Weekend Ferries Resume

One of the first casualties of the pandemic was weekend ferry service in San Francisco Bay, which seemed counterintuitive since it allowed for people to take public transportation while being outside.

This Fourth of July, Golden Gate Transit offered free ferry rides from Saturday through Monday to publicize the resumption of weekend service, finally.

I stumbled across this news on the internet Monday morning, the 5th, and raced to the Ferry Building for a trip on the Larkspur ferry, a spectacularly beautiful 45-minute boat ride.

Across a road from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal is a small retail and dining complex where you can have lunch and browse at the Book Passage.

Disembarking around noon, there was a huge line of passengers waiting for a ride into San Francisco, many of them on their way to a Giants game on the waterfront.

On the 2:10 PM return trip before the 3PM game, the line was even longer. The situation could have been a disaster, but there were helpful, competent Golden Gate Transit employees making sure it ran smoothly, and they had added an extra boat if the first one grew too full.

The next Saturday we pulled out our Clipper cards and paid for a boat ride and lunch to Sausalito.

The noontime ferry was relatively uncrowded, with lots of romantic tourist couples looking like they were having the time of their lives.

It's been a relentlessly cold, foggy San Francisco summer this year, but reading heatwave horror stories from everywhere else in the West has made me cease the traditional whining and instead feel grateful for our chill microclimate.