Day 72 - Muir Woods

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Went for a long walk in the morning from our hotel down to Market Street upto the port building. From 10am to 230 pm visit to Muir Woods. Lunch in China Town. Evening all of us drove down to Chitra's house. Took all the luggage that i had left there and went to Ramu's place at Saratoga. Dinner at an Asian Thai Fusion restaurant just walking distance from Ramu's place. Sri and family went back to Hyatt. We stayed at Ramu's place.

During the morning walk on the Market Street saw many poor people sleeping on the road. It was quite cold and they were using plastic sheets and paper to cover them up. Also saw many street vendors coming by car and putting up the stall on the road side. One black walked upto us and said, ' You are lovely couple.....give me some money.. I have not eaten for two days.'. Another person had a big empty cup in his hand and asking for 17 cents for refill.

The next day was Gay Parade and Sridhar and AJ saw many people walking nude on the road...

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Photos

Morning Walk
Fountain near our hotel with bronze relief of all the important places in SFO. Was waiting here for R who went to get his jacket since it was very cold.

Street Car and Tram
Popular mode of transport in SFO

Market Street
We walked from Hyatt all the way down Market Street. Vendors put up their stalls here early in the morning.

Port Building..
..on the left and bay Bridge in the background.

Taj Campton
..opposite Hyatt where we stayed.

Free Breakfast
back from walk...taking water...you can see the breakfast spread has already been set up.

Muir Woods
With the world's tallest redwood trees.

Age of tree
Rings showing age of tree.

Dead Tree
The tree in the center which presumably died in a fire gave birth to all the tall trees you now see around it.

Tallest redwoods in Muir Woods
...are around 120-150 ft, the tallest being 252 ft. But, the tallest redwood in California is around 380 ft. and is further down in the Redwood National Forest. Age of trees 400-2000yrs.!!

Closely related to Giant Sequoia
Sequoias grow larger in bulk, but less tall than the coastal redwoods. The tallest redwood in Muir Woods is 252 ft. and the widest is over 14 ft. Some are at least 1000 yrs. old. Most mature trees are over 500-800yrs old.

Sacred Grove
...where it is so silent you can hear the chirps of birds.

Board Walk
Can you see the wooden board walk installed a few feet above the forest floor on which we are supposed to walk. This has been done so that we do not compress the ground and prevent absorption of water. Also they want to prevent damage to the roots that are running just below the ground. These tall long standing trees surprisingly have roots that do not go deep, but spread wide just a few feet below the ground and get interlocked and provide strength to each other.

Enclosure
There are many nice enclosed spots created by trees like this.

Finally ..a lunch place
Settled on Hang-ah after looking around for a good place to eat

Late lunch
At Hang Ah...but both of us were not too hungry because we had a heavy breakfast at the hotel.

Lunch after Muir Woods
Restaurant in China Town.