California, 15th November, San Francisco morning and obligatory dawn shot

Before we got into San Francisco there was one thing to do; get to the north side of the Golden Gate bridge and take the dawn shot. So at 5.30am we packed up our bed and drove the short distance to a dock just by the coast guard station, joining a number of other people there for the same thing. There was no fog, so unfortunately there was no magic of the bridge rising above the sea of mist.
However we watched as the sun came up over Bay Bridge and the city. As the sun rose more cloud came until a thick layer covered the sky over the bridge.









We were due to get the car back to Lost Campers for noon. We had breakfast down by the dock and had a clear out of all our rubbish. The cafétiere, which had leaked before, luckily chose this moment to break completely, so we threw that out as well. Having packed up, there was till some time to go before midday so we had a tour of the Marin County side of the bridge. 
We started at Fort Baker, a 1905 built former US army post which has a ring of historic houses around a green. Here were yet more opportunities for Golden Gate shots.




From there we had a quick drive around the Golden Gate Recreation Area, going to the Marine Mammal Centre where they care for injured sea mammals. We were not allowed to look at the animals as they have tours at certain times only, but the staff were very keen to talk about their work. As we were driving round there were lots of opportunities to look at  different aspects of the bridge.
The time eventually came to get across that bridge and into the Lost Campers compound to give them back our home for the last month. A single french lady had come in to pick up another vehicle and we gave her all the bits we had bought, extra cutlery, gas cylinders, salt, oil, herbs etc. We ordered a taxi which came pretty quickly and took us to our hotel, the St Francis on Union Square. We managed to get this high class reservation at a good rate, courtesy of Ben, Mairi's cousin, who works for Westin. A culture shock after our few weeks of roughing it.

We were now in for 3 days of city life, before flying out.

















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