...San Francisco, Day 3...

The life cycle of this tree. Zoom in to see when it became a tree.

I can't tell you the number of people that told us to visit Muir Woods while in San Francisco. Muir Woods has some old Redwood trees, you know, the kind that are over 1,000 years old, so Andy and I made it a priority to see them. The only problem we faced: figuring out how to get there.

Since we were relying on public transportation for the entire trip, there was quite a bit of "figuring out" that needed to happen so that we didn't end up stuck in Sausalito (which looks like is a quaint little town that I would have loved to have explored.) We had one bad experience with a driver (basically, he gave us completely incorrect information) but we arrived just in time to hop on a tour of the woods.

Inside a tree

The woman leading the tour was green, figuratively and literally, but she did a great job. At times, I could see her cheeks and mouth shaking as she spoke. We were a small group, but we asked her lots of questions, and her answers were solid and sure.

Did you know that the tannins in redwoods repel bugs and mosquitos and moss? Did you know that there are hardly any birds because there are no bugs to feast on?

It's an eerily silent forest.

After the tour, we explored on our own for a while, and then caught the shuttle back to the city. We cleaned up at our hotel and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner.

We felt that eating fish and chips while by the bay was a must, and the Codmother Fish and Chips had the best reviews. Similar to a food truck that's parked, we walked up and grabbed an open table on the patio (there's only a patio) and placed our order. The food portion was tremendous, and the taste was absolutely delicious. It was a bit more than either of us could manage.

(One of my favorite things about this trip, was that Andy and I bought food to share, instead of each having our own entree. It gave us a chance to try different things without breaking the bank. Everyone else probably already does this, but it was a first for us.)

This little guy was all by his lonesome.
All his friends were over on another dock. Loner?

We walked around the wharf, to Pier 39, and watched the sea lions sleep on the docks. We walked to Ghirardelli Square and ordered a sundae to share. Ghirardelli makes great chocolate, but I wasn't impressed with the sundae.

With race day the next day, we were again in bed before 8:30pm. I woke up with a start two times in the middle of the night, nervous my alarm wouldn't go off and I'd miss it. By 3:17am, there was no going back to sleep for me...