City by the Bay

In one of our longer drives between RV parks, we covered the nearly 320 miles from Crescent City to Napa, CA, along Highway 101 in about 8 hours.

One of the reasons for staying in Napa was the presence of the Baylink Ferry service from Vallejo to San Francisco. The 300 passenger, high-speed aluminum catamaran provided passenger-only service across San Francisco Bay in one hour.

As we neared our destination, we saw the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge silhouetted against the mid-morning sun.

From the ferry, we caught several views of the city's skyline. Shown here is the upper portion of the tallest building in the city, the Transamerica Pyramid, which rises 853 feet and is currently the 31st-tallest building in the United States.

Another recognizable building in the skyline is Coit Tower, a simple tower crowning Telegraph Hill and overlooking the waterfront.

In the foreground is the 292-foot San Francisco Belle sternwheeler, a Bay Area landmark and the largest private charter yacht on the West Coast.

The morning was chilly with a very brisk wind, as evident by the flag over the Pier 1 gate.

Even though white caps were present in the bay, there were numerous sailboats joining the tour boats and ferries this morning.

The San Francisco Ferry Building (the gray building with the Port of San Francisco sign) was our destination. Built in 1898, century-old building provided an impressive welcome. During the early 1930's it was the second busiest transportation terminal in the world. Each day, some 250,000 people traveled through the Ferry Building to work or other destinations.

As with many of our destinations, we were headed for a specific restaurant in the Ferry Building.

We took a short walk around the Ferry Building before entering.















Based upon existing and under construction buildings over 500 feet tall San Francisco's skyline is ranked second in the Pacific coast region and eighth nationally.











But there were other sights around and inside the Ferry Building.