May
25
Biking the Bridge
Filed Under San Francisco 2009
On Memorial Day, we walked around to see City Hall which Erin hadn’t yet seen (it’s fun to visit people and introduce them to places they haven’t visited in their own town). Then we made a big hike up to Alamo Square, the park across the street from the famous row houses seen in the beginning credits of “Full House.” The sun had finally come out for the first time in the city since I’d arrived, so we sat down on the grass for awhile and watched a few tour buses go by. I like to think I do a lot of sight-seeing in my own city, but San Francisco definitely draws a more foreign crowd than Minneapolis because I heard a few foreign languages while sitting there and during my whole vacation.
Around noon, we headed back to the apartment for some lunch before Tom came over. While I watched TV, Erin prepped herself for the engagement photo shoot with make-up, hair, and a couple of outfits. Once they both had their acts together, we headed down to Huntington Park next to Grace Cathedral for the first round of photos. The three of us had fun figuring out various poses and options. I’m glad I was the photographer, because the couple definitely had a small crowd of onlookers from people sitting in the park. When we were done, Erin and I went into the cathedral, another place she hadn’t yet visited, and looked around. Chairs were set up for an evening service which happened to be the inter-faith service put on by the gay community prior to the next morning’s state supreme court decision on the Prop 8 appeal.
After a wardrobe change, we walked down the beach near Ghiradelli Square for some more photo fun. A boy was playing in the sand as his grandmother looked on. When it came time for them to leave, she washed the sand off by pouring water from a bottle on him. Although the sun was out, it was still chilly down by the water, so he was making quite an entertaining scene by shivering and quivering loudly as he was coldly bathed with only his underwear on. I got some good, natural photos out of the Erin and Tom as the smiled and laughed at this. We also went out onto the pier where Tom proposed. I’m glad the sun was out to counter the rainy and confusing situation of the engagement a few months back (one which Erin will never let Tom hear the end of 
.
With photos all done, we walked back up to Ghiradelli Square for a free piece of chocolate. Tom headed off afterward, and Erin and I proceeded to Blazing Saddles bike rental. Erin had wheeled her bike around the whole afternoon, so I rented a bike to accompany her. With helmets on and a map to point us in the right direction, we pedaled off to “bike the bridge.” This bike ride was more physical than either of us had thought. Even on the level parts, the wind was against us. It soon came apparent that although Erin has the walking muscles, I dominate in the biking ones. We encountered fog the closer we got to the Golden Gate Bridge, but we were still able to see things in the distance pretty well. While biking across the bridge, the wind was fierce but we kept it up. Once over, we made our way downhill (yay!) into Sausalito and found a place to park and lock our bikes. We walked around a bit before camping out in Starbucks, each with a hot drink. 
Erin had changed into shorts for this excursion, so she got pretty cold. I was in my running tights but I was soon cold too, and we were both wishing for a hot tub. At 7:30 p.m., we boarded the last ferry back to San Fran. We had a nice view of Alcatraz at dusk. Back in the city, we were planning to mount our bikes onto a bus and ride back to the apartment, but we decided otherwise last minute. Needless to say that with the steep hills and the pushing of bikes up those hills, we came home hot and sweaty. We were glad to be back and immobile.