Cycling with Sally

Other than our two days of volunteering (see Salvation Army Journal Page) we made the most of our extended visit and took in some of the sights of San Francisco.  We had very kindly received an email from James and Jeffry who are friends of a lovely woman Belinda lived with for a short time way back in 2000 in Edinburgh.  After looking at our website they were happy to take us in (maybe they were looking at someone else’s) and were very gracious to have us three days early when Big Bird took ill.  They live in the Mission District, which is close to downtown San Francisco and only blocks away from “The Best Bakery In The World” (quoted by Nathan who we met on Leggett Hill and just so happens to work at the bakery) and AKA Tartine Bakery.  We had the utmost pleasure of experiencing Tartine first hand and was not only thrilled to see a fellow biker-friend again but savour the goodness explosion of the treats we devoured. 

 

The day we walked Big Bird to hospital (City Cycle – thank you!) we kept passing Goodwill Thrift Stores.  After about the third one I commented to Roland what luck to be passing so many stores on our route!  Roland started to grin and then the penny dropped….. Roland had carefully schemed this zig-zagging path through the entire City to intersect every Goodwill store in the Metro area! 

 

We spent much of our time walking around the City, much to the horror of our calf muscles as they are so set in their ways of being shortened rather than elongated.  On Sunday we spent the entire day walking through the center of Downtown to the Ferry Building and then along the waterfront.  We saw the famous ‘Pier 39’, Pelicans diving into the water for their evening meal (boy, were they fast!), and beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.

 

Other highlights included: the Zeitgiest Pub where bikes could be brought right into the beer garden, playing house by doing some baking, trying San Francisco Burritos, sharing meals with James and Jeffry, eating the nicest fresh bread for 35 cents at Grand Mission Bakery, going to the movies (first time since leaving New Zealand), watching some trash on TV (sad but true), wearing my very unappealing thermal underwear around the house with no one caring, trying a classy martini for the first time and thinking it’s not too shabby.

 

To complete the Big Bird saga; he has his wings once more.  City Cycle fitted a new rim that Co-Motion sent down from Eugene.  Co-Motion was once again amazing as we bombarded them with phone calls.  We are now carrying an extra rim as although it’s a standard 26-inch rim, we are choosing to have 40 spokes, which is apparently not so common meaning most bike shops don’t have them on hand.