Trip to Bay Area

Though the trip was unplanned and due to unpleasant circumstances, we nonetheless enjoyed going to the San Francisco area. We saw some relatives, did some shopping, ate burritos in the Mission, and went to the Marin Headlands (on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge). We also saw a bunch of wildlife on and around the Bay-- several new (to us) ducks, cormorants, grebes, a loon, an egret, some mule deer, and a couple of California Quail.

The headlands were really beautiful, with views out to the Pacific Ocean (there were quite a few surfers trying to catch a good wave) and over to the city, Alcatraz, etc. There happened to be a huge container ship passing under the bridge when we were there, as you'll see in the pictures which follow. These pictures were taken with my phone, so the quality is not great.... but you can use your imagination to fill in.



I believe this is called Cronkhite Beach...

The Golden Gate, barely visible in the haze... this is where we saw the deer right along the cliff, and I think just after we saw the quail.


It was sunset as we arrived at the closest point to the bridge, so there were quite a lot of people there. Unfortunately the sun sets in the other direction from the bridge... someone should do something about that...

Here's the container ship. The day after we left, the Queen Mary 2 was supposed to go under the bridge (with only 30 ft. of clearance!).