SF, CA - Along the Coastal Trail

We began the day with the Breadfast Adventure. Gary and I like to eat breakfast out at least once a week ( not counting donuts) and being on the road often makes it an Adventure with a capital A. We use Yelp and Google reviews and usually pick a place that is pretty good. But, sometimes - well, sometimes, I think they ask their relatives to write their reviews.

Our goal was Kate’s Restaurant in San Francisco, on the way to the Presidio where we were going to tour and walk. The reviews were pretty good so I had high expectations but, as we neared the address, it wasn’t looking so good. It was on the corner of Haight and Fillmore, both of hippie fame. Not the best kept up neighborhood and some homes looked a bit tired, but we continued on. The restaurant itself was pretty un-prepossessing, about 16’ wide and not too deep. We opened the door and found an empty breakfast restaurant, at 8:45. Not a good sign. When you have your choice of tables at 8:45, you might as well start lowering your expectations.

The waitress greeted us cheerfully and told us that they opened at 9:00. 9:00 for breakfast? What breakfast restaurant opens at 9:00? Ah, it’s the city and people have different hours. We sat down, she brought some coffee and we began to study the menu. At 9:00 she took our order, others walked in and the place had 5 tables filled within 15 minutes. Our food arrived and - voila!

        homemade toast

        homemade sugar-free strawberry jam

        rosemary flavored home fries

        light fluffy scrambled eggs.

And, as we were eating the music playing in the background included Aretha asking for some ‘Respect’, Etta James thinking love was coming ‘At Last’, and Smokey Robinson was singing about My Girl’. Could breakfast get any better? Not in my book. Delicious. Looks like the Yelp people knew what they were talking about. What a pleasant surprise.

We finished up and took of for our next stop, the Tartine Bakery. And, you thought we had eaten a full breakfast, didn’t you?. Yeah, so? But this is one of the best bakeries in the city. So, what would you do? Pass it up, just because you had eaten a big breakfast? Not hardly. Raise your hands if you would pass this up. There, I though so - not a single hand raised.

When we got to the bakery, we noticed that there was no signage but that the line was already out the front door. The outside tables were filled and people were walking up. We hurriedly got in line, and, as we moved closer, perused their offerings. Which to choose?

        morning buns?

        double pain au chocolate?

        chocolate croissants?

        cheese gougere?

        frangipane croissant?

        apple bread pudding?

My brain might not have recognized some of those names but my eyes were in overdrive and my saliva was cranking up. I looked at Gary and his eyes were glazed (ha, ha) The woman in back of us, who is a regular, gave us a description of each of these since she had had them all. After a hurried consultation, we ordered a morning bun, paid and went out side to an empty table. Delicious. Better than a cinnamon roll.

Now, for some serious stuff. Our actual touring goal today was the Presidio, a military base which has been in continuous use for over 200 years by the Spanish, the Mexicans and the Americans. Here’s your bit of trivia: Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame was stationed here during his brief but colorful military career of 9 months. He went AWOL 8 times and was courtmartialed twice. Luckily, he found a night job to tide him over since his day job in the military was not going to pay the bills. (‘Oh, Babe, It Ain’t No Lie’.)

We found a parking space, walked up to the door and found that it is open on Thursdays thru Sundays. And, today is a Monday. Shucks. However, we walked next door to the Walk Disney Family Museum. Now this is not really one that we had though we’d visit BUT they did have a bathroom and since we had lingered over our coffee a bit this morning, we stopped to visit. While we were there, I read their brochure, Gary read the reviews, we saw one of their exhibits and decided that we’d visit. This museum is not really for kids since it is not about the mouse but about the creativity, the innovation and the inventiveness of Walt Disney and how he advanced the artistry of animated movies. Just our thing. Next rainy day (and the forecast is for 4 of them this week) on a Thursday, we’ll cexplore that museum. 

We did tour the National Cemetery which is the only remaining cemetery left within the borders of San Francisco. Then we drove around to find a parking place near a trail since that was the third thing on our list today. We took the wooden stairs down to the trail and were on our way along the Coastal Trail which stretches from the Golden Gate Bridge to Lands End.

Here you can also see the Golden Gate from the Pacific side and it’s a great view.

Besides the marvelous views for the whole walk, we also passed by some batteries built during the Civil War to WWII to protect the harbor and the shoreline. Of course, none of the guns remains but you can look out, pretend you are one of the gunners on the battery, scanning the horizon endlessly for any enemy ships.

And, inour travels, we found Baker Beach, the farthest 1/3 of which is clothing optional. As we climbed down to continue our Coastal Trail walk, we noted that one young man wearing only a baseball cap was posing between two young fully-clothed women while another young woman was taking their picture. Some take pictures of bridges, some of other tourist attractions.

And, speaking of tourist attractions, here’s the way to travel through the city - in a small car with a GPS telling you which way to turn and giving you a narration as you travel. We see these all over the city.

The trail wound around the coast line finally ending at, appropriately, Land’s End. Part of the trail was built upon an old trolley line which Adolph Sutro, a former mayor of San Francisco built to bring people to his baths, built in 1896 as the largest indoor swimming pool on the outside of San Francisco. The baths were on the ocean so that salt water could flow in at high tide and, at low tide, pumps could keep this flow continual. There were originally 7 pools, 1 of fresh water and 6 of salt water with varying temperatures. The baths were seldom profitable since they cost so much to run and finally he closed them. Shortly after this, in 1966, a fire destroyed the building covering the pools. Now, all that remains are concrete walls, blocked off passageways and stairs and signs warning the public that the area is dangerous. I read that people have been swept away by large waves and drowned.

Here’s a drawing of the pools at their heyday and a picture of the pools now.

In fact, all along the Coastal Trail are warning signs about straying too close to the edge of the trail or going off the trail and, actually, we were quite far up along a sheer cliff with rocks below so the warnings were appropriate.

We’d hit Land’s End and it was time to turn around and head back to the car. It was a neat walk, great views, interesting history and we could watch container ships sailing in and out under the Golden Gate Bridge.

And here’s a sign which tells us where we’ve been and where we’re going.

It was a beautiful trail all along the coast and we were not the only ones who enjoyed it - there were many othres both locals and tourists enjoying the day and the sights.

8.5 1623’ cum