We were looking forward to our 6 hour tour of San Francisco and Muir Woods, Dylan's Tours offered a minibus tour visiting the neighborhoods of San Francisco, lunch in Sausalito, and a trip to Muir Woods, where the giant redwoods grow.
Our tour guide was very charming!
We started the tour in the neighborhood of North Beach, northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown. The neighborhood is San Francisco's "Little Italy" and home to a large Italian American population.
Chinatown was next....
Chinatown has the largest Chinese population outside of Asia.
Our first stop was the Mission District, known for it's murals. This is the Women's Building, created and designed by seven women and over one hundred women volunteered to assist is the creation of the painting in 1992.
It has been added to over the years, restored, and anti-graffiti varnished 15 feet high. The colors are still vivid after all these years.
The Mission District was saved by this one golden fire hydrant in 1906 when a massive earthquate struck San Francisco. With 30 massive fires burning, the fire hydrants were running dry, residents came together to what is now Dolores Park to check the last single fire hydrant left in their neighborhood for water, miraculously the hydrant at the top of the park was still functioning.
It may look small, but it had a huge impact on the history of the Mission. In honor of the epic fight, the fire hydrant was painted gold. Every year on the anniversary of the earthquate, the hydrant receives a fresh coat of paint from the Fire Chief and local residents at 5:12 a.m. (the exact time the earthquate hit.)
Our next neighborhood was The Castro, one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States.
Along the streets, brightly colored rainbow banners flutter from lamp posts and flagpoles, welcoming visitors to San Francisco's Castro District.
We were headed up to Twin Peaks, our tour guide said it is the best view for overlooking San Francisco and and the Bay.
Stunning views of the city! He also said we had lucked out......no fog today!
Next neighborhood..... Haight Ashbury, it is the origin of the hippie culture.
We stopped at this market and walked around a bit.
They are celebrating the Summer Of Love.
The Summer of Love was a social phenomonon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior converged on San Francisco's neighborhood, Haight Ashbury. Our tour guide told us his parents came for this and never left.
We were headed to Pacific Heights, where the very rich live. The mansions start at $10 million, locals call it The Tenderloin District. Danielle Steele and Nancy Pelosi live up here.
We drove through the Predidio, a former military installation, now a gorgeous park with miles of trails for walking and running.
We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to get to our next stop, Marin Headlands.
Breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.
Our tour guide again told us how lucky we were.....this view has been fogged in for most of the summer.
We were all getting hungry......next stop, Sausalito for lunch! Sausalito is perched on a hillside between the San Francisco Bay and Marin Headlands.
We had an hour for lunch, our tour guide suggested some sandwich shops that we could get a quick lunch. We got our sandwiches and headed down to the pier.
Lots of sailboats!
We thought the name of this boat was pretty unique.
You can see what folks do here for fun!
We were going to Muir Woods, I will
finally get to see some Giant Redwoods!
