china beach & the golden gate

adventures abound!

today was the first day i had the opportunity to explore the immediate san francisco area.
like much of my california experience, with this adventure there were many pros and cons.

pros:
1. the ocean
2. clean city
3. colourful buildings and clean architechture

cons:
1. traffic: worse than in toronto! nutty drivers on top of it too!
2. a bit boring. yes, i found san francisco a bit boring! who would have thought? maybe it was the area, but i just thought it was like any other city ive been to, but on a slant.
3. driving on the hills! how do people do this? i thought i was going to slam the poor rental car into people behind and in front of me.
4. parking. no place to park. as if i was going to park streetside- parallel parking? i think not. and then! any parking garage was a minimum of $20.

however. despite the pros and cons, the days tour started off with a bang.
searching for a place to get some good shots of the golden gate bridge that was not a "golden gate vista" tourist area, i turned off the gps and used good old  fashion intuition to guess where i would want to go.

thank you gut feeling:

this is the ocean.
this is the beach.
that is the bridge.

brilliant success.

over joyed with my findings, i took off my moccasins and explored the beach.

i loved the ocean. everythign about it.
i loved the sound. the smell. the feel of the air. i could have sat and watched it for hours and hours and hours.

coolest thing, there was a woman fishing!
FISHING.

in the ocean.

people do fun things in the ocean.

and then, out of the ocean and away from the awesomness, and into the city.
hills.
oh my god driving on hills i would cry about walking up.

WHY?

why would people build a city like this? if i was obese and was like, in my 50s i would totally have had that life ending heart attack.

it was cool though.
finding a place to park in china town i took the natural route of a lazy person, downhill.
brought me out to the harbour where i experienced sea gulls (ahem... did you know theyre actually called herring gulls? thank you ornitholigist boyfriend) of an unusual size... SGOUS.

allow me to demonstrate said SGOUS:

Sea Gull of Unusual Size... SGOUS in all its glory.

i then had a delish meal seaside at The Plant- Cafe Organic.

yum! hummus plate! pesto and lemon hummus' with pita, garden salad and the greenest olives i have ever seen in my life.
the whole restaurant was filled with 30 something groups of ladies with a heck of a lot of make up- not the atmosphere that i had hoped to find in a organic cafe in san fran.
where were the trendy people?

having spoken to my sister, i had felt inspired to explore california style with analysis through photos... but there was noone to use as my subject.

fail.

where were the people when i needed them!
its ok though. i will find them and analyze cali style soon.

however! in true san franciscan style, the trollies were out and about.

that was exciting!

oh california.
you make me happy.

in my second week here i am feeling ready to move on from san fran. tomorrow is the big sur, a coastal drive and then thursday its hello to the big time: LA.

i think the drive tomorrow will do wonders for a couple of my goals for this week:
1. be happy
2. be positive

goodbye san francisco- tomorrow, hello santa cruz.