California Tour Diary-June 22, 2013

June 22, 2013: We had a fun filled day in San Francisco, the city by the bay. A blue sky and bright sun greeted us for our 8 am continental breakfast that we enjoyed outside in the courtyard of our hotel. After packing up the bus we said goodbye to Oakland as we crossed over the Bay Bridge and got our first glimpse of the San Francisco skyline. The first part of our daylong sightseeing journey had us riding the bus up to the Twin Peaks area where we had a great panoramic view of the city and had our first look at the Golden Gate Bridge from the mountaintop. From there, Paul our bus driver dropped us off at Pier 39 on the waterfront. We broke into our groups and toured the pier, saw Alcatraz across the water and even saw native sea lions lying on the boat docks. After eating lunch we boarded a double decker open air bus for a 3+ hour tour of the city. We saw the downtown area, financial district, Chinatown, numerous neighborhoods, and numerous ethnic areas.
The highlight of the tour was traveling back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of us on the upper bus level experienced the
temperature drop 20 degrees and felt the wind whip us as we looked out into the Pacific. The next part of the day had us boarding a ferry to Sausalito, a quaint Italian village across the bay. On the ferry we had a close up view of Alcatraz and one final look at the Golden Gate bridge from the water. After strolling the streets looking in shop windows and observing street performers we boarded our bus, stopped for a quick dinner and headed to Sacramento for a good night's sleep to prepare for our morning concert. The kids had a great day and as usual, represented the touring choir with pride.