Sightseeing with Friends in SF

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have our first visitors from Pennsylvania! PA friends are not only exciting because we finally get to socialize with people outside of work, but we also get to go sightseeing and see some really cool stuff.

We started off Saturday by going to San Francisco. Little did we know that the average temperature in August is in the 60s, and we actually got to spend our day in 59 degree weather. (since we started in the Sacramento Valley, we were a bit ill-dressed)

Regardless, we started our day in Muir Woods National Monument. Although parking was a bit difficult, we finally got to walk on some of the hiking trails and see Giant Sequoias and Redwoods in some of the oldest growth redwood forests in the world.


Some of the trees were up to 1000 years old and over 250 feet tall! The pictures don't do it justice at all.

After Muir Woods, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco and checked out the Golden Gate Park.

This park is a 1000-acre city park built between 1890 and 1943 with the goal to create a natural reserve with no reminders of urban life. Since the park is so big and we were so poorly dressed for the temperature, we didn't see as much of the park as we would've liked.

However, we did take a tour of the Japanese Tea Garden within the park. Within this space, the landscaping was beautiful! After we finished walking around the garden, we went to the little cafe for Jasmine Tea, which was fantastically welcomed on such a cool day.

Finally, since I had never touched the Pacific Ocean, we headed to the beach, informally known as Kite Beach. There, we touched the ocean (only with our hands...it was cold enough that even wading was out of the question!), walked along the beach, and admired some of the dogs walking with their owners.


While I was studying some really beautiful rock formations further up the beach, Jamie, Dan, and April got attacked by the ocean while trying to get around a rock that was too close to the shoreline. I believe that they got stuck in water up to their knees, which was especially unfortunate for Dan and April who were wearing sneakers!

On Sunday, we took a trip to Napa Valley, but I will save that story for another post, so keep checking back!