June 27 -- Goodbyes

Really? Is it truly time to go home? Here we are, sans Betty, staying for the night at our last hotel, another Holiday Inn Express, this one very near the San Francisco Airport. Without our own transportation, and not much around here, we had to catch a cab to grab dinner, but at least we found a place that actually had a decent gluten-free menu --including gluten-free pizza! We grabbed a bottle of wine while out, and are now back in our room, waiting for Elsa to fall asleep in her "special bed" (the label we have given every crib, pallet, and van space that has been her bed this trip -- and it has worked!).

This morning after breakfast at the hotel, we packed everything up and set out to ship our box full of supplies, extra food, etc., that we purchased along the way, but then realized we could likely just check it as a piece of baggage for free rather than pay the $50 it was going to cost to ship it. So we only ended up shipping the Lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven since it had its own box and was small enough that we were worried it could get lost in the shuffle of airport madness. We then said goodbye to Berkeley and headed back over the bay to the Presidio. It was quite cool... and quite huge. There was no way to see it all in the amount of time we had (just a couple of hours), so Jarrett talked to a park ranger while I herded Elsa, and we hit some of the highlights. There were large expanses of grass, which Elsa enjoyed running around on, and we were able to look upon some of the old buildings built in the 1800s.







Apparently the national parks truly are turning into Disneyland, as Disney has actually started restoring some of the buildings on the property. The one building they have completed is now the Walt Disney Family Museum. It costs $20 per person; we took a pass.




There is also a statue of Yoda amongst a cluster of buildings that George Lucas rented out for his Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975, Industrial Light & Magic. We tried to do a drive-by of Yoda, but could not get close enough while in the van to actually see it.

We then drove on to the northern tip of the park to Fort Point, which is located directly under the Golden Gate Bridge. Between 1817 and 1867, the nation's coastal defense system included some 30 forts along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Fort Point was the only fort of this era built on the West Coast. It was very windy and quite chilly there, so we did not stay terribly long, but long enough to climb to the top and take advantage of the views. And Elsa had fun playing with the "swings" (chains) and canons.
















From there, it was on to Redwood City to return dear ole' Betty. We got stuck in a horrendous traffic jam in the city, just as we did coming into the city for the first time three weeks ago, Friday. This time it was due to San Francisco's Pride Festival, and all of the freaks and weirdos were out in full force. Betty was such a loyal traveling companion this trip, despite the blown fuses, the fuel leak, and the failed brake lights. She got us up and over some impressive mountain passes with her "I think I can" approach, and was our key into all of the natural wonders we were able to encounter. She was fun, and she introduced into our trip a level of authenticity and quirkiness that we just would not have had without her. You should have seen Elsa's face as we got into the cab and I told her to say goodbye to the van. It was a look of confusion mixed with a little sadness. I think we were all sad to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories, Betty!