San Francisco and surrounding areas

We entered San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge! 

If you look at a map of San Francisco, it appears to be on a grid pattern.  However, the hills make it feel very confusing.  I recently saw the movie "Inside Out" which is set in San Francisco, and it is an accurate representation.  We met my friend Bo and his girlfriend Wei for dinner.  They live in an apartment on a hill.  This picture shows where we parked, and you can see the slope.

It was great to catch up with Bo and meet his girlfriend Wei.  We went out for sushi at a somewhat authentic Japanese restaurant.  Because parking is such a pain in San Francisco, we caught a Lyft car.  The sushi was very good.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the food, because it was quite a plate of sushi.  I also forgot to take a picture of my friends, because we were having such a good time!

By the time we got back, it was pretty late.  Bo and Wei both had to go to work in the morning, but they said we could make ourselves at home and eat the watermelon and whatever else we could find in the fridge for breakfast.  They were very kind and hospitable!  They also warned that if you leave your car parked over the time limit, you will more likely than not get a ticket.

In the morning after breakfast, Geoff and I went to the Golden Gate Park.  After driving around for a bit, we did find free three hour parking!  The park has many free gardens, and some gardens that cost money.  First, we went to the conservatory. There were several rooms, each representing a different ecosystem, such as tropical, wetland, and so on.  There were some lovely orchids, and also an exhibit on surviving on an island. 

Next, we wandered around the park.  It was a cloudy day, but there was no rain.  There was a beautiful rose garden. 

By this point, we were getting hungry, and there was a food truck!  We bought hot dogs and root beer from the food truck and ate the food on a park bench, and discussed what we would do next.  There was a Japanese garden and a botanical garden, but there was only time for us to visit one, so we decided to visit the botanical garden.  The garden featured plants from around the world in similar climates such as Australia and Africa. 

There was also a native California exhibit, but that did not seem to be doing well. However, next to the native California section was a grove of redwood trees!

The park was lovely, but it was time to go on.  We decided to go along the coast and stop at various beaches as we found them.  The first beach we found was called Mussel Rock Park. If you look closely at the picture, you will see people who are paragliding.  At first we thought they had jumped out of a plane and were landing on the beach, but it turned out they were actually taking off from the ground and floating over the ocean.  We saw several people take off and reach quite high altitudes!  

 

Farther on down the road was the Devil's Slide Trail.  Route One used to go along the coast here, but there were so many accidents that the segment of road was closed.  In 2013, a tunnel was completed, making it safer for vehicles, and the segment of road was turned into a walking trail.

The former highway was well maintained, there were informational signs along the path, and the view was lovely!