Travelogue, day 4 – Muir Woods and the city

Today was another tour day, this time going to Muir Woods, a national park filled with redwoods, and a drive through Sausalito on the way back. The forest was breathtaking. The road going there snaked up the mountain, with loopbacks that seemed to go on forever. Once we got off the bus, the air was crisp and fresh, smelling of eucalyptus and other natural smells that just brush worry away. We had a one-hour stroll planned. The wooden walkways were covered in loam that gave off a pleasant smell when you walk on it. Mg and I could have stayed there for the whole day… Sunlight filtering through the canopies, the sounds of a babbling brook, the smells of nature. I'm not normally a man of the outdoors, but I found it wonderful.

Sausalito seems like a nice place to live, but in retrospect, I could have done without the visit. We walked around the waterfront, but the tons of galleries and doodad shops didn't do it for us. They have beautiful glassworks, but we don't have the budget nor the house to properly appreciate the them.

On the way back, we stopped for 5 minutes at a lookout over the bay with a great view of the golden gate bridge. If it had been up to us, we would have split the time spent in Sausalito between Muir and the bay view, but hey, it wasn't up to us.

The weather forecast is calling for rain for the rest of the week, so we decided to cram as much outdoor walking as we could today. We came back to the hotel, dropped off the camera to recharge (we almost ran out of juice during the tour) and went to lunch. We ended up going to Fior d'Italia, apparently the oldest italian restaurant in america. It was good, but the expresso was crap.

After retrieving the camera, we headed off to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. Instead of taking the wussy way up and going by cable-car, we walked up the hill. After a big meal of pasta in cream sauce, I thought I was going to barf up a lung, as well as part of my lunch. Gawd, I'm out of shape… Anyway, after wheezing my way up the damn hill, we snapped a few pictures and headed off to Coit tower. I always knew that San Francisco was hilly, but dear lord, it's ridiculous. The sidewalks are covered in traction aids embedded in the cement to prevent people from falling to their deaths.

After admiring the view from the tower, we headed towards Chinatown. IMO, it's a letdown. It might be the biggest one in the world, but it looks pretty much like the one in Montreal (and Montreal's main gate is nicer). Anyway, I spent a few bucks to get some foo dog bookends and that was our Chinatown experience. A very odd moment though: when we walked into the shop where we made our purchases, we both did a double-take as the music playing in the background was gangsta' rap :)

Had dinner in a little italian cafe, where the food was ok and the expresso was excellent. We've been eating a lot of italian food recently (our hotel is just next door to little italy) but we're going to branch out starting tomorrow.

There are more pictures on the webpage, but I'm tired and I'm going to bed now. You can see them at your own leasure.