Mariposa United Methodist Church

Sunday morning we were a bit slow getting going, had breakfast at the local shopping area in a 'superfoods' cafe: frozen acai with nuts and dried and fresh fruit.

Then BART into SF, took the best part of an hour to Powell station, and the train was noisy. In town we watched a Michael Jackson impersonator. Then we took the cable car a few km up and down hills to the top of the last hill. Here the cross road was so steep it zig zagged down between flower beds. Then we walked up to Fisherman's Wharf, which is more an area than a wharf. From there we turned left and walked along the foreshore path towards the Golden Gate Bridge. There were nice views, exercise areas, people kite- and wind-surfing, others bike riding to (and across) the bridge. We came across the very impressive Palace of Fine Arts, site of the "xxxxxxxxxxxxx world fair.

Luci stayed at Chrissy Field while I walked on to the Golden Gate Bridge, where I scaled a small cliff to try and find a good vantage point. What I found were 'don't pass here' signs, and a post with someone's puffy jacket (with heavy things in the pockets that I didn't investigate). Curiously in the car park they charged parking only on weekends. We walked over a hill to see more sights of the bridge. It was getting dark, and we couldn't find the bus back to Fisherman's Wharf, but with a little difficulty we did find a bus stop coming off the bridge that took us through Golden Gate Park heading south. A light train then took us back to Powell (with a young mother with her baby busking, she sang beautifully) from where we took the cable car towards Fisherman's Wharf.

I was getting concerned about the time by now, it was 9pm, BART stops around midnight, and a taxi to Castro Valley would be expensive indeed. But Luci really wanted a good dinner. So we got off when we passed a good looking almost full restaurant. It turned out to be Italian and the kitchen was closed, but the helpful waiter phoned around and booked us s table in a fine healthy restaurant a couple of blocks away.

The first waiter who meet us there was discouraging, he virtually accused us of lying about having a reservation. But then the waitresses took over and the service was great as was the food. The ravioli was the best I've ever had, very plump and tasty in a creamy nettle sauce. The roast duck came out very rare, with a very strong duck flavour, it was nicer after they cooked it a bit more.

A different cable car took us on a different route, we had to walk the last few blocks to Powell, then BART back to Castro Valley AirBNB.Read more