Birthday Celebration with a Treat in the morning!

Steve treated us to a Segway (amazing personal transportation with gyroscopes) Tour of the San Francisco Waterfront as a birthday treat (Mark declined to come, Barbara enthusiastically joined). We took the 9am tour - and finished up about noon.

We started off with personal and group training, and a movie. We started up our Segways with a key that limits speed to 4.5 MPH.

Then we headed out in two groups of about 10 people each. We went up and down some hills in style. The tour guide talked to us over walkie-talkies that were strapped into the packs on the front of our units as we "rode", and stopped to talk to us in groups at certain stops.

When we got over the biggest hill, at Fort Mason, the guide let us zoom around the mostly empty parking lot. He usually gave such practice at a pier before the hill that leads to Fort Mason -- but it was closed. Then we shut down our Segways and restarted with a key that limits speed to 8 - 8.5 MPH. (There's third key that we didn't have -- that can let you start at the max of about 12 MPH.)

Before departing Fort Mason, we paused at an overlook to Alcatraz.
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We ended the first direction of our tour at the Marina Green. We then retraced our route, except that we went a little longer way back, going around Fisherman's Wharf. San Francisco doesn't allow Segways on sidewalks (we could use pedestrian/bike paths most of the way) -- so we were in the streets in the vicinity of Fisherman's Wharf. We made a cute little parade. We had a lovely day -- the fog was pretty much burned off except at the Golden Gate. We all had a great time.


We ended the day with dinner out at an Italian restaurant, and a raspberry-chocolate torte from Safeway.