San Fran: Day 1

If there’s one thing you have to see while in San Fran, it’s the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, seeing how I love to hike, I figured I’d make my way to the bridge via the scenic Lands End Trail.

First, though, I checked out the Legion of Honor, which had some beautiful Baroque and Victorian artwork, as well as a Matisse exhibit. Yay, culture!

The trail itself (as if I hadn’t hiked enough in Hawaii) was just as beautiful as I’d hoped, as you can clearly see:

U.S.S. San Francisco Memorial

Below lie the remains of the Sutro Baths, and at the far end rests the beautiful Cliff House restaurant.

I headed all the way west to the beautiful Cliff House, where I treated myself to a delectable beer. Then I turned around, and headed in the direction of the bridge.

SO CLOSE!

 Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the bridge, I’d hiked a good 8 km, and there was no way in hell I was going to walk across the bridge, so I snapped my picture and just sat to take in the view for a moment.

A forced, exhausted smile.

The brains behind the whole operation.

That’s when I heard a girl say, “Hana, dul, set,”  which translates to “one, two, three” in Korean. She was taking a picture of her father standing in front of the bridge.  Knowing they’d be surprised, I offered to take a picture of them together and counted “Hana, dul, set” in turn. The looks on their faces was priceless. I miss you already, Korea.

After a quick break, I hopped on the bus and headed back to my hostel for a break before stepping out again to catch The Rosebuds playing at the Independent.  The show turned out to be great enough to warrant purchasing the band’s new record on vinyl.

I also managed to befriend a dude by the name of Giraud who works for Air France and offered to let me crash at his place if I’m ever in Paris. Not sure when that’ll happen, but it’s good to know the option is there.