Wednesday, October 24, 2012

RoadTrip: The Bay Area

Driving the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Co.
We woke the following morning and had coffee with Goods as he got ready to head to class.  We also got to chat with his parents who were very friendly and gave us some good tips on what to do in Marin County.  We were going to do Muir Woods first and then hopefully have time for Point Reyes.


It ended up only being a 30 minute drive to Muir Woods National Monument which was good because the parking lot was already filling up.  The main trail was crowded and filled with slow walking tourists so we talked with the ranger and found the Ocean View trail that was less crowded.  The hike was perfect; we were up close to some giant sequoias and the forest was so lush and lively.  Our Ocean View trail took us back around to the main trail and we got to see all the main attractions as we made our way back to the car.  We also joined on the back of a ranger lead tour which was a great way to learn about the history of the park.

Spotted a Spotted Owl in Muir Woods


The story that stuck with me was that John Muir, who the park is named after, had never been there before the park was named for him.  The owner of the land, William Kent, had bought it because he loved the giant redwoods and logging companies had been destroying many of the forest in the area.  When a water company tried to force eminent domain upon his land, Kent went to the government requesting that the land be made into a National Park. However at the time, making a national park would take too long as the water company was taking Kent to court the following week.  So Kent lobbied President Theodore Roosevelt to preserve the land as a national monument.  Kent donated most of his land over to the US Government in order to preserve it from the water company and it was dubbed a national monument.  Originally, it was to be named Kent National Monument but he claimed that he was a simple man and didn't deserve to put his name on anything other than his own sons and asked to be named for one of his heroes, John Muir. 

Redwoods/Sequoias in Muir Woods

Hiking Through Muir Woods National Monument

When we reached our car, the parking lot was a mad house! As we drove away we felt even more lucky to have started our day early, as people visiting Muir Woods were forced to park their cars 2 miles down the entrance road.  We noticed on the map that Muir Beach wasn't too far out of the way so we made a little detour over to the coast and found that this wasn't a white sandy beach, it was almost black sand.  There were also some large boulders strewn across the beach which added to the scenery.  It wasn't beach weather as it was only about 60 or 65 degrees but it was a very cool place to stop off at.  As we continued out towards Point Reyes we drove through a cute little town called Stinson Beach.  We grabbed some fish tacos and quesadillas from a Mexican joint and ate outside in the sun.

The Dark Sand of Muir Beach

At Point Reyes National Seashore we saw more elephant seals swimming around the ocean.  It was so incredibly windy at the point that it was hard to stand and even hard to breath.  Notwithstanding the lack of oxygen entering our lungs, the views were stunning.  It was a straight beach as far as the clouds would allow us to see without anything interrupting the sand and the waves.  From the parking lot we ran the last 800 yards to reach the lighthouse which denotes the northern point of San Francisco bay entrance.  It was quite a lot of up hill running but with the wind and the ocean air, we were chilly in our jeans and long sleeves.  After our jog up to Point Reyes lighthouse we were disappointed to find out that the lighthouse wasn't open on Wednesdays, just our luck, so we enjoyed the comfort of the wind being blocked by the structure before jogging back to our car.

Seriously Windy at Point Reyes National Seashore


Amazingly Long Untouched Beach

Where The Sea and Sky Meet

We then headed back to town to meet up with Goods and find some dinner.  We hopped on the bus and headed back to the Mission district, which is the edgy/eclectic/hippsterish neighborhood.  We wandered around checking out some sights and sounds, which included a couple alleys that were filled with amazing street art (a.k.a. graffiti).  We grabbed some burritos from a taqueria and grabbed a couple beers and brought our urban picnic to Dolores Park.  We found a comfy spot on a hill and as we ate our burritos watched some hippies make giant bubbles.  At first we wondered aloud why giant bubbles were 'cool' to make but soon after we found ourselves enthralled with the glimmering giant balls of soapy air.  We also witnessed an old lady with a neck brace chase after her tiny dog which gave us a good chuckle.  As the sun set on the city by the bay we found our way back to a bus to take us back home but not before one more great encounter with the locals.
Hanging with The Locals at Dolores Park in The Mission
We grabbed some seats on the bus near the back.  There were three guys in their early twenties riding near us and passing around a disgustingly cheap bottle of whiskey.  The driver of the bus had a radio up front with the San Francisco Giants game playing.  It wasn't long before I realized that Matt Cain was deep into pitching a perfect game and when he got the final out the driver, the three guys drinking, Goods and I all gave a little cheer.  This was soon followed by one of the drinking guys to open the bus emergency window and puke onto the street for a few moments.  He then came to his senses just in time to realize they were about to miss their stop.  After this series of events, it is likely that no bus ride of mine will ever top this one.

The next morning, we said our goodbyes to Goods as we were heading down to San Jose to meet up with a college buddy of mine that is going to school there.  He had class until the afternoon so we had some time to kill and we planned on going to the San Francisco Giants baseball game at 12:45.  We decided to check out the city park called Lands End.  We were exceptionally surprised with how great this park is; very close to the city, great views of the bay and the Golden Gate bridge, plus some history, and a cool name, being the most western point of San Francisco where the land ends.

Golden Gate Haze from Lands End Park


Lands End Scenery


After our journey around Lands End including a good amount of time watching the waves crashing against the base of the wall, we drove through Golden Gate Park and noticed a few sunbathers in speedos on a day when it was only about 65 degrees outside.  This deterred us from exiting our vehicle and decided to head towards AT&T Park to find some lunch and scalp some tickets for the Giants game. 

Watching Through the Fence in Right Field
We found ourselves driving by some parking lots that were charging $25, $30, even $40 to park and we were destined to park 3 miles away from the stadium because we were not paying that much.  Until we started driving away from the stadium a few blocks and there was some parking meters along the street, no one else was parking there but we jumped out of the car and read that it was legal parking.  We quickly paid the meter for a few hours and started the trend to park on the street for only $1.50/hour.  We ate a deli sandwich at a place just across the street from AT&T Park and wandered around the stadium trying to find a pair of cheap tickets.  We were fine waiting until after the game started so we walked out towards right field where you can watch the game from outside the stadium through a chain link fence.
One of the Prettiest Baseball Stadiums
We bought two tickets after the first inning and I was able to check off another stadium from my list that now includes, Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), Comiskey Field and US Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox), Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers), Dodger Stadium (LA Dodgers), Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds), Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals), Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners) and the Old Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees).  The game was not very memorable, they were playing the Astros and the perfect game was the night before.   There was one memorable thing, a Splash Hit.  This is when a player hits a home run into the Bay over the right field wall.  These do not happen very often, in fact in the history of the park since 2000, there have only been 85 total, 61 by Giants players and 24 by opponents. 

Wearing the Orange Bandana to Support the Giants

We left the game before it was over and started our short drive down to San Jose to meet up with a college friend, Mike Smith, an Indiana boy living the life out in Cali.

1 comment:

  1. You can say you saw the Giants play the year they won the World Series. Pretty cool.

    ReplyDelete