How far would you walk for a burger?

Sausalito to Ocean Beach

Patti and I had made a plan to try and get at least one walk into our weekend. She has been busy with producing an ad this week. I had gone to Stockton for the anniversary of Phi Rho. So it made sense to pick Sunday. My open house was scheduled for 2 pm, so we met for breakfast at 7am in Sausalito. A tutti fruitti pancake... good carbs for the walk ahead.

This weekend has been exceptionally warm everywhere. But near the bay and ocean it was just about as perfect as you can get. The temperature was in the mid 70's. The breeze coming from the ocean was a welcoming indulgence. Today there were many boats on the bay enjoying the warmer weather. When you sail in SF bay you can almost always count on a chilling experience. But today would have been the kind of day where you could be in a tank top and shorts.

Crossing the GG Bridge we saw we would have to be careful of the Golden Gate Triathlon. I had totally forgotten this was going on. My hairdresser Janette was participating in it, and had told me about it this past week. Normally the east side of the bridge is almost exclusively walkers, but today there were a ton of bikes too. The west side of the bridge had been closed for just the triathlon.

Heading into the Presidio Patti and I hugged the edge of the road to stay out of the way of the bikers competing in the biking leg of the tri. You know it isn't all that easy to walk on a big sloped road. All in all, we ended up avoiding any unpleasant accidents and passed into Sea Cliff unharmed.

Sea Cliff is a very exclusive part of SF. There are many homes with fantastic views of the bridge, ocean and Pt Reyes. This neighborhood is generally rather cool experiencing a lot of ocean breeze and fog. Homes here sell in the multi million dollar range.I am not 100% sure he still does, but Robin Williams did own a home here. We took a couple of pictures there - because we could! His drapes were all closed at the front of the home, looking a little yellowed for my taste! Patti had run this route before when she trained for the Hawaii Marathon. I have driven it many times. But walking in the neighborhood you had the time to enjoy the enclosed gardens, blooming roses and a little house envy. We were getting ready to turn up 34th street toward the Legion of Honor, but... I saw the coastal trail at Lands End and lobbied for another route. We headed down the trail that took us along the coast, looking over Mile Rock and the great view of the GG Bridge. There used to be a streetcar that ran along this ridge. You can imagine how many ships were lost along this rocky shore. People too have lost their lives, scaling the rocks that tower from the surf below to the city above. Glenn tells me there used to be a road here that fell during an earthquake in the 50s never to be re-built. There were quite a few people running, walking and enjoying the same path. The trail ended at the Sutro Baths. There were with quite a few stairs and some sandy patches along the way.

The Sutro Baths was a huge swimming compound at the water's edge. From the turn of the century until 1966, when it burned down while being demolished, San Franciscans came to enjoy the indoor pool. I know that Glenn's grandparents and his Mom had gone there when they were younger. Now all that remains are the ruins. You can only imagine the grand sight of the pools and people from days gone by. Patti and I walked down as far as we could to walk among the ruins, then climbed the hill to the Cliff house, where we called our hubbies asking them to join us at the Beach Chalet further down the beach for lunch.

It was hard to talk John, (Patti's husband) into coming. The soccer finals were about to be on TV...and being a British fellow, he felt obligated to watch his football. But they did come out and we rendezvoused at the Chalet. We enjoyed a great burger and fine view in this renovated Bath house/and former biker bar. The surfers were out at Ocean beach, dogs running wildly off leash in euphoric bliss while white skinned San Franciscans spread out on blankets catching the all too rare ocean side sun.

We killed some time and added some steps in Golden Gate Park.

What a fantastic way to kick off your day! Now I am typing this at a very quiet open house thinking how lucky I am to live in such a truly spectacular place, with great friends and a husband that will go anywhere with me if he can have a good burger and a beer at the end.

ON that note, for those of you coming to WINE WARS who do not drink wine... I promise to have some Marin brew for you, buzzless drinks too. The caterer just emailed me about her plans to spotlight those fine wines we will be featuring with appropriate food pairings. Be sure to let us know if you would like to come.

THEN regardless of WINE WARS, join our fight to end Breast Cancer by donating to one of the "Are We There Yet" team.

By the way, did you know this is a totem pole that marked the farthest south the Aleutian Indians traveled? Only a few of us do!