09-09-2026 San Francisco Maritime Museum and Visitor Center, Hyde Street Pier, The Buena Vista Bar and Restaurant

We visited all three places today.

Today, Lisa has a prior commitment, which means Barry is my chauffeur for the day. We plan to visit the Maritime Museum area and the Visitor Center. This is something he is interested in and visiting today makes sense.

We found parking just up the street from the museum. The museum is free since it's part of the Golden Gate National Park system. The walls are all painted with colorful murals. The exhibits cover the history of ships being buried under the old Yerba Buena area, with dioramas and a part of a ship's hull. Viewing and touching the ship's hull was cool. The dioramas are detailed and give you a good idea of what the area looked like before the shoreline was filled in to provide more land. There was also an exhibit about a man named Kenichi Horie, who sailed alone from Japan to San Francisco in 1962 at age 23. He has made numerous trips by himself. His last was in 2022 at 83 years old. The boat he used for his original trip, the Mermaid, is on display. His last trip was when he was 83...WOW!

Upstairs is another area, but it doesn't have many exhibits. There was a quartet playing and the background music was nice. We found a room with a radio exhibit from a Victory Ship. It was similar to the one on the Red Oak Victory Ship Lisa and I visited last week. There were also two brass speaking tubes and we spoke to each other. Two adults playing old-fashioned telephone!!

Time to move on and we walked down to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Visitor Center. The Passport Stamp area was right inside by the Ranger's desk. I also signed the visitor book. I spoke to Ranger Lou Salas Sian. She was a wealth of knowledge. She has been a Ranger here for a very long time. We talked about climate change, how warm the current weather is, living in Pacifica and how the weather has changed there. I told her what I have been doing since we came back to the area, and we talked about all the NP I have visited on this trip. Since I was going to Muir Woods in a few days she gave me the NPS map of Muir Woods and showed me the trails I needed to hike. She recommended when we got to Cathedral Grove to stop and listen to the trees, then give thanks to the wonderful area nature has provided. I promised her I would. She also recommended a book to read, The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. I have since downloaded it to my Kindle. How lucky the Maritime Park is to have her. Thank you Ranger Lou Salas Sian.

She started out as an ambassador for the National Parks in this area and fell in love with the Maritime Museum organization. She knew nothing about ships and boats when she came on board. Later, as Barry and I were finishing, she found me and said that in ten minutes she was leading a few people over to the Hyde Street Pier for a tour and wanted to know if we were interested. YES!!! What an incredible opportunity. The pier is closed now for safety issues and all the boats were moved to Mare Island for now. The link I provided is great. It shows pictures of the ships and boats moored there.

The group was only four of us and Ranger Lou. The first vessel we got to go into was the Lewis Bay Ark. It was a houseboat, and since we are former houseboat owners, we were excited to see the inside. The photo below gives some great information about the "Ark." The inside is beautiful and I've provided photos below. The furnishings aren't original to the boat, but they match the time period. It smells musty inside, but it didn't bother us.

Ranger Lou also showed us an area where we could see the damage under the pier. The pilings are rotting away and becoming very weak. They are original, so it makes sense. Normally there are seals lying on some of the docks, but not today.

We walked over to the building where most of the vessel restoration work is done. We met the main person who runs this operation. He talked to us for about thirty minutes. There is also a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in San Leandro that contains more vessels they will be working on. Volunteers do all the work. It's too bad we didn't know that when we lived in Castro Valley. Barry said he would have loved volunteering and I could see him doing that. Three boats are in the water west of the pier, and two are tied up to the pier for various uses.

The area west of the pier is also a "boat camping" area, Aquatic Park Cove. You can actually anchor your boat in this area and spend the night. I looked it up and the fee is only $10.00 a night, sailing vessels only. How fun would that be?

Our tour ended and we thanked Ranger Lou for everything. If you get a chance, ask for her at the Visitor Center and see if she will give you a tour. Well worth the time.

By this time, we were starving. We headed up Hyde Street and stopped at The Buena Vista. They are well known for their Irish Coffee. We ordered lunch, sharing a Caesar salad and fish and chips, with a margarita for me and a beer for Barry. Of course, for dessert we ordered Irish Coffees and shared a carrot cake. It's been 30+ years since I've been here. The Irish Coffee was delicious. Afterward, we walked next door to the gift shop. I bought an ornament, and Barry bought a bottle of the whiskey they use for their Irish Coffees.

Our final destination was Ghirardelli Square up the street. The jewelry store where Barry bought me my first piece of jewelry was still there, Mashka Jewelry. I still love the jewelry in this store. I found a necklace, earrings and a bracelet I had to have and my wonderful husband purchased the pieces for me. I love that man!!!! And they go with the ring he bought me years ago. Enough spending for the day, Off to our car and headed home.

We arrived home at the same time the sun was setting and the colors in the sky were beautiful. Great way to end a wonderful day in the city.