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Spent many happy hours putting together a multi-day hike we’ll complete in April. Much of the hike is countryside, but on the last day we cross the Golden Gate Bridge towards San Francisco. The challenge was aligning cheapest days to fly with availability in two isolated inns.
Upon arrival at San Francisco SFO, an Easter bunny marshalled us through the gate area.
Flew to San Francisco, then BART to Downtown, then ferry to Sausalito for the night. Behind us, Downtown, and the Bay Bridge. Tomorrow we take a Marin County transit bus further north, then we start walking, ending up back in San Francisco on Friday.
Took this shot of the San Francisco skyline just after breakfast in Sausalito. We then rode a Marin Transit bus to a point north of Muir Woods, dropped off our backpacks at an inn where we’re staying tonight, then hit the trails. At the highest point on our hike we could see the Pacific and San Francisco Bay. In this shot, San Francisco can just be discerned in the haze: The Pacific is just off-camera to the right. Over the next few days we’ll walk a circuitous path to San Francisco.
Hiked from an inn high on the Marin County peninsula, down then up through a forest of huge redwoods, then down through undulating meadows with bright spring wildflowers. Near the Pacific, checked into an incongruously British-style pub where we have a room for two nights.
When in California I prefer to stay in places with a Californian vibe, but, hey, sometimes you have to go with the flow. For the next two nights we’re staying in the Pelican Inn, Muir Beach, CA, a British-style pub. Our room is just a little over-the-top for a couple of hikers. Incidentally, the plumbing is American. This evening, we’ll head down to the bar for British-style fare. They do have old Speckled Hen on tap, but I’ll be going for a local microbrew IPA, also on tap. Served in 20 fluid ounce glasses, of course.
Explained the English phrase, “shall I be mother?” to Dwight. (“Shall I pour the tea?”) He thought it was rather sexist, but got the joke, and poured the tea. Pelican Inn, Muir Beach, CA.
Hiked across the Marin Peninsula, in a somewhat diagonal direction, up, up, down, down, up, down, from the Pacific to the Bay. Checked into an inn for the night at Sausalito, across the Bay from San Francisco.
Today, as we hiked across Marin County, we caught tiny glimpses of Golden Gate Bridge. Tomorrow, we hike across the bridge and into downtown San Francisco. This evening, in Sausalito, we went for an after-dinner stroll and admired the fading San Francisco skyline. Tomorrow, we’ll walk across that view, right to left, towards a BART station.
Walked towards Golden Gate Bridge, 8 miles to go to Embarcadero BART Station, the end of our multi-day hike.
It was a perfect day to walk across the bridge: sunny, light breeze, temperatures in the 50’s. Below us, engineers were installing a $207 million barrier to dissuade people from jumping. Meanwhile, I felt unsteady, simply looking up at one of the two main towers.
For dinner we shared a surprisingly good charcuterie plate in a San Francisco airport hotel bar. Originally, we’d also planned to order a tonkatsu (Japanese pork cutlet) sandwich, but a couple cookies to take back to our room seemed plenty. We’d decided a red-eye to Minneapolis did not appeal. An 8:00 a.m. departure tomorrow morning sounded really fine. We spent the evening in our room watching planes arrive and depart from SFO’s international terminal. This departing BA 777 would arrive at London’s Heathrow at about the time we’ll be waking in the morning. And so we spent the evening, watching…
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