Summer Tales 2022 Day 4 | Biking the Golden Gate Bridge

I know, I know, I am ridiculously late with my vacation recaps from last summer and I am not sure anybody cares anymore but me, but I wanted to put these out there for completeness’ sake. And because it’s been so fun to look back at my summer adventures (as I am not anticipating having too many this year). Read more here.

Friday (July, 1) we headed out early from our hotel in the North Bay over to San Francisco. We did the touristy things in San Francisco the last time when my family visited, so this time we didn’t plan to spend a whole lot of time in the city itself, but I had suggested a different kind of adventure: Biking the Golden Gate Bridge (more tips here). I did that years ago with one of my friends and it was an unforgettable experience. Now that the kids were older, I thought that this might be something different from just the usual “tourist thing” at Pier 39. 

The bike rental was very close to Fort Mason (where the SF Marathon expo is held) and since there is a large parking lot right there, I figured it would be the perfect place to park the car for the day and start riding the bikes. We were fitted with bikes and helmets on site and then we were able to set off on our biking adventure around noon. The weather was underwhelming, overcast, and cool, but at least it wasn’t raining. For San Francisco in July, these were “normal conditions”.

First, we cycled along the Marina to the Palace of Fine Arts, which is one of San Francisco’s most recognizable landmarks. The best-known structure of the complex is the open rotunda with a lagoon on one side and an exhibition center on the other side. It was originally constructed for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, a world’s fair held in San Francisco, California in 1915.

We continued on to Crissy Field, a former United States Army airfield that is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, located just east of the Golden Gate Bridge. Crissy Field Beach is a favorite among locals and offers amazing views of Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

The majority of the ride is on a dedicated bike/pedestrian path and is pretty flat, which makes for easy, stress-free bike riding. However, there are two short but steep hills to climb before you get to the bridge. I remembered the incline from the SF half marathon course; once you leave Crissy Field behind, you’re greeted with steep hills. No sweat though, they’re absolutely “doable” and you can just hop off and walk your bike up the hill if needed. My parents both had no problem conquering these hills.

If you have time (we didn’t this time), stop and explore Fort Point. It’s a seacoast fortification located almost directly under the Golden Gate Bridge. The rocky point north of the fort is popular with surfers.

As I said, it was overcast and foggy when we set off, but the weather gradually improved and we got a beautiful Karl the Fog-free view of the Golden Gate Bridge when we got there. The picture below was just cropped, no filter was used. The colors were just as in the picture.

Both the west and east side of the Golden Gate Bridge have bike paths, but there are rules on which side to ride your bike. The east side (right side, if you’re coming from San Francisco) is the side for pedestrians. It is open to cyclists during the week or before 3 pm on a Friday, and you share the path, so you have to stay to the right and ride single file to yield to pedestrians and oncoming traffic.

The bridge is 1.7 miles long and we leisurely cycled across and stopped here and there to take in the views. You might not expect it on a sunny day, but it gets quite windy, and therefore chilly on the bridge. It is suspended over the Pacific Ocean and the bay is the only gap in the coast range for hundreds of miles. Cool, dense, high-pressure air over the cold ocean pushes its way into the Bay and makes the bridge a breezy place. I am glad we all wore layers!

Luckily, the sun came out when we arrived on the other side and warmed us right up. We stopped for a picnic-style lunch at Vista Point above Sausalito – the famous tourist spot – and enjoyed the view before heading back over the bridge.

The path on the west side of the bridge (left side if you’re coming from San Francisco) is open to cyclists after 3 pm on Fridays and all weekend and it’s bike traffic only. We contemplated riding the bikes down to Baker Beach, from where you can catch another iconic view of the Golden Gate Bridge, but since it was already mid-afternoon and the kids were kind of done at this point, we decided to make our way back through the Presidio. We cycled a total of 13 miles in about 4.5 hours (with stops).

I thought our bike tour was great and I think the others did, too. What an experience we just had!

We were all in high spirits when we returned to our cars and were faced with a rather rude awakening. One of our rental cars had been broken into and my dad’s backpack was missing.

Now, you might wonder how this can happen in a large public parking lot along a busy street right next to the bike rental shop. I assumed that this must have been just about the safest spot in the whole parking lot. But yeah, that’s San Francisco for you. You have to expect the worst, even very brazen car thieves. Not even the people at the bike rental place said they even “saw” or heard anything. Car theft in the city happens in minutes.

My dad hadn’t left his backpack carelessly in the back seat either. No, it was tucked under the driver’s seat and there was also a cooler right above it. So it wasn’t even complete negligence. But the fact remained: the backpack was gone and with it – along with a few other things – my mom’s iPad and dad’s passport. (Why he didn’t keep his passport with him at all times is a complete mystery to me. I’ll share more on how that played out later.)

Luckily, I was able to handle the calls to the rental car agency and the police non-emergency line. (My family speaks decent English and got by well on this trip, but this would have been a hard conversation for any of them to handle.) Apparently, the SF police don’t even send anyone out for something like petty car theft anymore (it happens so frequently) and asked us to drive to the nearest police station to report the incident. 

Since it would have been completely pointless to show up at the police station with the whole family, we sent everyone for a walk to Pier 39, and my dad and I drove to the police station with the rental car. After we had filed the police report (there was another lady in front of us who had also reported a car break-in at the marina – go figure!), we decided to head straight to San Francisco Airport to exchange the car at the rental car agency. We didn’t know how long that was going to take and since it was getting late, we told everyone to meet up at the hotel that we were staying at for the next two nights near the airport. 

We had no problem exchanging the car and everyone else had a nice stroll to Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 (a bit of tourist activity after all) and we all reconvened at the hotel at 7:30 pm. Since we were all tired and exhausted, we had to make a quick decision about dinner. Luckily, there was a restaurant nearby, Max’s of Burlingame, where we were able to get a quick bite to eat. It was a typical American Burger & Sandwich place, but it had good reviews and turned out to be a good choice. The burgers were very big and very tasty and quickly lifted our spirits. We weren’t going to let this incident spoil our vacation and between drinks and juicy bites of food, we were already making plans for the next day.