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Published: March 2nd 2018
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On the drive in from Los Banos, Mi Hyon and I felt our spirits rise with each mile out of the desert and into green mountains, prairies, and flowering fruit orchards. The almond orchards provided a welcome hundred miles of flowers...you can't imagine how much you miss color...until you've seen nothing but desert brown for a little over a month. I know some folks love the desert, but we just like to visit it. We planned for a short 120 mile trip today and it turned out to be a great idea. We arrived at our ocean-side RV park around noon and settled in quickly. Originally, we planned to get some rest in the park the first day, but the weather was so nice we had to head out to the Golden Gate Bridge and China Town. The first thing we noticed in San Francisco is how densely populated it is; there are homes up and down every hill in the city, and it is a city of hillsides. The population is about 870,000 people in a city that only covers about 47 square miles, that ratio is mindboggling, and trust me they have the traffic to go along with it.
Leaving the High Desert
We both said, "Green!" as we left the high desert. Only NYC is more densely populated.
We travelled 12 miles from the RV to the bridge in a little over an hour, good thing it was not rush hour! Trials suffered in traffic were soon forgotten when we arrived at Fort Point Park at the south entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge. Fort Point is a National Park Service-maintained Civil War fortress underneath the southern anchorage of the bridge. The fort's surrounding park is a beautifully maintained green space with perfect views of the bridge, city and of course it has the obligatory gift shop and museum. Every direction we looked there was something interesting to see: Alcatraz, the city, Treasure Island, sail boats, cruise & cargo ships, surfers, etc. Together we must have taken over 100 pictures! Shortly after arrival, Mi Hyon rushed out onto the bridge's walkway to go out to the center, I remained on shore to take her picture on the walkway. We could have stayed there all day!
After the bridge we headed into the center of the beast, downtown SF and Chinatown! Entering Chinatown was a little like entering another country; with beautiful dragon graffiti art; signage in Chinese; and the people,
One of the First Impressions of SF
One of the first things we noticed in SF was the dense housing. Every direction looks similar to this picture. well they are all Chinese Americans as well. Everything was different from the way traffic moved, to how people move along and through the streets...you'd have to see it to understand its unique beauty. It was early rush hour when we finished in Chinatown, the city provided an exhilarating trip through a car, truck, train, motorcycle; bicycle, moped, and pedestrian packed obstacle course. It only took a little over an hour to travel the 10 or so miles back to the RV, but I swear it seemed a lot longer ;-) It was a wonderful afternoon and I wouldn't have missed any of it...including the traffic. We ended the day at a good Chinese restaurant then enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the Pacific, right from our RV window!
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Barbara
non-member comment
Great
Really nice pictures and story