NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - PART 2: SAN FRANCISCO BY BIKE.

We arrived in San Francisco by coincidence. The goal of our fall break vacation was to rent an airstream in San Jose and spend time in the Redwoods of Santa Cruz. When we started to plan our trip, we stumbled upon very affordable plane tickets on Priceline to San Francisco. So we decided to let the kids experience the “Fog City” for a day before heading to our Airstream adventure.

Instead of booking a high end hotel downtown ( been there done that – there is no room for 3 jumping monkeys and they don’t appreciate the luxury of it anyways) we went for the very practical Embassy Suites. Located on the Waterfront and more importantly with an “all you can eat” gourmet breakfast included, this was our perfect home base to visit the city.

The primary thing on our San Francisco Bucket List was to ride Bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge to the cute town of Sausalito.

And we were not disappointed!

We easily found the highly recommended Blazing Saddles for our Bicycle rental and parked our car nearby their shop. After a short and practical video we hopped on our bikes and started our adventure.

We were so lucky we were riding on a Sunday because on the weekends and after 3pm on a weekday, you’ll be on the west side of the bridge, with bike traffic only. All other times you’ll be riding on the east side with pedestrians, so that would have been WAY more drama with our gang!

The views and fresh air while riding across the bridge literally blew our mind! When you get a chance to look over the railing you can sometimes see dolphins and seals swimming under the bridge.

Once we saw the county line marker we were so excited we made it to the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. We now had sweeping views of the Bay Area. We took the exit off the bridge, took in the sights and a few more pics before cruising on to Sausalito.

We rewarded ourselves with a drink and a bite to eat at The Spinakker, known for its panoramic views over the San Francisco Bay.

This place made us think of an old fashion country club restaurant. It’s pretty upscale and a little bit stuffy to go for lunch with 3 young children but the beautiful sailing boats passing by non stop, kept them entertained.

 We rounded out the day with a ferry ride back to San Francisco.

While relaxing with a drink we were excited to pass by Alcatraz, the most famous prison in the world.

 Although the journey across the bridge to Sausalito was only 8 miles, the whole experience took us about 4 hours.

Riding your bike across the Golden Gate Bridge with our kiddos was as you can imagine one of the most exhilarating things we had ever done.

 The memories will stay with us for a lifetime.