Ft Point NHS & Mission San Francisco

October 14, 2012

San Jose CA

‘Twas a lazy day getting up around 9 am.  After a light breakfast I was ready for a quick ride into the big congested city.  Riding in the Bay area is becoming almost ‘Old Hat’ as I’ve been up and down these Interstates a number of times.   Today I’ll ride I-280 west from San Jose heading towards Cupertino, then up through what I think are the foothills, but are really a long ridge of mountains between the Pacific and the Bay.  It is a very rich area both geographically and economically….at least to my limited perspective.

I-280 ends somewhere around Daly City then it is a short distance to the Golden Gate Bridge, but it takes a lonnnggg time to get there.  Traffic is bumper to bumper and traffic lights ensure everyone is kept that way.

Once at the “Gate” I rode the off ramp before the bridge and looped around underneath to where Fort Point is located.  There was a family sitting on the water’s edge admiring the view of the city as I parked my bike and the three children were sneaking glances at me and Sophia.  Dismounting and releasing Snoopy I asked the parents and kids if they would help me take a photo of Snoopy looking across the Bay….here’s how it turned out:

Of course, after this, the two young ones wanted to sit on the bike and pose for Mom’s camera….and I obliged.  At the entrance to the old fort Ranger Rosa gladly posed with Snoopy and then I got a photo of Snoop sitting in one of the cannons.  Inside the visitor’s center I got my SCMA passport stamped and then back out at the entrance

 

Heading over to find the Maritime offices and the Golden Gate Rec offices I discovered they are closed on weekends (doh! I need to read the passport information!) so I then headed over to Mission St. Francis de Asis located in the City.

Touring the Mission was very interesting, gorgeous chapel, statue of St. Francis in a beautiful garden, and two lovely young ladies took my photo at the exterior sidewall plaque!

  



This pretty much ended my day so I rode back to San Jose via US101, which surprisingly was light on traffic and no one tried to accidentally run me over,  and uncorked a bottle of red!

Ahhhh, retired life is good J.

C ya mañana,

Gonzo

Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA

Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com

Cell: 949-433-0761