Our first stop was at the Marin Museum of Bicycling. It is home to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.
The Marin Museum of Bicycling is organized chronologically to take you through the invention and improvement of the bicycle over time.
Here, you can look up all of the inductees in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.
The Marin Museum of Bicycling has a cozy couch area with tons of books about bicycles.
We have visited another bicycling hall of fame: the excellent US Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis. Bicycles are a huge part of the culture in Davis; Davis the first city in the US to have bike lanes and it it is regularly named the Most Bike-Friendly City in the US. We were eager to see how the two museums would compare. (Spoiler: They're both fantastic. They're only 70 miles apart, so you could see both on the same day if you were motivated to do so.)
I was amazed to learn that in the late 1880's one out of every two US patent applications was bicycle related.
Bicycles have become so much faster, safer, and more efficient since the early days!
This section of the museum features the earliest mountain bikes. Mountain biking as a sport began in Marin County in the 1970's. It grew very popular first in the communities near Mt. Tamalpais and eventually worldwide.
It was so interesting to see the progression of mountain bikes on display.
The special exhibit is about Bruce Gordon, a premier framebuilder.
Here, you can look up all of the inductees in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.
Check out this rare Bowden Spacelander bike! It's so unique.
The Marin Museum of Bicycling has a cozy couch area with tons of books about bicycles.
I finished the museum a little faster than Steve did, so I sat down with The Bicycle Man (affiliate link). I haven't read it since my teaching days and it's so good. I love all of Allan Say's books.
We had a wonderful time at the Marin Museum of Bicycling and definitely recommend a visit.
Next stop: lunch at the delightful TuTu Lounge in San Rafael. It features American-Thai fusion breakfast dishes and traditional Thai lunch dishes. We split one of each. That's Pad Thai on the left and a croffle (croissant waffle) on the right. Both were excellent.
After lunch, we walked to the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. It's small, but we enjoyed our brief visit.
Less than a block away is Mission San Rafael Arcángel. Founded in 1817, it is the 20th of the chain of 21 California missions that stretch from San Diego to Sonoma.
This is a replica of the original mission building and is now called the Mission Chapel.
When we went into the main sanctuary, we were surprised to find at least 100 people inside. We later learned that we'd stumbled onto Day 1 of the Camino de California Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
A group of nuns was singing, so we sat and listened until they finished. Then we went to the mission's museum.
It was an interesting visit and I learned a lot.
Our final destination before heading to Sausalito was the Museum of International Propaganda. They have very limited hours, so I'd arranged our day specifically to be there at opening (3:30 pm). But they never opened. We waited 20 minutes past opening. I tried calling. Nothing. They never responded to my email. It was incredibly disappointing. So I don't recommend going out of your way to visit. Instead, take the virtual tour on their website.
Next stop: Sausalito! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.
