphones. We arrived at Manzanita Lake campground in Lassen at dusk. Before trying to level our RV on the enormous hill that was our campsite pull-through, we trekked down to the lake to catch the end of the sunset colors. It was here that I had the revelation (1 month into it) that marriage is definitely hard at times. But it was also here that I realized how much beauty there is in spending life (all the ups and downs) with the same person that you love dearly.
To end the night, we opened our fortune cookies to each other which both reiterated the revelation I had.
