We continued our journey south today. We attempted to visit Muir Woods National Monument, but their parking lot was full, and there was no shoulder parking available. The road in said “Vehicles over 30 feet not recommended”, and I can tell you that next time, this driver of a 47 foot-long vehicle will pay heed to such signs.
We stopped in Sausalito to visit the Bay Model, a 3 acre scale model of the San Francisco bay and its feeder delta. The model was built in the 1950s to study the feasibility of building dams across the bay to retain freshwater, and continued to be used as a research facility until recently when modeling was moved to computer simulation.
Did I mention that the model is barely enclosed in a 3 acre building? It’s huge! The model speeds up the tidal action of the bay by a factor of 100, so every few minutes the tide goes in and out. It’s fast enough that the water levels can be seen changing in real time.
After finishing visiting the model, we headed across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco:
Our plan was to find curbside parking and stay for Shabbos near a synagogue, but the parking situation turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Area campgrounds were positioned far out of the city and were extremely expensive, so we reluctantly decided to move on. We fought our way out of San Francisco during rush hour, heading east across the Bay Bridge. It took us about an hour to cover the first eight miles, so it was dark by the time we reached the Walmart of Tracy, CA for the night.
See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.