(Buddy the Elf)
Today started off on a relaxed note. We decided that we didn't want to rush into the city, in order to avoid rush-hour traffic. We had no problems. We planned the next two weeks of our trip (so exciting!!) and then headed off to the city. We parked the car in the vista point parking lot and took the short trail to a look-out point. It was amazing! It was kind of cloudy this morning, but we were able to see the bridge. The view point was probably 1/2 mile or so uphill from the parking lot, so we were able to see quite far once we got to the top. This is also where the US had a military post during WWII, to protect the bridge and the city after Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was interesting...We also spotted another car from (Sonora) Mexico, which tallies our list at two (two more than we would have predicted. Later on, we also spotted a Consul licence plate, and this one wasn't the same as the US ones. We're guessing it was Mexico, too.)
From there, we decided to leave the car in the lot and walk over the bridge again. We are cheap and worried about parking. Luckily, there weren't any signs saying otherwise. We walked the bridge, there were so many people on it this afternoon. We were glad that we did it last night, because then we didn't have to worry about stopping, etc. Once we got to the other side, we figured out which direction we wanted to go (it took a while...) We were able to see a little bit of the Presidio (love the houses!) and the Promenade (love those houses too! The architecture is really interesting). We ended up at Fisherman's Wharf and walked around for a little. (Mom, we didn't see the carousel. I don't know if we walked down far enough.) It was so crowded, though, so we walked down a side pier. We were able to get a closer look at Alcatraz. From there, we walked to Lombard Street. I don't know how the people in that area drive down the road. Aside from all the turns, the number of tourists there...it was unbelievable. We walked back down the street and to Giradhelli Square, home of the chocolate. Mmmm..we walked back and forth a couple of times to get some free chocolate samples. We were going to stop at their cafe, but it was super crowded. (As you can tell, we don't really like crowds of people...) So, we decided to go to the cupcake store around the corner. They were pretty good, but I think we could do better...
After that, we decided to head back towards the Bridge and the car. We took a short cut, and walked through the "Off the Grid" which is kind of like an exhibition for the food trucks in the city. There were probably 15 or so different ones, but they were all Thai or Korean food. After the cupcake, we decided to forgo this. However, we did see one of the trucks that was on the Food Truck Race (on the Food Network, hosted by Tyler Florence. It was our second of being in the light with a 'celebrity'.) We walked along the beach, and saw about 20 kite boarders. Around this time, the fog was rolling in, so it looked like the kite boarders came out of nowhere. It was kind of creepy. We got back to the bridge, and were so glad that we took all of our pictures last night. It was so foggy, we couldn't even see the bridge. This was unbelievable. You would think that it was be near impossible to miss the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was not there tonight. There were a handful of people who were still taking pictures, but the only thing behind them was fog. Ridiculous. We walked back over the bridge (it's so much faster, and more comfortable, to run instead of walk). I tried to take pictures of how foggy it was, but there was very little for the camera to focus on so I couldn't. Once we got to the other end, though, it kind of cleared up in spots. We were so surprised when we drove through the tunnel and the fog was in there, too! Once we got out of the city, and back onto 101, the fog came and went, and the sun started to set. The sunsets are gorgeous out here! As we pulled into the campground, it was eerily black out, but it was just the cloud cover, etc. It's kind of chilly tonight, but nice in the tent. Now, as long as all of these people go to bed soon...
It's off to our next stop tomorrow, which is towards some of the National Parks in Eastern California. We have some planned stops for tomorrow, so hopefully they'll work out! So, all-in-all, it was a good trip to San Francisco. It is definitely a neat city, with a lot to do. It also seems to be a city where everyone is young at heart, with a lot of people out and about. I'd say it's now in our Top 5 Cities.
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Day Forty-One: Hey, We Have the Same Birthday!
We woke up this morning to what we thought was rain. We checked the weather app and it said that it was foggy with a 10% chance of precipitation. So it turns out that the dripping was indeed fog, and not rain. Oh, and the humidity was 100%. It's so different without the heat! Couldn't even tell that it was humid out. I've never seen it that high before. Apparently, the mornings here always have fog coming off of the water.
We fought with the wet tent for a couple of minutes. (Don't tell dad that it was wet when we put it away. The Boy Scout in him wouldn't like it. We never camped in tents in Girl Scouts... it was either a cabin or some sort of building.) We were going to go for a run with the lady next to us, then realized that she was from Mexico and we wouldn't be able to converse with her and run at the same time. It's difficult enough to do either of those separately, but together... She found someone to run with though. (Their license plate was a Mexican one. I don't know any other Mexican districts, so we can't make a list of them. It was "Distrito Federal.")
It was finally off to San Francisco. On the way out of Eureka, we found where the sidewalk ends- the sign said so! (That's a reference to Shel Silverstein, for those that didn't get it.) We took the "Avenue of the Giants" detour. It is a 31-mile road that runs parallel to 101. The trees really were giants! They had an auto tour that we took that led to different informational plaques about how they saved the trees from lumbering and other stuff. There were a bunch of different groves dedicated to people who helped out.
It was back to 101 and on towards Wine Country. It wasn't just wine and vineyards, but orchards too. The fields were huge! They stretched out really far. We decided that we would buy an already established vineyard so we didn't have to do the planting, and we would get Adam and his friends to be our help picking everything. We only got turned around once trying to find a rest area. (It's much easier when the road is one road and you don't need to get off at all.) We also saw a guy with dreadlocks down to his knees, no even kidding, they were that long, and no less than 3 tie-dye t-shirt stores.
Once we got to the campground, we were having a difficult time deciding what to do. It was gorgeous out so we wanted to spend some time at the pool, or drive down to the Golden Gate Bridge. We ended up doing both. It's a good thing we did because our timing was perfect. We didn't have as much traffic as we could've getting down there. We stopped at the Vista Point to park so we could walk over it. Oh boy, was it windy! I was afraid to take phone pictures because I thought it would blow away! There was a lot of foot traffic on it with all of the tourists on the way out, but not as much on the way back. We took a ton of pictures with Dawn's camera. (It's a lot harder to blow something off from around a neck.) You can see everything from the bridge, like Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Bay Bridge. And the ships bringing all kinds of things from China and Japan. Then we stopped at the gift shop on the other end and walked around the area, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. Not too much recreational stuff, but there is a bike trail that goes all around and some beaches. After the 3.5 mile walk, (1.7 each way) it was time for dinner and then back to the campground. We heard no less than 3 different languages around. Kind of cool, except they left the kitchen area a MESS! Going to do the rest of the city tomorrow!
We fought with the wet tent for a couple of minutes. (Don't tell dad that it was wet when we put it away. The Boy Scout in him wouldn't like it. We never camped in tents in Girl Scouts... it was either a cabin or some sort of building.) We were going to go for a run with the lady next to us, then realized that she was from Mexico and we wouldn't be able to converse with her and run at the same time. It's difficult enough to do either of those separately, but together... She found someone to run with though. (Their license plate was a Mexican one. I don't know any other Mexican districts, so we can't make a list of them. It was "Distrito Federal.")
It was finally off to San Francisco. On the way out of Eureka, we found where the sidewalk ends- the sign said so! (That's a reference to Shel Silverstein, for those that didn't get it.) We took the "Avenue of the Giants" detour. It is a 31-mile road that runs parallel to 101. The trees really were giants! They had an auto tour that we took that led to different informational plaques about how they saved the trees from lumbering and other stuff. There were a bunch of different groves dedicated to people who helped out.
It was back to 101 and on towards Wine Country. It wasn't just wine and vineyards, but orchards too. The fields were huge! They stretched out really far. We decided that we would buy an already established vineyard so we didn't have to do the planting, and we would get Adam and his friends to be our help picking everything. We only got turned around once trying to find a rest area. (It's much easier when the road is one road and you don't need to get off at all.) We also saw a guy with dreadlocks down to his knees, no even kidding, they were that long, and no less than 3 tie-dye t-shirt stores.
Once we got to the campground, we were having a difficult time deciding what to do. It was gorgeous out so we wanted to spend some time at the pool, or drive down to the Golden Gate Bridge. We ended up doing both. It's a good thing we did because our timing was perfect. We didn't have as much traffic as we could've getting down there. We stopped at the Vista Point to park so we could walk over it. Oh boy, was it windy! I was afraid to take phone pictures because I thought it would blow away! There was a lot of foot traffic on it with all of the tourists on the way out, but not as much on the way back. We took a ton of pictures with Dawn's camera. (It's a lot harder to blow something off from around a neck.) You can see everything from the bridge, like Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Bay Bridge. And the ships bringing all kinds of things from China and Japan. Then we stopped at the gift shop on the other end and walked around the area, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. Not too much recreational stuff, but there is a bike trail that goes all around and some beaches. After the 3.5 mile walk, (1.7 each way) it was time for dinner and then back to the campground. We heard no less than 3 different languages around. Kind of cool, except they left the kitchen area a MESS! Going to do the rest of the city tomorrow!
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