Day 6: San Francisco, CA

Yesterday was quite a day.  I got a bit of a late start, but I was on Highway 199 headed toward Crescent City by about 10:30 am.  My brother was right, it's an absolutely gorgeous ride.  It was a little chilly, but fairly bright and sunny with a little bit of clouds when I started out.  It's a really fun road without a lot of traffic.  There are sections where it's 4 lanes and big sweeping corners that you can take at 80 mph, but then there are several 2 lane sections winding through the canyons alongside rivers and creeks, full of sharp, banked corners and hairpin turns where I even had to (gasp) downshift.  Once I got about 10 minutes south of the California border the clouds cleared and the sun came out and it started getting warmer and warmer.  Riding through the Redwood Forrest is a bit surreal.  Many of the trees lining both sides of the road are nearly as wide as the road itself, and so tall that you can't even see their lowest branches.  I wish I had a video camera mounted to my helmet.  I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want to stop riding.  I was having too much fun.  It was a perfect day to ride, and the perfect road to be on.  The California coast is incredibly beautiful, unlike any other place I've seen.

After 440 miles and 8.5 hours on the bike I arrived in San Francisco.  To be completely honest the last hundred miles of the day were pretty painful.  Riding across the Golden Gate Bridge was fun, although I couldn't really take much time to enjoy the view.  My friend Jarad let me park my bike in his garage, and set me up in his livingroom for the night.  As soon as I was unpacked we went down the street to Joe Dimaggio's to relax and chatch up.  From Jarad's apartment I can see the Coit Tower on Telegraph hill, and the cathedral where Joe Dimaggio and Marylin Monroe were married.

Today I'm still a bit sore from yesterday's long ride so I decided to see the city on foot instead of dragging the bike out of the garage.  I had breakfast at a nice little cafe in North Beach, then walked down to the Fisherman's Wharf.  I've been there before, and this time it just seemed too crowded and trashy and pointless, so I took my friend Annie's advice and headed over to the old ferry building that's been converted to a public market.  If you're into boutique food, it's the place to go.  Whatever kind of food you're into, they have a store that specializes it.  There's a store dedicated entirely to mushrooms, and place advertising 'Tasty Salted Pig Parts'.  It was hard for me to refrain from spending all my money there.  From there I walked through the financial district.  I saw entire blocks lined with motorcycles.  Nothing special, just everyday commuter parking.  I can't believe how many bikes there are in this town.  Then I walked up to Nob Hill and sat in a park and enjoyed the view while I took a work call.

Next stop was China Town.  I spent a couple hours wandering aimlessly through all the streets and alleys.  Well, not exactly aimlessly.  I was trying to find homemade Lap Qiong, which is a special kind of sweet chinese pork suasage, and I was trying to find a Sake bar that I remember seeing when I was here about 6 years ago.  Never found the sake bar, but I did find the Lap Qiong and some fresh turnip cakes for 50 cents each.  If you've never had a chinese turnip cake, you're missing out.  It's starchy and mushy and greasy and salty and has little chunks of barbecued pork in it.  Absolutely delicious.