After our day of fun in Fairfax and San Rafael, Steve and I went to Sausalito. Sausalito is a charming coastal town (population 7100) located in Marin County, across the Golden Gate Strait from San Francisco. It's only an hour from where we live, but it is different from Fairfield in practically every way.
We checked into our room at Hotel Sausalito.
This was the view from our window.
Our first order of business was taking our annual anniversary photo together.
With that done, we headed out to explore. There's San Francisco.
We loved the sea lion sculpture.
There's Angel Island! You can barely make out the white buildings at Camp Reynolds. That's where I took my students for a Civil War Living History Program.
It was a bit windy.
These elephants (Jumbo and PeeWee) are at Viña de Mar Park. There were 12 of them on display at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco; the architect sent these two to his hometown of Sausalito after the fair ended.
We had a wonderful dinner at the outstanding Barrel House Tavern.
We didn't get dessert there. Instead, we went across the street and got cones from Lappert's. Yum! No pictures - we were too busy eating our delicious ice cream.
Where did our walk take us? Here.
This is known as the Otis Redding Dock, because it's the place where he wrote his most famous song: (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay. From here, there's an excellent view of not only the Bay, but the nearly 300 floating homes here.
I'd hoped there would be a statue of Otis Redding but there wasn't. There were some nice chairs, plus the benches at the park, but we didn't have time for sitting. We wanted to be at our next destination (1 mile back the way we'd come) in time for their guided tour.
This is the Bay Model Visitor Center and it is fabulous.
Within the larger museum, there's a museum about Marinship, a shipbuilding company founded in Sausalito in 1942 to provide cargo ships and tankers for the war effort. It was really interesting.
After we finished up at the Bay Model, we walked the mile back to Hotel Sausalito. I did my Duolingo and Steve sat at the window and watched the people.
The Bay Model was built in 1957 by the US Army Corps of Engineers. For several decades, it functioned as a crucial scientific tool used to test the impact of things like landfill, barriers or other structures, salt water intrusion, oil spills, and more on the SF Bay. The Model is the size of 2 football fields; the building that holds it is 3 acres. It is impressive, to say the least.
We live near the Suisun Bay.
Places like cities, airports, and the Model itself are labeled to help people orient themselves.
Interestingly, the Model was built with two different scales. Horizontally, 1 foot = 1000 feet. Vertically, 1 foot = 100 feet. The salinity of the water is 1=1, but the tidal change is significantly different. The Model goes through a 24 hour tidal cycle every 14.9 minutes.
There are a lot of exhibits to explain everything.
Within the larger museum, there's a museum about Marinship, a shipbuilding company founded in Sausalito in 1942 to provide cargo ships and tankers for the war effort. It was really interesting.
There is a LOT to see at the Bay Model Visitor Center and I highly recommend a visit.
We ended up leaving after 2 hours to go get lunch, then we came back to finish the rest of the museum. Lunch was at Le Garage, which I also highly recommend.
After we finished up at the Bay Model, we walked the mile back to Hotel Sausalito. I did my Duolingo and Steve sat at the window and watched the people.
And, as it turns out, the baby skunks.
Our anniversary dinner was at Poggio. It was incredible.
We got a complimentary anniversary dessert: lemon mousse with meringue and pistachios. Sooo good!
We had such a great day together. But the weekend wasn't quite over yet. The next morning we had brunch at Cultivar. We ended up over-ordering. Everything looked so good and we were headed home, so there was no problem having leftovers!
We had a wonderful time in Sausalito. It was a great place to celebrate our anniversary. Sausalito is a charming town that is well-worth a visit, whether it's a day trip or for multiple days.
