After a great nights sleep in the worlds most comfortable bed, we headed upstairs to the Executive Lounge for breakfast. They had everything- fruit, cereal, yogurt, bagels, breakfast burritos, pastries, hot cocoa, etc. It was wonderful. Joe and I ate SO much food (and even grabbed a couple pieces of fruit and a bagel for later). We were sad to pack up and have to leave since the time here went so fast, but the good news is that we will get to see Aunt Mary Lynn and Uncle Ron when we get to FL. By the time we were all packed and walking out the door it was 11 o'clock; we stayed right up until checkout. We said our goodbyes and thank yous to Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Mary Lynn and then parted ways. Since I still wanted to ride down Lombard St. on my bike, we rode back up the hill to do so (this time taking a much less steep and rideable route). Just before we rode down, we met a nice lady who offered to walk halfway down to get a photo of the two of us riding down- it looked like she got one, so I hope that she e-mails it to us. It was so neat, but it definitely made your hands hurt from holding the brakes so hard. I had to stop a coupe times on the way down just to shake them out a little. After that, we rode back towards the financial district, where our hotel was, and rode around all the big tall buildings. We saw the Port of San Francisco where the ferry departs from and walked through an area near there that was full of artists and little stands where people were selling things. While there, we also used one of the worlds weirdest toilets. It had a button that you push to open the door, then there is no "flusher" on the toilet (instead the restroom is locked when you leaved for "cleaning"). The little sink inside was totally automated. You stick your hands under there and water and soap come out and then about 20 seconds later the water turns off and the air dryer comes on. It looked like a bathroom from the future. We rode by the SF Giants' baseball field and then a while later rode by Candlestick Park. There was a game today, so there were a whole bunch of people tailgating and walking around. That was pretty neat, but the area all around Candlestick Park isn't very pretty- not at all like the San Francisco near the touristy downtown area. In fact it was not a very good area of the city. After getting lost a little trying to get out of the city, we found the road we were looking for and rode on that for quite a while. At one point we came into South San Francisco, which was much nicer. One thing we noticed is that once we were out of San Francisco, the houses looked like "southern cali" houses. We stopped at a Safeway and picked up some oatmeal since we were all out and a loaf of bread for later since we knew we wouldn't be hungry enough to cook anything. We were still pretty full from breakfast, so we just had a little snack of yogurt before continuing on. For a couple miles we rode along a bike path and then found rt. 87 which we would be riding on all the way to San Jose. That afternoon it got really hot and we were just dragging. Since we had a late start, we didn't get a ton of miles in, but we did make a little headway. We stopped at a library for a little bit and then continued on. In the town of Burlingame, we found a church, but there was no one around, so we decided to keep riding a little to see if we could find a church with someone to ask. Sure enough another mile or two down the road we found a church. There were a few cars there from the people having a bible study. When Joe went to ask, they didn't have any problem with us setting up our tent, but asked if we would rather sleep indoors. Of course we would! Reverend Jeff opened up the youth house for us and we were able to put our bikes right inside so we didn't have to worry about them. We rolled out our sleeping bags and were very happy to not have to set up the tent. It was wonderful, running water and electricity; we were so lucky. We both talked on the phone for a little bit. I talked to Kelly for quite a while. She had contacted her sister in Oakland just in case we needed a place to stay, but in the end we decided not to go there. It was a little out of the way and Kelly said her sister lived in a not so great area- so our bikes might not have been safe. But either way, it was nice to have the option if we needed it! Joe and I snacked on our bread and I worked on catching up on blogs since I had a working tablet again- oh do I have so much to catch up on now. What a great surprise to be sleeping indoors again tonight- this is why I love bicycle touring because you just never know what your day is going to bring. Our miles totaled 26.96 after riding around the city for a bit and finding our way to Burlingame.
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