Golden Gate Bridge and Surrounds

Pt. Reyes National Seashore

We have now been staying 4 nights in any given campground along our way down SR1. It really makes the trip much more enjoyable, especially now that our weather could start changing on us. Since we stayed out of order (meaning we first stayed in Olema and then traveled back north to Bodega Bay) on our way to San Francisco, I am mixing up the blog entries a bit so that it actually makes a little more sense.



The Olema RV park was very nice. There were lots of Airstreams here and we even met a couple who were pulling their 25 foot with a VW Toureg. This vehicle is basically the same body frame as Sally but without the Porsche styling. We have also seen a Mercedes SUV pulling an Airstream, but everyone else has trucks. Both Jeff and I have wondered if Sally was the right call for us, but so far so good. We certainly look good while driving down the road, for whatever that is worth!

The following passage is copied from a postcard, actually THIS postcard, but is most helpful in describing our afternoon in Point Reyes.

The Point Reyes lighthouse sits 600 feet above the Pacific Ocean and 300 feet from the top of the Point Reyes headlands - the windiest place on the Pacific Coast - and the second foggiest location in North America! The historic lighthouse was built in 1870. Its lens and mechanism were constructed in France, the cast iron tower in San Francisco. Visitors must walk down 308 steps to get to the lighthouse. And then...they get to walk back up! Wind speeds of 60 mph are not uncommon. The highest recorded wind was 133 mph.

And I did all 308 steps plus plenty of even harder (maybe 10 percent grade) paved path in both directions in 4 inch tall wedge heels! Thank goodness they were comfortable. Walking down the path felt just like I was being pushed horizontally forward with each step since the combined grade of the path plus my shoes must have been like 20%. In fact, when I walked back up the path, my shoes completely counteracted the grade, making it feel like I was clomping up the hill flat footed - much easier!

Olema and Point Reyes Station (it was hard to tell which town we were actually in) are at the base of Tomales Bay which also bounds the Point Reyes Peninsula and National Seashore. Point Reyes is located in Marin County and basically protects the northern Bay Area. On our first day and after much needed washing and primping, we went to Point Reyes Station for tea and internet. It was a gorgeous little town, but really only opens Thursdays through Sundays this time of year. On the way home, we decided to check out the lighthouse without much thought. We were glad that we did because it took a few hours and we would have missed the opportunity since the next day we needed to drive to the Golden Gate Bridge.

One of our first and funniest memories is running over the Golden Gate Bridge when I was training for my first marathon. I only needed to run 3 miles, so the bridge was perfect. Jeff came with me and I proceeded to convince him that I knew how to get back to our hotel. Well, of course I was wrong. We had to stop and get money to take a cab back. It was a fun adventure that we hoped to sort of recreate now 15 years later.

So, with beautiful weather the next day, we decided to continue south down SR1 to Sausalito. We made it all the way to Stinson Beach where signs directed us to the detour over the mountain. At one point we were literally driving on the ridge line with spectacular views off both sides and water all around. After amazing mussels in a white wine and garlic cream sauce at Le Garage Bistro Francaise YUM, we needed to work off some calories on the bridge.

We walked and took lots of pictures. Ideally we were hoping to be able to take a picture of Jeff driving Sally and Betty over the bridge, but quickly realized that this just wasn't going to be feasible. So, we settled for some great views and more memories.

On the way back, we noticed some people up in the hills on the ocean side of the bridge. Since it looked like they had a great view, we decided to check it out! Staying on the Marin side of the city was a good call. We didn't have any traffic and really enjoyed being tourists for a change. We were unable to drive SR1 from Stinson Beach down to where it joins up with the 101 before the bridge, but that couldn't be helped. The road is closed until February 2018.