If you are confused why you are reading the last day of the trip before others it is because I am uploading lots of 360 content and it takes a very long time. I am just going to write about the days that don’t have a lot of that content to post while I wait. Sorry for the confusion.
Yesterday was a frustrating, sad, and fun day all rolled into one. Sandy and I decided since she had to fly out of San Francisco anyway we might as well spend the day there and see some of it. We had very good instructions from my boss at FXPAL as to how to take the best scenic route to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was definitely a very beautiful ride but WOW! the traffic was insane. I was never so glad to get to a destination in my life. We made it across the Golden Gate Bridge and then got totally confused as to where to go to get a good view. The main vista point as they call it out here was closed off from parking so we just drove on and went to Sausalito, CA . It turned out to be a happy accident as Bob Ross might say, HAHA. The town was so beautiful and had great views of the water. We continued on to the Marin Headlands and found an old fort which happens to be a park near one of the Nike Missile Sites from the cold war. A very interesting place. We didn’t stay long though so only really saw the visitor’s center as we were trying to get that perfect shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. The mission continued as we left the headlands and decided to turn onto a random road and like magic we ended up coming out at the bridge overlooks we were told about. Unfortunately at that time of day it was insanely crowded. Until then I had never seen a parking attendant at a scenic turnout if that gives you an idea of what the traffic was like. Since traffic was so slow though we were able to get some really good shots.
We continued on back over the bridge to go to Golden Gate Park. We picked the botanical gardens area as a starting point and after a trying time looking for parking on the street we went to a parking garage that was equally trying on my nerves haha. We did find parking eventually to my relief and headed into the park.
We started at the Japanese tea gardens and let me tell you if you do anything in San Francisco and you love the outdoors you need to go to Golden Gate Park. It is totally worth the frustrating traffic. We then went across the street to the botanical gardens. The gardens are 55 acres of plants from almost every continent. It is a truly beautiful place. We read some of the histories of how the park came to be and without the visionaries who thought that putting a lush garden park on a sand dune, it wouldn’t exist today. Those visionaries fought for their ideas and now it is truly a masterpiece of nature.
We thought it would take all day just to see the park and it probably would have had we decided to walk all the way to the bridge end but we decided to leave a little earlier than expected. We had to get the van out of parking by 7 anyway but were out by about 6-6:30. Sandy’s flight didn’t leave until 10:55 pm so we had to find something to do until about 9. We ended up going to Denny’ for supper and then just going to the airport. It was a good thing we did because when we got there it was totally confusing. We couldn’t figure out how to get to the terminal from the parking garage. We eventually realized we had to take a train and everything got a little smoother from there.
Unfortunately, after she had her bags checked in we had an hour or so to wait before she had to go through security and this is when the emotions kicked in and reality hit that this trip was over and she had to leave. It was a pretty sad hour but we knew it was coming. I guess we just weren’t thinking about it for 2 weeks because it was hard to think about. It is definitely a reassurance of how much you care for someone when you have to live without them. This is probably one of the hardest things emotionally at least that I have had to do. It is definitely going to be a long 4 months but I am hoping with work and keeping busy on weekends exploring and doing other things for work that the time will fly by and I will be back home before I know it.
Speaking of exploring on weekends make sure to keep checking back as I will be posting all summer long about all my California adventures.
Ricoh Theta S: Bamboo Forest
Ricoh Theta S: Redwood Grove
Ricoh Theta S: Golden Gate Park Botanical Garden
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