Day 10

We drove to San Francisco and immediately crossed the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. It was a really cute town full of art galleries and boutiques. We walked the docks and looked at the hundreds of boats, and happened to catch the Portuguese Parade on the way back. Then we returned to San Fran and checked into our hostel, where the staff had absolutely no sense of urgency. After finally checking in, we hiked to Lombard Street. This was the hardest hike of the trip and we did not expect the 50 degree incline of all the hilly streets. That day we walked down the "crookedest street," hiked up to the Coit Tower (which features a panoramic view of the city that we couldn't see because the elevator was inconveniently broken on that day), walked through China Town, checked out Nob Hill, hung off the side of the trolley, and explored Fisherman's Wharf. The Wharf had numerous performers and artists, including a 13 year old boy who did incredible spray-paint art. The best performers of all were obese sea lions that were lazily sunning on the docks of Pier 39. We even witnessed a sea lion fight as one tried to hop on top of his comrades to sleep. We stopped to get ice cream and saw the most picture-perfect banana split - we were literally salivating as we waited for our smaller but still delicious scoops. We lastly took the bus to see the Golden Gate Park, which was closed but we walked around anyways and hung out with the marble sphinxes. That night we attempted to go out, but the fact that it was a Sunday put a damper on our plans and we ended up exploring a few vacant areas of the city and returning to our hostel earlier than planned.