Sausalito Day-Trip

The Sausalito-specific move most day-trippers miss: walk north past the yacht harbor to the Waldo Point houseboat community, a genuinely odd, arty floating neighborhood you can stroll the docks of. The other payoff is the angle — the ferry back gives you the full SF skyline rising across the water, the view the city can't show you of itself.

It often beats the city's fog, sitting warm and clear when SF is grey — which is exactly why it edges out a Tiburon or Angel Island day when you just want sun and a town to wander.

The waterfront strip itself is small and pretty-but-pricey, leaning toward tourist boutiques — so make the houseboats and the ferry the point, not the shops.