San Francisco

My parents and I took a trip last month to San Francisco - just the three of us (no Nate, no kids). It was terrific. Here are few of the hilites of our trip.

Day 1 - We rented bicycles in downtown S.F. and biked across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, had lunch, then took a ferry back to downtown S.F. to return the bikes. Then we went back to the hotel and collapsed.

There were 2 "Emergency Phone and Crisis Counseling" spots on the bridge. I found the smaller sign down below a bit startling. In case you can't read it, it says...

Crisis Counseling

There is hope.

Make the call.

The consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic.

Besides that the bridge was absolutley stunning. We were there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in July. I think most anyone with half a brain would expect there to be a significant number of tourists on hand. However, there were also many "Lance Armstrong" types who wanted to ride as fast as they could across the thing. These arrogant riders acted all put out and inconvenienced if they were slowed in any way. They were pretty rude. I still cautiously took my time crossing the bridge. Careful not to get run over by the crazy "Lance Armstrong" types. My parents were way ahead of me and when I finally caught up with them, they were about ready to turn back and search. But as I told them - they sent me to Purdue to be a CIVIL ENGINEER! I wanted to check it out in detail. Not just a drive by. To all my bridge engineer friends...eat your heart out. :)

This is picture is taken from where we crossed underneath the structure south of the big spans. Lots of utilites were along for the ride.

This picture shows what all the cables are attached too. It amounts to sections of approx 36" pipes connected together.

At a pier looking up.

At a pier looking down.

If you are in civil engineering - you've got to put this on your "Life's To-Do" list.

Day 2 - We drove down south down the pacific coast to Carmel. Then back north to Saratoga where we went to a Marc Cohn concert at a venue called the Mountain Winery. The drive was spectacular. The concert was awesome. We liked the concert so much that the next day we purchased tickets to his Indy show and went again in August.

The drive down the pacific coast was great too. There are lots of places where you can pull off the roadway and go down to the beach. Another striking thing about the drive to me was the amount of agriculture going on.

Day 3 - Alcatraz & Fisherman's Wharf

We did the US Park Service Alcatraz trip. It was ok. I guess in comparision with all the other amazing things we did, a tour of a super old prison just doesn't take the cake for me. But I'm glad we did it.

Fisherman's wharf - I guess I feel the same about Pier 39. Kind of a low point for me. A crowded over commercialized tourist trap. We did see the actor who played the Hulk on the original series there signing autographs.

Day 4 - Muir Woods & Chinatown

Muir woods is a majestic, breath-taking place. I LOVED it. Its hard to describe the beauty of these trees. They are ~1,000 years old. They are huge.