Fans of San Francisco’s Musée Mécanique cheered as the Fisherman’s Wharf attraction reopened its doors Tuesday morning. Colma hosted a Roaring 20s-themed party harkening back to the last time society emerged from a global pandemic.

About half the members of a morning senior fitness class went mask-less at the Central YMCA in San Jose. And social distancing markers were gone from the carpet of a Sikh temple in Fremont.

California’s much-anticipated reopening date arrived Tuesday, bringing with it the end of most pandemic-related business restrictions and mask requirements for those who are vaccinated against COVID-19.

“It’s really celebratory,” said Grace David, who danced at the Colma party in a glittery silver and gold flapper dress and called the day “freeing.”

But while Gov. Gavin Newsom marked the occasion in a swirl of confetti at Universal Studios in Los Angeles County, there were no ticker tape parades declaring victory over COVID-19 in the Bay Area.

Instead, in a region where local officials enacted — and residents broadly supported — some of the nation’s earliest, strictest and longest-lasting pandemic rules, daily life in some places looked scarcely different on Tuesday than it had for the past several months.

And even as the pandemic recedes, it still casts a long shadow from the loss of more than 60,000 Californians who died from COVID-19, as well as the potentially permanent ways the past 15 months have upended daily life.

Still, there were signs across the Bay Area on Tuesday morning that some things were progressing toward normal.

PALO ALTO – JUNE 15: West Currier, right, helps up Max Leins, 9, left, onto a popsicle stick bridge during Neuro Camp in Palo Alto, Calif., on Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group) 

CLICK HERE for photos of the Bay Area’s reopening

“I can see the change today,” said Union City councilmember Gary Singh as he left the Gurdwara Sahib, the Fremont temple, early Tuesday. “Normally, I see no more than probably seven or eight people, but today I see more people coming in and out.”

Many were dropping their guard slowly.

Mandeep Kaur, 39, of Fremont, worshiped without a mask, saying she felt comfortable because she is vaccinated and there was plenty of space. She was in the minority at the temple, where most people were wearing face coverings Tuesday morning — and said she isn’t yet ditching a face covering altogether.

“I still want to wear it when I’m in more crowded places, like the store,” Kaur said. “It’s better to use the masks for now.”

FREMONT, CA – JUNE 15: Shamsher Singh attends a morning prayer at the Gurdwara Sahib Sikh Temple in Fremont, Calif., on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. On Tuesday, the State of California begins a highly anticipated reopening with modified masking guidelines that allow fully vaccinated Californias to attend indoor church service without masks. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) 

Along University Avenue in Palo Alto, plenty of shoppers and workers were still wearing masks and said they weren’t immediately changing their precautions.

At the Greek restaurant Evvia, executive chef Mario Ortega said nearly all of the staff is vaccinated but will continue to wear masks.

The restaurant had removed about a half-dozen dining tables to provide six-foot spacing, Ortega said, but has no plans to immediately add those back even though it can now operate at full capacity. Another barrier to ramping up service: Evvia, like other restaurants, lost staff during the pandemic as workers left or moved away.

“We’re really not making any additional expansions yet,” Ortega said.

And in ballroom dancing classes at Dance Boulevard in San Jose, instructor David Canavese said he continues to feel “a little more tentative” and is still asking participants to mask up.

“I’d rather err on the side of safety,” Canavese said.

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 15: Waitress Jessie Hill, right, takes an order from a customer in the dining room of Ole’s Waffle Shop on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, in Alameda, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) 

Vaccines are highly effective at blocking coronavirus infections and even better at preventing serious cases. After more than a year of pandemic precautions, it will likely take time for some people to adjust their comfort level. But others are ready now.

“Oh my gosh it’s great,” said Marlys Mitrovich, 67, who took off her mask for her fitness class in San Jose. “You get all sweaty in the mask, and now you can breathe freely.”

Lindsey Harris, one of the only mask-less shoppers in a Walnut Creek Trader Joe’s, removed her face covering once a manager assured her it was OK to do so.

“That’s the point of getting vaccinated,” Harris said.

SAN JOSE, CA – JUNE 15: Paula Arnold, 55, happily attends a senior fitness class without being required to wear mask at the Central YMCA in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. On Tuesday, the State of California began a highly anticipated reopening with modified masking guidelines that allow fully vaccinated Californias to gather indoors without masks. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) 

Ida Pantaleo Zoubi, the owner of Caffe Trieste in San Francisco’s North Beach, opened her landmark coffee shop to a line of regular customers hoping to sit inside at 7 a.m. Zoubi had kept the indoor space off-limits, not wanting to bother with the shifting capacity limits under the tiered system California retired Tuesday.

“People kept asking, ‘When are you going to open,’ and I would say, ‘When is 100%?’” Zoubi said. “We couldn’t do it at 50% or 70% because I don’t expect my small staff to sit here and count them all day.

Public health experts have been cautiously optimistic about California’s reopening plan, which comes as two-thirds of eligible residents are fully or partially vaccinated against COVID-19 and rates of new cases are among the lowest in the country.

Some pandemic-related rules remain. Those who are not fully vaccinated must still wear masks indoors, and even those who are protected are still required for now to wear face coverings while aboard public transportation, in schools and in health care settings. Businesses may also choose to require customers to wear masks or stay distanced.

Bien Caylao, 64, has only had his first vaccination shot so he kept his mask on at Classic Bowling Center in Daly City, where the Spirit of ’88 league bowled to the thump of 70’s and 80’s music. Caylao said his league has been especially helpful during the pandemic in staying connected to the community.

DALY CITY – JUNE 15: A person wears their vaccination card as a necklace as they bowl at Classic Bowling Center in Daly City, Calif., on Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group) 

Gesturing to the plastic dividers between lanes on Tuesday, he said, “I’m looking forward to these being taken down.”

“It’s good to be bowling again,” added Paz Capald, 73, before picking up a spare. She celebrated with a little dance and the fist-bumps of her companions.

Newsom, who announced Tuesday’s reopening date more than two months ago and whose political career could depend on how California pulls itself out of the pandemic, said the state would closely track any potential COVID-19 resurgence.

At the same time, he and other public officials are trumpeting a message that vaccinated people can safely resume activities they’ve avoided for over a year.

“Today’s about hugging again,” Newsom said. “Today’s a day to celebrate the incredible journey we’ve been on.”

The reopened world is likely to be permanently changed from the one that was put on hold in March of 2020, however.

Downtown Oakland, where sidewalks would’ve once been crowded with office workers, appeared to still be in a state of partial hibernation Tuesday morning as many continue to work from home.

WALNUT CREEK, CA – JUNE 11: Emma Rohner, of Walnut Creek, unloads groceries as her 1-year old daughter Remi sits in a shopping cart in the Trader Joe’s parking lot in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Rohner, who is vaccinated for COVID-19, was one of the many shoppers at Trader Joe’s, one of the stores that announced they would not require mask-wearing indoors. California has reopened after implementing some of the nation’s first, strictest, and longest-lasting pandemic rules. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) 
The scene was similar in downtown San Jose. At Jade Cathay restaurant on North First Street, which used to pack in workers from nearby offices over the weekday lunch hour, the lifting of capacity limits on dining rooms didn’t make much difference Tuesday, when the kitchen staff outnumbered the diners.

Until Silicon Valley employees head back to their offices and the travel and conference industries ramp up, there simply aren’t enough customers, said Grace Guan, who has owned the restaurant with her husband for 11 years.

“Even though we are open 100%, we have only 5% people,” Guan said. “It’s so difficult — only one, two, three tables.”

People are still calling and emailing Jim Coughlin about in-person classes at the yoga studio he and his wife, Kate, owned for 18 years in Pleasanton. But after switching to Zoom-only classes at the start of the pandemic and losing most of their clients, they locked up Downtown Yoga and moved to Grass Valley.

“There’s no going back to normal,” Coughlin said. “Everything is abnormally moving forward.”

Staff writers Emily DeRuy, Shomik Mukherjee, Linda Zavoral, Leonardo Castañeda, Louis Hansen and Solomon Moore contributed reporting.