Day 1: From Sea... (San Francisco, CA to Sausalito, CA - 24 miles)

We started off the morning from our hotel with a less than ideal breakfast of oatmeal, waffles, and apples. We had to make a pit stop at a grocery store to stock up on food for the road, though, so we weren't too concerned. Our cab driver took us to downtown San Francisco to the Safeway grocery store, where we bought some good stuff for the road. The cab driver was awesome- he talked to us about the city, SF sports, and some places to see while we were riding around for the day. After picking up our groceries, we took the city bus to Pacific Bikes, where we had our bikes shipped to. Special thanks to the guys at Pacific Bikes for letting us set up our stuff in their store. Loaded up with around 45 pounds of gear each, we touched off.

From the store, we headed down to the seaport, where we saw some incredible views of the bay and Alcatraz.

Unfortunately, the camera doesn't do it justice. The hills in the distance covered the horizon, and were just amazing to see. From the seaport we made our way up to Golden Gate Park, where we met another rider named Julia along the way. She took us through Presidio and onto the panhandle of Golden Gate Park. We could feel the cool ocean breeze as we anticipated our arrival at Ocean Beach. This was our first view of the Pacific, and it was equally as impressive as the bay side. We took a steep climb (story of the day) and eventually cycled around through the streets, making our way to the bridge.

This was definitely the highlight of the day. The views didn't cease to amaze us throughout our sightseeing. After we crossed the bridge into Sausalito, we made our way to a small Mexican restaurant, which had some delicious empanadas. We ended our day with the hardest hills of the day up to our shelter for the night, compliments of a generous woman named Winnie. The views from her house made the hills absolutely worth it.

Tomorrow we're planning on reaching Sacramento, which is a little over 100 miles away. We're hitting the hay early to get ready!