After coming through the Marin Headlands Tunnels approaching the Golden Gate Bridge.
Jill and I ventured into San Francisco today to do more research for SF Tourism Tips.
We love taking the bus in, relaxing while we ride, and just watching the traffic as we pass by it.
Once in a while we get stuck in the traffic, since even the carpool lane is full, but most of the time we have a pretty fast ride and we enjoy sitting in the front seat so we can talk to the bus driver a bit and see the best views.
Most of the other riders are usually reading on their tablets or phones or working away but we prefer to be present in the ride and the enjoyment of being back in Northern California.
You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.
We do know what we have because it was gone and now we are back.
At least until February 28th when we head off to Los Angeles.
We’ve already set up plans to see lots of friends and relatives down there and can’t wait to hit Cancun so Jill can see her sister and her sister’s family and I can finally meet some of Jill’s family in person instead of on Skype. Being that we met 8 days before I left for China, I’ve never met her family, in person, and she’s never met mine. This will be a fun trip around the USA!
The Bus driver, this morning, seemed a bit grumpy, which was oddly out of place since he looked a lot like Santa Claus with a huge white beard and big belly.
We thought he’d be friendly and happy, since basically every driver we’ve met on the Golden Gate Transit system is incredibly happy and friendly, but he wasn’t.
Since I started out using a silly phrase, might as well use another one: I guess you can’t judge a book by it’s cover also.
We made sure not to ask any questions and just took some pictures and said “Hi” to passengers as they got on and off the bus and most of them replied with the same.
We weren’t in any hurry to get in since we knew exactly what we wanted to do, what times the places we wanted to visit were open and when we wanted to be home.
It is a wonderful way to live a carefree life and even though it seems as if it is all easy, it isn’t.
Jill puts in many hours of work, especially over the last 4 years, to make her site well respected and easy to use for tourists and locals alike.
She receives a lot of compliments, on her page and on her Facebook page, about how well it is put together and how “real and down home” it is. That is something Jill specifically worked at instead of just being the generic, “This is what you want to see and do” kind of site that so many other people have built. It took many hours of walking, busing, and hiking around San Francisco and it still continues to each day.
The fact that she continued to build the site, and her business, while living in China for 1.5 years just goes to show that incredible research, photographs and knowledge that she had stored up in her mind and her computer.
Now that we are back, we will be updating a lot of stuff and building even more pages because we are so excited to help people see more about San Francisco and see it through our eyes so that they can then see it through their own.
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Karl the Fog in the distance.