We started off by driving west to the 280 freeway which runs up the middle of the peninsula on west side of the urban area.
It's your typical 4 lane freeway.
(Click photos to view larger images.)
The freeway ended at 19th Ave and went through the Golden Gate park, which is 20% bigger than New York's Central Park, for those keeping count.
And 19th Avenue had trams !!
We eventually ended up driving across the Golden Gate bridge and stopped at the very crowded tourist lookout on the other side. Very cold and windy too.
We then drove through a colourful tunnel to Sausalito. This is a pretty little town on the side of the hill overlooking the bay across from San Francisco (on the left in the middle photo). We had lunch at a restaurant on the edge of the bay and enjoyed watching the yachts zip back and forth on the bay.
After lunch and a very brief windy stroll through the boat yard, we headed north and up into the mountains to Muir Woods, home of the giant Redwoods. It was the usual sort of natural tourist spot with old faded displays and volunteers manning the ticket office. We walked up one side of the stream, past some very nice wooden bridges and down the other side, crossing back back over the stream to the carpark.
The label in the middle of the tree rings indicates that the tree started growing about 990 AD and it died about 1925.
We then drove back to the Golden Gate bridge and stopped on the headland on the other side and took some more photos.
One for the rock queen !
More photos.
The left photo has Alcatraz Island on the left and Treasure Island in the middle.
The photo on the right, has the bridge on the left and the strip of green in the middle of the houses is the Golden Gate Park, which we visited after we left the headland.
Just as we were about to leave, the Sea Princess came through under the bridge.
We saw a Trolley Car on the way to the Windmill. A trolley car is a cross between a bus and a tram and looks like a big grasshopper !!
Oh sorry, didn't I mention the Windmill ?!? It's very famous. It was built on the Pacific shore to pump water for the gardens and is known as the Dutch Windmill.
There was also a sign at the park entrance letting you know all the fun activities that you could do in the park.
We walked down to the beach and realised that there was nothing between us and Australia. Well, except for the Pacific !
I got Robert to point to Australia, he's not a very good model as he blinked in all the photos !
The photos belowe are: Looking back to the entrance to the bay, people on the beach barbequeing and houses along the beach next to the park.
We tried to get into the Beach chalet for dinner but it was going to be a 2 hour wait, so we headed back to Palo Alto and had dinner there. Then went home and collapsed into bed !!
More photos from the day here.
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