On one of my first visits to San Francisco, I crossed the Golden Gate bridge to explore the Marin side of the Bay.  I stopped off for what I thought would be a short while to explore Sausalito, and had such a great time there, that I never went any further.

Due to its prime location at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge, much of Sausalito’s history has been playing a supporting role to nearby San Francisco.  The area has been a fishing village, transit hub, and a center for bootlegging during Prohibition, and during World War II was a major shipyard supporting the war.

Colorful floating homes dot the Sausalito landscape

Following the war, the shipyards were abandoned, and they became the location for a number of communities of houseboats.  Eventually a rather eclectic houseboat community sprouted up, eventually becoming a the side of the “Hill People,: rich families who lived on the hill and felt the houseboats were a blight on their view.  This led to the “Houseboat Wars” pitting the two groups of homeowners against one another in what seemed like an endless amount of legal battles.

Two house boat communities remain, Gallilee Harbor (at Waldo Point) and the Gates Cooperative (just outside the city limits).  Over 400 houseboats are within those communities, spanning a wide range of shapes, sizes, and values.  It’s as eclectic and diverse as ever.

Following a brief hiatus, the floating homes (as they are now properly called), will host a Floating Home Tour, opening the doors on 20 unique floating homes.  The self-guided tour will allow you to take a look at the interior of the homes, talk to residents of the community, and get a feel for what water life is like.

The tour begins at Kappas Marina (on Gate 6 Road off Bridgeway), with registration at the Green.  From there, the self-guided tour takes you through a selection of floating homes, including the “Train Wreck” which was built from an 1889 North Pacific Railway Pullman car that was cut in half.

The floating home tours is September 26th, 2009, from 11 am – 4 pm.  Advance tickets for the tour are $35 and are strong recommended.  Tickets can be purchased online.  If you can’t make it to Sausalito, and still want a little glimpse at houseboat life, you can check on their virtual tour.

Photo credit: wikimedia

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