The morning was rainy as forecasted. We decided we were going to go to Sausalito in the afternoon and do something indoors in the morning. As planned, Tomatico and I got up around 6 am to sneak out and go to the gym for some much-needed exercise.

A Gym for Ourselves

When we got to the gym, we found it was quite large and spread out over two floors. The lower level has mostly weight machines, a workout room, and the locker/spa area. All the cardio equipment was upstairs, along with another weight area. To say the gym was well equipped is an understatement. There were dozens of modern machines of all types and plenty of space. We had an excellent workout to start the day, and there were no more than a couple of other people in the gym. There could have been dozens, and it still wouldn’t have felt crowded!

Splitting up for Breakfast

When we got back to the room, the rest of the family was getting up. We took our showers and got dressed before splitting up for breakfast. Tomatico and my wife were going to the lounge for breakfast, but I wanted to go to my favorite bagel place with my youngest.

Whenever I’m in San Francisco for work, I make it a point to go to Posh Bagel, which is a local chain. I find that if I get there right as they open, I can get fresh/warm bagels right out of the oven.. or whatever they use to cook them. They are super soft and melt in your mouth. My youngest wanted to test to see if I was right, so we made the 10-minute walk in the rain and arrived right as they opened up. The bagels did not disappoint, and my youngest agreed with me. He wanted a second one, but there was no time.

Star Wars to the Rescue

Since it was raining in the morning, we had to find something to do indoors. Today was a perfect opportunity to take in the new Star Wars movie with the kids even though I had seen it the previous day. My favorite movie theaters were across the street from the hotel, and they were playing it in IMAX at 8:30 am, so the timing worked out. I had purchased the tickets the previous night and had decent seats reserved. My wife was going to do some shopping in Union Square instead, so we were both happy. By the time the movie finished, the weather was forecasted to be clearing up.

We got to our seats just in time for the previews to start. The boys loved seeing it on the big screen. The IMAX theater at the Metreon is one that is an actual IMAX sized screen, not one that is just bigger than usual like you get in some not-quite-IMAX theaters. Theater also has the latest sound and projection updates, which I appreciate, including the laser-based projector for the best picture.

The boys loved the movie and the theater. I found the movie better the second time but was surprised that I liked the Dolby Cinema theater presentation from the previous day better. The sound and picture were smaller, but much higher quality, though I’m picky about things like that. The IMAX presentation was excellent, just not quite as good as the Dolby Cinema version.

Lunch and a Lyft

After the movie, the boys were hungry. We met up with my wife and got some lunch in the Metreon food court complex across from the hotel. Unfortunately, it was disappointing for everyone but my youngest, who loved his burger from Super Duper. Oh well. We got enough to hold us over.

We then requested a Lyft to take us over to Sausalito. The ride estimate was surprisingly cheap, though part of that was that there is only a toll on the Golden Gate Bridge for coming into the city, and we were leaving the city.

The roads were bumpy with potholes, disrepair, and construction, but we made it. It was a great view going over the Golden Gate Bridge, which everyone enjoyed. We got dropped off in the center of Sausalito and quickly went to the nearest ice cream shop in hopes it would make up for the disappointing lunch!

Strolling Around Town

My wife wasn’t thrilled with her ice cream choice (chocolate), but the rest of us liked ours. It wasn’t the best but hit the spot. After that, we walked along the shoreline and stopped into all the stores that looked interesting. The weather was mostly clear, but a little on the cold side. We were slightly underdressed but managed.

We decided to look at catching the shuttle to Muir Woods. I found there was only one shuttle left for the day when I looked it up online. We decided rather than rushing to catch that we’d skip Muir Woods. We were a bit cold and weren’t entirely sure the boys would like it or not. The weather still hadn’t fully cleared up, so the last thing we wanted to do was get there and have it start raining.

Instead, we spent some time at a book store where the boys found lots of interesting books to browse. After that, we headed to a gift/toy store where the boys found all sorts of neat and unusual toys and games.

We decided to head back to San Francisco via the ferry. We figured it would be more interested than a Lyft and it could give us some great views of the city from the water.

Ferry to San Francisco

I tried buying tickets online, but I kept getting errors. I tried buying from different browsers and tried all the tricks I could think of to try to get it to work, but it wasn’t working. At the ferry dock, there were machines, but they were for a different ferry company than the one we were taking back as there are two companies that service the dock with different routes to the city. It wasn’t clear where I could buy the tickets we needed.

I tried one more time online, and it finally worked, thankfully. It was $41 for the four of us plus a $4 convenience charge. It was about the same cost as the return Lyft would have been, including the tip and tools.

The ferry arrived right on time, and we boarded right away with about a dozen people. There was plenty of room, and we had the whole back area to ourselves. The first stop on the ferry was Angel Island. It’s a state park, and you can go hiking/exploring there, and it looked like there were also tours, though probably not as late in the afternoon as we were arriving.

The next stop was nearby at Tiburon. Finally, we made our way across the bay to Fishermans Wharf, past Alcatraz with beautiful views of the bridge. It was a unique experience and a lot cheaper than taking a tour of the bay with a tour operator! The trip lasted about an hour, which is probably not much longer than the drive would have taken a Lyft.

Wandering Around the Wharf

After landing we scanned our tickets as we disembarked. We could have bought tickets on board if we hadn’t been able to get the ticket machines or the web app to work.

Wandering around Fisherman’s Wharf, there was the usual active chaos with tourists, performers, and artists. The boys stopped to watch an artist uses spray paint to paint a cityscape. It’s incredible how things suddenly got from “what is he making” to “holy cow, that’s awesome!” They certainly have legitimate talent. We wandered past some other singers and some breakdancers as well.

Dinner and Night

The boys were starting to get hungry, so we requested a Lyft to get some pizza. After a meal that was a relative disaster due to some rude customers at another table, we quickly requested another Lyft back to the hotel once we were done.

Back at the hotel my wife decided to try out the gym for herself. I got the kids ready to bed, and they read books for a while before finally falling asleep. My wife was definitely impressed with the gym when she returned.

While we didn’t make it to Muir Woods as we had planned, we still managed to do quite a bit. Tomorrow we have even bigger plans, and I have a surprise in store for the boys!