Samuel Taylor state park to South San Francisco, CA

Wednesday, 7/29 - 48 miles. Today we made a transition from riding in mostly lightly populated areas to more urban riding after we entered Marin County north of SF. Several nice marked bike routes steered us through both commercial and residential areas but at a few points we were confused as to where to go. A local biker volunteered to lead us on the route which would take us to the Golden Gate Bridge. After climbing a rather large hill we were able to ride on a bike path that took us into Sausalito where we stopped at a bike shop. When using their bathroom I got a glimpse of my bright yellow bike jersey and realized it was amazingly dirty and stained from sunscreen and just general use - it is about 10 years old and had seen a lot of us and the stains and dirt were permanent. I bought a new jersey in the bike store and put the old one in the trash. It was cold and windy when we rode onto the walkway for the Golden Gate Bridge. Fast moving fog also enveloped the bridge towers. The bridge walkway was mobbed with cyclists and walkers. I didn't know that the bridge was such a big tourist attraction. After crossing the bridge we parted ways with the mother-daughter duo which we have been riding with for the past week. Their trip ended in SF where they were taking the BART train across the bay to the Amtrak station in Emoryville. We continued towards our destination of San Diego. Our route took us through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. The park was being used extensively and it was quite large. After leaving the park we found that we were only a short distance from the Pacific Ocean. Previously, I had not realized that ocean beaches were actually in the city of SF. We followed the ocean as we rode into Daly City, CA where it was windy, foggy and quite cold. It was another 20 miles to reach the campground in Half Moon Bay where we originally planned to camp. We decided against  doing the additional 20 miles (which would have made for a 60 mile day). Unfortunately, the motels Hal called didn't have rooms available. After much calling we found a motel with rooms but it meant backtracking several miles from Daly City to South San Francisco. We rode back to South San Francisco and checked into the motel which was quite expensive. As soon as we went inland the cold and wind disappeared.