Mark & Connie's San Francisco Vacation 2012

Day 4 - October 13,

Farmer's Market, Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gate Bridge, & Santa Cruz

We drove down to the wharf, parked and walked down the Embarcadero to the Farmer's Market. It was a farmer's market and I wondered why we needed to see a farmers market. I was impressed with one thing. What a bunch of suckers people are. They could have bought much of the food that was on sale there, in a grocery store for much less. Just think of what it costs the farmers to bring their stuff into this market. They are coming a long way and having to get up really early to pack everything up. Why? Because they can get three times the normal price for their goods.

I will say that the variety was great. We saw a couple of vendors with mushrooms for sale. I think they must have had every edible mushroom known to man. I didn't realize there were so many different varieties of edible mushroom. We also saw one farmer with quail eggs for sale. I never heard of eating quail eggs. He said the best was was to eat them raw. I didn't find out what the price was.

After the farmer's market we rode the trolley back to Pier 39 where the bus company is. We visited them and they supposed refunded the money to GTA. We called GTA and they said that we'd have to call our travel agent, which is a Web site. So we let the thing go. Lesson learned about taking these award programs.

Next we walked over to Ghirardelli Square and Connie bought some coffee and hot chocolate (in bulk, not in the cup). Then we walked back to the car, came back to the room.

We decided to walk the Golden Gate Bridge since the weather was so nice. We walked all the way across and back. I think the bridge is 1.3 miles. With the walking from the parking lot to get onto the bridge - maybe 1.5 miles. My cell phone pedometer says that I walked 9.3 miles total for this day. That seems like a bit much, but we did walk several miles.

Connie on the Golden Gate

Sailboats on the bay - This is just one section of the bay. There were sailboats everywhere!

My attempt to do a self portrait like the kids do with their cell phones.

A guy walking by did a better job.

After walking the bridge, we headed down Rt. 101 South. We intended to go as far as Half Moon Bay, but when we go there, their Pumpkin Festival had just wrapped up and there was traffic everywhere. We blew right on through town and decided to go all the way to Santa Cruz.

It was a beautiful drive down the coast.

About 10 miles north of Santa Cruz there was a place were folks were sail surfing. This looks pretty challenging to me.
We stopped and watched them for a little bit. There was also a guy hang gliding off a nearby bluff, so there was lots of action to watch.

In Santa Cruz, we used the AAA book to find a restaurant, the Crow's Nest. It is at the marina and we got there about 5PM so we got a table by the windows overlooking the entrance to the marina. We got to watch the boats going by all during the meal.

I had alder smoked prime rib. It was excellent as was the salad bar. Well filled, we headed back to the hotel.