Morning came and we all said our goodbyes, Juanita and Ceci headed home it was very sad, but there was no time to dwell on it. Mom and Suzy had an 8:30 am Mass to get to at the Grace Cathedral. We went down to the concierge to get directions, and as luck would have it, the cable car stopped right at the cathedral! We walked down to the stop where they turn the cars and got on. The ride was so fun and the hills were so steep, we rode through part of china town and made it to church just in time. The cathedral was HUGE and looked like Notre Dame, there was a labyrinth in the main entrance hall and amazing stained glass windows. The mass was taking place in the chapel and was pretty filled up. The mass was Episcopal but we were both surprised at how it was almost exactly like a Catholic mass.
The concierge had told us about how there were many cafés and Italian bakeries near the church to have breakfast, so we walked instead of getting back on the cable car. We found a great little café and had some strong, hot coffee. Mom had the scrambled eggs and Suzy had a bagel and lox with cream cheese, everything was delish! After eating we continued walking to the hotel and accidentally walked right into the Crooked Street where there were lots of tourists taking pictures, we flagged down a Spaniard and he took a really great pic of us. He almost lost his balance and fell flat on his butt, which was kind of hilarious.
When we got back to the Argonaut, Suzy was not feeling right. Since the Wine train she was feeling a little off, like a cold was coming on. Mom and Suzy decide to take a little mid morning siesta and re-charge. Two hours later, they decided to take an Uber to the Muir woods. It was a 30 minute ride to the entrance, our driver was completely silent, until we got there. We realized there was no cell service and Suzy said, “Oh my God, how our we going to get an Uber back if we have no service up here?” That’s when the driver finally spoke and said, “When you ladies are ready to get an Uber back, if you have no service you should take the shuttle down into town and you will have service there for certain”. Phew! what a relief…
The Muir Woods is a magical place, as we walked to the entrance Angie finds a $5 bill! How lucky is that? We walk closer and Suzy finds a giant raven feather! We realized later that it truly was a raven feather, because there were giant ravens flying everywhere and no other birds that big with black feathers. The trails are relatively short, we hiked for about 2 hours and covered about 4.5 miles, each turn more breathtaking than the next. The trees went up forever and made us feel very small. The woods were green and lush but also seemed to have a red hue due to the deep redness of the tree trunks. The day was slightly gray but as we walked further into the forest we could see blue sky trying to break through the clouds. After our hike we went to use the restroom over by the gift shop and saw these amazing bear sculptures carved out of tree trunks that we posed for pictures with. The gift shop was amazing and about to close! Suzy got a couple of keepsakes, it was 4:50pm and we found out the last shuttle to Marin City was going to leave at 5:00! We rushed over to wait in line. Thankfully, the shuttle was late and had plenty of room.
The shuttle dropped us off in this very empty, random parking lot of an office building with no where to hide form the brutal, freezing wind. Thankfully, we had service and were able to request an Uber, however, our driver was completely confused as she tried to find where we were and we saw the car icon driving in circles in the app. There was one business, Glassdoor in the office building that had a security guard who noticed us suffering in the cold, he unlocked the door and let us wait in the lobby, our hero! Our Uber finally found us and gave us a quick ride back to the hotel. We were both cold and starving and didn’t want to think too much about where to go, so we just went back to good old Buena Vista Café and had burgers (turkey burger for La Sue). The place was PACKED, as usual. We sat at one of the big round tables that is for sharing, and shared our table with a nice couple from Germany (we think) and another couple that seemed really mismatched. We tried to guess what their story was but we never figured it out. It was still pretty early but Suzy was wiped out and the icy cold wait for the last Uber pick up didn’t help her head cold situation. We went to bed pretty early and got some much needed rest.