Day 04 - Exploring the Golden Gate

Being still a weekend, today offered the luxury of another sleep in and a late breakfast for all and sundry. Once nutritionally fortified, Phil, Pat and myself set off to explore the Golden Gate National Recreation Area - which is at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge for those not already in the know. We travelled north via the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to avoid the car park like traffic inching west across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco City.

Our first stop was the Marine Mammal Centre (sorry, "Center"!) near Rodeo Lagoon which treats sick or injured sea mammals before releasing them back into the wild. They are currently featuring the "Washed Ashore" exhibition - sculptures of sea creatures created from some of the 7,000 pounds of plastics washed up on the shores of Oregon State over a year.

From there we drove up Fort Barry Road, passed the old Nike Missile Site (which I believe was designed to "shoe" away incoming missiles!), to the car park near the top. From there we walked down the path and through a short tunnel to the Point Bonita lighthouse, or at least to the now condemned foot bridge that leads to it. We were fortunate that the morning's fog was (finally) starting to lift which afforded views across to the Golden Gate Bridge (except the tops of the suspension towers) and San Francisco City beyond.



Pat and Phil

 Driving a bit further west brought us to Hawk's Hill, even closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, in time for the fog to lift completely and offer a glorious vista of the bridge and the city in the mid afternoon sun. Driving around to Horseshoe Bay on the other side of the freeway presented a view of the bridge from sea level and also allowed us to read a display about the earthquake-proof retrofit currently in progress.

Satisfied with our day's sightseeing we headed home - back the way we had come to avoid the still car park like traffic inching across the Golden Gate Bridge into the city.

Dinner was a feast of home barbecued steaks that must have come from Texas; I had to cut one in half and put the rest back. They were cooked to perfection by BBQ-Master Phil using his secret ingredient - a stopwatch! And at Pat's suggestion I even sampled my nemesis - corn on the cob - and it actually wasn't bad. Which is not to say that I am now a convert necessarily, but at last it wasn't disgusting. Dessert was homemade by Dan and Evan - Blackberry Cobble. Which to the uninitiated (including myself until this evening) could best be described as something akin to Blackberry Crumble. The blackberries were homegrown, in a spilling-over-the-neighbours-fence kind of way, which is perhaps what made it all the more delicious given that the Williams Household now only get this treat about once a year due to a decreased yield. Perfect timing on my part! And a nice way to end another great day.