adventures in San Francisco

[angledge]

effrontery asked me for some LJ entries documenting my "adventures in San Francisco". I haven't had too many adventures so far, but I suppose yesterday's outing qualified. I went for a hike on Angel Island with my friends Carrie & Jil to look at the spring crop of wildflowers.


That's the green island in the Northwest corner of the map.

The trip started with a ferry ride. I met my co-worker Jil at Pier 41 & we took a Blue & Gold ferry out to the Island. Carrie met us there, having caught a ferry from Tiburon in Marin County. The ride over was an auspicious start to the day, since the weather was absolutely perfect & the views astonishing. Arriving at Angel Island, I was struck by how strange it was to be on a fairly undeveloped island, located in the middle of one of America's largest urban centers.


At 10:30 AM, we started on a hike led by a Park volunteer, who was well-versed in the local botany & pointed out numerous species of flower, all just starting to burst into bloom. This photo shows the group walking underneath enormous ceanothus shrubs, which were covered in both blue flowers & bees.


Not quite all the plants on the Island had gotten spring fever. We passed through one section that had been subjected to a controlled burn.


But for the most part, we spent the day wandering through groves & fields filled with flowers. It's a great time of year to be outside - nearly everything was blooming.




The hike took us to the top of Mt. Livermore, which at 788 feet isn't exactly a Munroe, but it did provide us with some incredible views. Looking Northwest into Marin County:


Looking South into the City:


Looking Southwest out into the Pacific:


Six hours later, full of sun & ice cream, Jil & I finally made our way back to the City. I met up with my housemates on Haight Street, where we went music shopping at Amoeba & ate baby-leg burritos at El Balazo. The next morning, I discovered that spring has arrived even in my backyard.


So there you have it. As adventures go, it was pretty tame, but as weekends go, it was pretty enjoyable.

Comments

Sun drenched graffiti

[calamityshane.livejournal.com]

*drooooool* Amoeba could suck 3 hours out of each one of my Saturdays when Berkeley was home. The tradition: Wake up, go to The Mediterranean for a cheap stack of pancakes, read, walk up to Amoeba, peruse music, back out on Telegraph Ave., check out the vendors, go to People's Park, read on blanket, walk over to Cody's Books, another hour lost, walk across to favorite mexican joint (on Telegraph), back on Telegraph, walk around U.C.Berkeley, read by stream. Good god, the heaven of it all!

Re: Sun drenched graffiti

[angledge.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a tradition that needs revisiting. So ... when will you & A* be here to visit? We should have a GiA group trip to San Francisco!