Forget Europe
Take A Trip To Tiburon
By DIANE T. SMITH
If you can't make a trip to Europe this year, do yourself a favor and drop by Tiburon, California, a town reminiscent of those in Northern Italy. Perched at the end of a four-mile-long peninsula jutting into San Francisco Bay, this quaint, little village captures the heart of most everyone who sees it for the first time.
Relaxing on the outdoor deck of one of its many restaurants, the water lapping below and nearby seagulls alert for a choice tidbit to drop, one can see the Golden Gate Bridge and the unique skyline of San Francisco a mere seven miles across the water.
Easily reached by car via the Golden Gate Bridge and north on Highway 101 to the Tiburon exit or by ferryboat caught at Fisherman's Wharf (both methods take 20 minutes), you'll end up on the one-block-long Main Street with its small boutiques, art galleries and eateries catering to both locals and tourists. Several parking lots are available, and a free "Walking Guide to Historic Tiburon" can be picked up from boxes along the street.
Once part of a Mexican land grant, today's community evolved from an 1884 waterfront settlement created when Tiburon was the southern terminus of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Freight and passengers arrived in Tiburon on the way to and from cities bordering the bay. In 1934, one of these boats carried Al Capone from Tiburon to Alcatraz.
From April through October, four historic landmarks (Old Saint Hilary's, a Carpenter Gothic church built in 1888 to serve railroad families; the Railroad-Ferry Depot and Museum, the only dual-use terminal to survive west of the Hudson River, now exhibiting an H.O. scale model of the Tiburon railroad and ferry shoreline and the stationmaster's upstairs quarters as they were in 1910; the China Cabin, a gilded Victorian drawing room of the S.S. China, a side wheel transpacific steamer ship; the restored 1870s bunkhouse set on an acre of terraced gardens overlooking Richardson Bay) are all open free to the public on Wednesdays and Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m., and hosted by trained volunteers.
During the spring and summer months, Main Street is closed to traffic on Friday evenings. Tables, chairs and heat lamps are set up in the middle of the street for restaurant patrons, and vendors sell wine and snacks from nearby booths. A band entertains all evening while people of every age dance to the music.
A bend in the road leads to "Ark Row," so named because many of the small shops, at one time, were floating arks that served as summer getaways from the cold San Francisco fog.
Tiburon is a mecca for hikers, bikers, sailors and nature lovers. Numerous trails traverse the hills and narrow paths connect the lower streets to those higher up. Bikers can ride along the former railroad bed, now a paved path running from one end of the peninsula to the other. At 6 p.m. each Friday night in the summer, sailboat races begin just off the shoreline adjacent to Main Street. Bring along a lawn chair or blanket and enjoy the action.
Pack a picnic on Fridays and Saturdays from May through October and catch a Sunset Cruise, 6:30 to 8 p.m. On balmy evenings, passengers sit on the top deck of the Angel Island Ferry as it slowly motors along the shoreline and goes out just under the Golden Gate Bridge before heading back. You'll meet friendly locals and visitors alike on these cruises.
For more adventure, jump on the Angel-Island/Tiburon Ferry and spend the day hiking or biking the 740-acre Angel Island. Called "The Ellis Island of the West," Angel Island has 13 miles of foot trails and eight miles of paved roads for bikers. Docents lead tours of the historic buildings on weekends and holidays. The 360-degree view from the summit of the 788-foot-high Mt. Livermore is spectacular and well worth the climb. The 10-minute ferry trip from Tiburon ends at Ayala Cove, named for the sea captain who discovered the entrance to the bay in 1775. Juan Manual de Ayala also gave the peninsula its name: "Punta de Tiburon" (Shark Point).
For more information, call the Belvedere-Tiburon Chamber of Commerce
415-435-5633.
