In all honesty, I wasn’t really looking forward to my Ride The Ducks special press tour yesterday. I thought it was going to be another dumb, touristy ride and really thought I knew most everything about San Francisco. WRONG…and on so many levels.It turned out to be the most fun I’ve had on dry land in some time, and the wet part wasn’t too shabby either.
As we climbed aboard the big amphibious duckster we were each handed a duck-quacker to quack along to the rip-roaring music or just if you spotted a cute guy walking by and wanted to give him a quack of approval. We were very lucky to have scored “Capt. Cranky” as our commander-in-chief for the ride. He regaled us with all sorts of fascinating stories and behind-the-scene historical tidbits about San Francisco’s colorful past.
For 90 minutes Capt. “C” took us through Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Union Square, SOMA and down by the Bay Bridge where, in theory, we were supposed to drive down into the bay and cruise McCovey Cove. However, after ducking into the bay, we got about 20 feet and then nada. Our duckster was stuck in the bottom and there was no going further. The evening tide was out and it wasn’t coming back anytime soon.
This mishap turned out to be a one of the high points. We all had to put on our life preservers (of course none of us had paid attention to the “what to do in case of an emergency” speech at the beginning, so we were like Dumb and Dumber, trying to figure out which side was up) and await our rescue. Thankfully, there was still plenty of champagne left so we drank and sang and quacked until AAA pulled up and towed us to shore. (Sorry, the chances of this happening to you are
1 in a 1,000,000, because their usual tours only go out during high tide times. But maybe if you slipped the Captain a few bucks extra he might reenact our dramatic rescue. )
Check the website for dates and times and special Bay Area resident rates.
