Sausalito and the North Bay

Hi there, over-wintering reader. As the pandemic reaches new heights, yet tantalizingly the vaccines seem almost close enough to touch, the general level of existential angst on this planet must surely be bending the needles of psychic extra-terrestrials somewhere in the galaxy. But as we hunker down and try to get through what future TV documentary talking heads will no doubt call "the COVID winter", it's nice to reflect on pleasant things we've done and which no doubt we'll be doing again relatively soon.

So it is that I bring you the humble tale of our break in Sausalito and the North Bay, which happened just before Thanksgiving. Sausalito is just across the Golden Gate from San Francisco; it's a tiny town, perched on rocks which tumble down to the bay shore, which historically was an important railhead and ferry port for travelling to and from the city. In fact, the main local North/South motorway, aka US-101, which is now routed via the bridge, used to grind to a halt at the ferry port in Sausalito.

Helen booked us a great hotel there with fantastic bay views:

That's San Francisco and Alcatraz in the distance.

Our first day involved a lot of walking in and around the famous Muir Woods. Now, the Northern California coastal area was dominated by huge redwood forests until folks started felling those trees to build houses in San Francisco. In fact, much of the commerce and infrastructure in Northern California was built to support that huge logging industry. These days, there are many redwoods locally, but most of those have been replanted since the areas were cleared; Muir Woods is one of the only places you can go to see original growth coastal redwoods.

It's of course a very beautiful place, with a very different feeling to the rest of the area. Again, we had to pinch ourselves about the weather; this picture was taken at the end of November, folks:

Sausalito also happens to consider itself something of a seafood haven, and yes, it offers fish and chips! Only this time, dear reader, BATTER was involved!

Now I've got to say, this actually was a pretty fair approximation of fish and chips. OK, the chips are still not chips, and the fish isn't really fishy enough, but it's battered and fried white fish - what's not to like? It's still not that delightful light, flaky texture that seemingly you only get from North Sea cod, but hey, I noted that this is only an hour's drive from Palo Alto and thus a place that it's not ridiculous to dash out to when the urge for fish and chips cannot be resisted.

I've also been talking more recently about how we've tried a few things to get a bit more settled here, but in the great tradition of the confessional I have to admit to a slight regression. For some reason I woke up last weekend and couldn't get the idea of CHIP BUTTIES out of my head. So we found the nearest approximation we can find to English chips (which, for what it's worth, are the delicious crinkly fries from Shake Shack), put them in a bun, and smothered them in cheap ketchup. This, dear reader, is the ultimate UK culinary experience and something that the US dearly needs to import. There is nothing close in the comfort food stakes here (although I speak as someone that hasn't yet invested in that turkey fryer).

But I digress.

Driving North up the coast from Sausalito, you eventually reach the Point Reyes National Seashore. This is an amazing coast, pockmarked with inlets, bays and lagoons, formed by the ocean and also by the San Andreas fault. At the visitor centre for this place they've even got an earthquake walk, where a fence that is perpendicular to the fault line was split by the 1906 earthquake, and has been left there to show just how far the earth moved at this point (16 feet, for reference). And of course, you can take the girl out of the school, but not the other way around, so here's a demo of plate tectonics which in more enlightened times would be educating the youth of America:

Back in Sausalito, the Marin County headlands (which is the official name of the bit of rock the other side of the Golden Gate from San Francisco) is dominated by two things really. The first of these is the American national obsession with shooting at things. The headland historically had a significant military presence, with a succession of gun batteries being built here, right up until the mid-1900s. Amusingly, the interpretive panels overlooking these talk plaintively of the batteries being built to defend "against an enemy that never came", with a detectable air of disappointment that they never got to shoot at anything for real.

Obviously post-War such things were more than a bit obsolete, so the headland was also home to a Nike missile site, designed and built to shoot down Soviet jet bombers which again never came. Of course, by the mid-50s and the advent of ICBMs, this too was obsolete, but has been kept here as a Cold War relic. Unfortunately the site was closed due to COVID restrictions, but in more normal times you can get a tour once a month. As a sucker for anything Cold War related, doubly so if there's a nuclear angle to it, I'm sure I'll be back there in the future.

The second thing which dominates the headland here is the Golden Gate Bridge:

Fun fact for our UK readers: the name Golden Gate actually refers to the strait itself, and predates the bridge being built.

The bridge was built in the 1930s, and at the time was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. Now of course, anyone who grew up in Yorkshire in the 70s and 80s knows that the world-famous Humber Bridge took that title on completion; however, unlike the Humber Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge actually goes somewhere. Suspension bridges are somewhat out of fashion these days, with cable-stayed bridges finding favour as materials evolve and the maintenance problems of suspension bridges become obvious, but it's always impressive to see one of these beasts up close and personal.

And get up close we did; Helen was keen to walk the bridge, so we took our lives in our hands and made the walk to San Francisco and back, which is about a 3 mile round trip. Now I've got to admit this was a bit scary for me, particularly on the outbound leg; all that separates you from a 200ft drop into the bay is a four foot high barrier, and it's not without good reason that this is the most popular suicide spot in the whole of the US. There are also plenty of other folks walking the bridge, plus a huge number of folks biking the bridge and sharing the walkway, giving a somewhat dangerous feel, but we made it. It's in fact a beautiful walk and highly recommended; I just don't recommend spending the evenings researching how many people have fallen off the bridge first, eh reader?

And with that, we were back to Palo Alto. Driving back across the bridge is somewhat magical; there are tolls, but no toll gates, with the cameras taking a picture of your car number plate then sending you an invoice in the post or just charging your account if you have one. There's plenty to see and do in the North Bay and it'll definitely be added to the itinerary for any of you post-pandemic visitors!