san francisco

When we left for San Francisco on Sunday, I knew we were planning to rent bikes. Having visited the city before, I also knew that there are lots of steep hills. Oh well, I thought, if the hills are too hard to ride up, I'll just walk the bike. No big deal.

glad to see he's working on it

Our flight was delayed (yes, it was as bad as it looks and took almost 3 hours to fix!) and the ride from the airport took longer than expected, so it was late afternoon when we finally got settled in our hotel, and we decided to pick up the bikes the next day. On foot, we visited Chinatown and had dinner at the Mona Lisa restaurant in Little Italy.

I wish she'd quit smirking at us!

Early Monday morning, we headed (uphill) to Bike and Roll to pick up our Trek Verve Comfort Hybrids. I had never ridden anything quite like it -- even my Trek FX 7.2 step-through has a less upright seating position. But it turned out to be a pretty decent ride.

It was raining. A light rain, but steady. Not exactly what we expected, but ah well... it's just water. We set off (downhill) to the bike trail, thinking we'd ride up to the Golden Gate Bridge. As we rode, the rain increased until soon it was a steady downpour. The fog was so dense we couldn't even see the Golden Gate Bridge, so we were pretty sure that we wouldn't be able to see anything from the bridge. It was wet and cold and miserable. We stopped in at a sporting goods store, where Hubby bought some cycling gloves,  and then we turned around and rode back to the hotel, hoping the rain would stop.

After downing some tasty Louisiana shrimp at Bubba Gump's (we chose to eat here because one of my students absolutely loves the movie "Forrest Gump"-- and because, even in the fog, it offers a nice view of the bay) we started out again.

foggy first full day in San Fran

The rain had stopped and the sky was clearing, so after a detour to Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower...

halfway up to Coit Tower

 ...we decided to try again for the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's a bit of an uphill climb to the bridge, and I was quite pleased with the bike. I tackled the hill as if it was one of the River Valley climbs and found myself passing everyone else. When I reached the top I felt good and not even out of breath.

We weren't sure exactly where to go from this point, so we followed some loud-mouth guy who sounded as if he knew what he was doing. He probably did, but clearly he had a different destination in mind -- NOT the bridge.

Up another hill, around a bend, and this breathtaking vista was before us...

I caught my breath when I came around the bend...

We didn't know exactly where we were, but it was a marked bike route and beautiful, and we could see that we had left the bridge behind us...

Our goal -- behind us! How did that happen?

... so we decided to keep going. Finally, thanks to some friendly natives and our less-than-adequate tourist map, we ended up on the road to Golden Gate Park.

In my opinion, this park is overrated. It's pretty, with gorgeous flower gardens and large exotic-looking trees, but it was so crowded with cars and pedestrians that cycling was not very pleasant. The bike lane is placed between parked cars and the sidewalk, so that people who wanted to reach their cars had to cross the bike lane, often in large groups with strollers, kiddie bikes, etc. So I was not altogether sorry when I saw the Dutch windmill on the right, because I knew that marked the westernmost edge of the park. Pretty lousy shot, with the street lamp right in front, but oh well...

the Dutch windmill

Now it was time to ride along the ocean front -- fantastic! We saw a lot of surfers (wearing wetsuits) and I was almost tempted to stick my feet in, but as it wasn't very warm out, I thought I'd hold off.

too cold to swim

Another fairly decent climb awaited us, and then another. Hubby was not impressed when we hit the second climb so soon after the first! I think it reminded him of riding in the River Valley.

And then, downhill -- and a flat tire for me. Somehow I managed to ride over a long, twisted, rusty nail that went into the bottom of the tire and came out on the side. Bummer.

But - the guy at the bike rental shop had assured us that if we got a flat, all you have to do is call and I'll be there... Oh, wait, I'm getting it mixed up with that James Taylor song. But he did say they would come to the rescue.

Problem: we didn't have our cell phones. Taking out our not-so-trusty map, we discovered that fortuitously, we just happened to be at an intersection shown thereon. And, it was just a short walk to a more or less main drag, where surely there would be some place we could make a phone call. Maybe there'd even be a bike shop? If nothing else, we figured, we could catch a bus.

It was about four or five blocks -- amazingly not up or down hill -- to California Street, where there was a gas station  on the corner. Not much else, though, and certainly no bike shop. But the gas station attendant was friendly and helpful and made several calls from his own phone. First call -- to Bike and Roll. No answer. I left a message on the voice mail, but didn't have a lot of hope. Next, he called two different bike shops, but both were closed.

What about the bus, we asked? He was only too happy to tell us how to get back to our hotel by bus, and an equally friendly customer confirmed the directions. The bus stop was nearby, so that's what we did. We had to take two different buses; both bus drivers were super helpful with the bikes and with directions, and we made it back with no trouble.

I have to confess that after this, I was a little discouraged about the whole bike idea. But we decided that when we took the bike in to get a replacement, we'd also ask for a flat repair kit. That way, at least we wouldn't be stranded if we had another flat. And of course, as any Murphy's Law adherent knows, as long as we had the flat repair kit on hand, we wouldn't get a flat tire anyway.

from Telegraph Hill