Hello Everyone,
I am excited to share my experience of our visit to Sausalito, California on a ferry. We have been to Sausalito by car before but this time around we decided to take a ferry ride from San Francisco ferry terminal. I always wanted to visit the Pier 1 ferry terminal but never really did it. This time everything worked out and we made this day trip to Sausalito.
This trip was during the Christmas break and we hoped to see their annual Ginger bread house exhibition all through the city. More on that later.
We took a Caltrain from south bay and then a bus ride from the Caltrain station took us to the ferry terminal.We had plenty of time before our ferry so, it was time to look around the ferry building. My daughter wanted a cupcake so we picked up a chocolate cupcake from Miette Pattisserie and went outside the building and enjoyed the delicious cupcake.They do have picnic tables overlooking the docks. You can see ferries coming in and out, enjoy the sight of birds and of course the water. This is where you can find the Mahatma Gandhi statue.
We took the golden gate ferry and it was quite on time. I was surprised by the amount of people that were waiting to get into the ferry. Of course, since it’s convenient and fun to ride a ferry to Sausalito. The ride was only for about 30 minutes. You can choose to take a seat inside and stay warm or brave the wind and enjoy the scenery outside. You won’t be disappointed with the beautiful city line of San Francisco to the view of Alcatraz and Golden Gate bridge at a distance.
As we arrived in Sausalito, we picked up a few city guide flyers from the visitor center and walked down the street to find the ginger bread houses.The very first thing you can find is this beautiful fountain pictured below, which is a great place to sit down and do some people watching. It’s great for the little kids to look at the water and run around a little bit.
As we walked down the street hoping to find amazing ginger bread houses, we were slightly disappointed that we couldn’t find it in the places that were listed on the flyer. May be we were too late to go (we went after Christmas).Also, we were hoping to see the ginger bread houses by the window but some stores had them inside. Even though, I understand that they like people to come in and take a look at the store , we wanted something fast pace. They had a cute ballot to vote for you favorite ginger bread house. After walking a few blocks down the road, we did find some beautiful ones but that was pretty much it to that.
Along the road were different shops, ice cream parlors and restaurants. We went for a vey long walk and along side were these stairs that went all the way up to somewhere. I didn’t find out were they were leading to but they looked very interesting.
If you are going with kids or even otherwise, I highly recommend visiting the Bay Model. It’s completely free and good for all ages. Inside you will see the model of the entire San Francisco bay area and there are also many interactive screens that you can use to learn more about the bay area. It was very informative and educational.
So, the picture below was taken inside the Bay Model, where you can see the golden gate bridge and around.My daughter, who is five years old was interested to learn and look at a few things like the Golden Gate bridge but was distracted and enjoyed looking at the model in her own way.
We had a late lunch at the Taste of the Himalayas which is vegetarian friendly and serves Indian/Nepalese cuisine. The food was so good, I can say it was one of the best around the bay area. We really loved the interior of the restaurant too with Nepali touches all around.
Let me know what’s your favorite thing to do with kids in Sausalito.