I asked my Airbnb host to recommend a nice little day trip from San Fransisco, and she suggested Sausalito, which is just across the bay.  As a bonus, it turns out that every labor day weekend there is an art festival held there, so since this was Labor Day weekend that was an added bonus.

You can get a ferry across from the ferry terminal, which takes about half an hour (you can also drive if you want, it’s not an island).

The Ferry building

Sausalito is a nice little place for a visit even without the art festival; there are lots of little restaurants dotted around the bay, although the festival made them all very busy whilst I was there.

There was different music every day. I went on the Sunday and it was tribute acts.

The fab four: did a pretty good imitation of a Liverpool accent and even I thought they were British. 

‘The music of abba’.

There was also a Tom Petty lookalike/soundalike, but I was too uncomfortably hot by then and needed the shelter of a bit of shade, so no pictures.

If you’re in the market to buy some art, they had plenty of unique pieces to consider. If you’re not looking to buy then you can still enjoy a good look around and a chat with the artist (some are more chatty than others, you need to pick your target if chatting is your thing.  It helps if you have a funny accent.  ‘You sound just like Joanna Lumley’ someone told me.  I don’t.)

You can always take a yoga class whilst you’re there. Don’t find yoga challenging enough? Well you’re in luck because this one takes place on kayaks.

The woman in the green was the one barking out instructions.

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So my time in San Fransisco is almost up. My reason for coming here (not that I need a reason but I have one anyway) was to join up with an Intrepid tour and go on a 9-day adventure around the National Parks of California, so that’s what I’m up to now.

I’m not a big fan of tours. I often rip off their itinerary to do the trip myself but tend not to take the tours. However this trip involves a lot of driving.

Not only do I not like driving (plus, seriously, I’m a liability to to other road-users), but it’s relatively expensive hiring a car for one person. I’d then have the prospect of driving for up to eight hours every day, on my own, not knowing the roads, having to find hostels and find parking all by myself. It’s got to be better to let somebody else take care of that, I thought.

So I booked this trip.  I am eager to see who my co-travellers are.  I enjoy the anticipation of a multi-day tour with other folks, even if the reality sometimes leaves me wishing I had done it by myself.

We shall see how this one goes.