I Can See Clearly Now

DAY 3 Of Our San Francisco Adventure

Shauna begins the day by waking up, reaching for her glasses and freaking out because everything is blurry. Oops! They are Mag’s glasses….What a relief! She thought that overnight her eyesight had deteriorated dramatically.

This was an honest mistake and easy to understand when put into context, because there have been accusations in the past that Shauna was trying to turn Mag into her clone. This is most unfair. Just because she offers Mag fashion advice and simply suggested a new hair cut and helped select new glasses both of which apparently resembled her own, they have been labelled the Bobbsey Twins by our male siblings. Once Shauna put on her own glasses, the day came into focus and we were ready to move ahead.

Today’s feature adventure was a visit to Alcatraz. We took a ferry to the island and spent a fascinating day touring the jail and wandering the grounds.

The view from the island looking back towards the city is stunning.

The ferry ride back is uneventful until we realize that we have an issue to contend with. Because we are adventurous and physically very fit, we had all enthusiastically agreed to do a bike tour across the Golden Gate Bridge….That is, while we were still safely at home. Once the arranged date loomed, doubts began to set in. Kerri started talking about the possibility of poor weather conditions and suggested we might want to reconsider. She assured us that we could cancel up to 24 hours in advance….And the seeds of doubt are now firmly planted.

In order to give this dilemma further consideration, we decide a change of lounge scenery is necessary so we head to a small boutique hotel not far from ours…and this is where we meet Alicia.

By now we had established what we felt was a fair rotation for bartender greeting/conversation initiation. Given the number of times we were in a lounge situation, it seemed to be the right thing to do, so Kerri got this one. It wasn’t necessary to use a conversation starter, however, because it was immediately obvious that Alicia, the bartender, really enjoyed engaging with her customers. Given that we were the only customers, she had plenty of time to converse with us and converse she did. Over the course of an hour, she entertained us with what was pretty much her life story.

A few drinks later, in keeping with our minor falsehood guidelines, Kerri finally got a word in and told her about our travel blog. (This was of course ridiculous and an extension of Kerri’s obsession with writing a blog.)

*Author’s Note: Please be advised that at this point in time, our blog was nothing more than a vague idea, mostly in Kerri’s imagination.

Even more ridiculous, Shauna then informed Alicia that we enjoyed her company so much that we would mention her in our next blog post. Big mistake there Shauna. She actually believed us and wanted to know the name of our blog! And this is how we came to believe in divine intervention…… because at that very moment Alicia’s manager appeared and asked her to come to the store room to check on something.

With Alicia safely out of sight and without a moment’s hesitation, we looked at each other, grabbed our purses and bolted. We were out the door and down the street in seconds flat!

*Authors Note: Rest assured dear reader, that we had fortunately paid for our drinks in full, so there were no legal issues.

Back in our hotel room we realize the deadline to cancel our bike tour has passed….we are now committed. We spend a quiet, uneventful evening…early to bed, dreaming of a sunny day and a carefree, rambling, leisurely bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Day 4

It is GGB day ( Golden Gate Bridge day ) and it has dawned foggy and windy…..great, just great. Whose idea was this anyway?? To be clear it was Kerri’s idea…she was in charge of adventures/entertainment on this vacation so this was on her. In the end it didn’t matter. There was no backing out now anyway.

After a hearty breakfast we set out on what was to become the highlight of our San Fran trip. We were pumped! On arrival at the bike shop, we realized we were part of a large group,and we were for sure the oldest participants. Oh dear, this could be a problem. Everyone else looked fit and experienced. We had a secret weapon though……we were on ebikes and it looked as if we were the only ones.

Things started out on a high note. Although we were a bit shaky at first, we settled in, relaxed and established a nice rhythm. The fog had cleared, the sun was out and so far the terrain was very flat….and then BOOM! There it was, looming ahead of us….our first hill. Our tour guide advised us as we approached what now appeared to be a small mountain, to simply change gears and keep going no matter what. If we stopped as we approached the hill or stopped on the hill we were doomed to walk the rest of the way. If we did as he told us we would be fine.

So there you have it….the secret to riding an ebike up a hill and did we ever nail it as we sailed past the other riders who were struggling mightily. Renting an ebike…..best decision ever! In fact, we were so relaxed and confident that we were able to carry on an engrossing conversation with the rear tour guide. Yes, there was a guide bringing up the rear and yes, we were also bringing up the rear.

*Author’s Note: Shauna got credit for this conversation and she was ecstatic because it was her first!

The guide’s name was Super Dave and he had a delightful Irish accent which prompted us to inform him of our Irish heritage. We only had a vague idea of where in Ireland our ancestors originated, but in keeping with the minor falsehood guidelines of the Sisterhood, we made a valiant attempt at pretending we were very knowledgeable. At some point, he must have stopped and Googled our supposed ancestral connection because at the next resting point, he took out his phone and advised us of facts regarding that particular area. This was very endearing and it went without saying that the Sisterhood would likely be generous in their tip at the end of the tour.

Up to this point, it seemed as if the Gods were with us. As we came ever closer to the bridge, however, there was a distinct change in our surroundings. The wind picked up and the noise of the approaching cars was deafening. In addition, the side path was packed with pedestrians and other riders. We immediately realized that we needed to be on top of our game to manoeuvre this tricky situation. This would not be a carefree, rambling, leisurely excursion, but rather a terrifying, tense, treacherous crossing.

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Again, the Sisterhood does not back down from a challenge (never mind that we were only halfway to our destination, thus we had no choice). So, we took a coordinated deep breath, did a group high five, took a selfie, mounted our trusty ebikes and proceeded to conquer the Golden Gate Bridge!

If we thought that the ride would return to a pleasant, calm situation once we crossed the bridge, we were sadly mistaken, because in short order, we were on the side of a busy highway. As we approached Sausalito, we were looking down at a hill that seemed to be a perpendicular extension of the highway….. it was long and very steep! This was almost too much….but we summoned every last bit of resolve and carried on, because to repeat, we are the Sisterhood and that’s what we do!

Once we rolled into the parking lot where the tour ended, our lead guide decided his job was done, obligation fulfilled and he proceeded to chat up a couple of girls from another tour. And that’s when Super Dave came to the rescue. We were in need of assistance and he answered the call. He helped us perform the necessary measures to secure our bikes and was really patient with our dumb questions and comments. That tip we mentioned earlier, immediately doubled.

We then hobbled into the nearby restaurant and collapsed. We each had a combo of wind burn,sunburn and ringing in the ears from the noise of the vehicles as we crossed the bridge. We were exhausted and mentally drained, but ecstatic that we had successfully challenged the famous Golden Gate Bridge.

We ended our grand adventure with a short ferry ride back to the Mainland. In keeping with the Irish theme of the day, Kerri took advantage of a conversation opportunity when a family with a strong Irish accent sat down beside her, and she was magnificent! Big and Little were so exhausted they could hardly manage a conversation among themselves, let alone a stranger, but Kerri rose to the occasion brilliantly. She managed to engage them for the complete 20 minute ferry ride. Big and Little granted her double points for that amazing display. Mom would be so proud. Yes indeed,

Betty Would Love That

We plan to publish a new post every Monday, so stay tuned as our San Francisco adventure concludes in our next post entitled “OOPS! I Left My Heart and My T-shirts in San Francisco”