I had an intuition that Monday AM would be a great day to go into SF to see the bridge, and the Golden Gate Park (GGP). We left at 9 and arrived in GGP about 10. I was a little fuzzy on how to get down to the north side of the bridge on the SF side. I thought that was part of GGP. However, I was wrong. In GGP are the de Young Art Museum, the Japanese Tea Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, Conservatory of Flowers, the California Academy of Sciences and many other attractions. But these don’t offer views of the bridge.
Lands End Lookout was a welcome find. As we viewed the GGB from the lookout, it was off to our northeast. Incredibly, as we walked toward the bridge on the coastal trail, a huge freighter heading in from sea. It was orange like the bridge; I smiled, thinking: good photo op on the way. In the long wait for that vessel to get close to the bridge another freighter approached from the other side and a sailboat moved into the frame. My smile got bigger! I did get some nice photos.
Next, we stopped at the gun batteries that used to guard the straits where we could look directly north through the bridge and see the traffic moving in both directions. Finally, we followed the road down under the GGB approach above us to the NPS historical site. This is what I was looking for: a park with a fishing pier, picnic tables in the grass, a gift shop and cafe, and a killer view of the east side of the bridge about 150 yards away! Sack lunch at a table in the sun with seagulls and pelicans, outstanding. Great photos, too!
Needing to leave by 3PM to miss the rush, we visited the Presidio National Cemetery and moved to GGP, where I hoped to take Penny to the art museum, but as she suspected, they were closed on Monday. Option two was the Japanese Tea Garden that was quite relaxing and zen filled.
At 3PM, we were in the truck heading south toward HMB; traffic was not a big problem, no stop and go. Stopping for fresh fish, we got red snapper fillets. Oh boy!