For the past few days I have been house and pet sitting for one of my sisters friends in San Francisco. The house is near Baker Beach, and it has been such a treat to be able to walk in the sand, listen to the waves and smell the ocean.
The cat, Chicken, spends most of the time hanging out underneath the master bed. I’ll occasionally see her sitting at the top of the steps, and she seems to have a penchant for coming around for a pet when I’m sitting on the toilet! The dog, Otis, is very sweet, but he has an oral fixation and is always looking for something to chew on. I can’t leave anything on a table or counter where he can reach it, I’ve already lost two pens to his chewing habits. Luckily, he loves to go on walks, and is well behaved on the leash. I think he likes being at the beach as much as I do!
On Saturday, Julie, Gabriella and I walked the part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail that goes through the Presidio. It was such a relaxing, beautiful place to walk, and surprisingly uncrowded for a Saturday.
That all changed as we got closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, where there were people walking or on bikes everywhere! We headed over to Fort Point and had a good look around. What a beautiful brick building, we were especially enamored by the spiral stone staircases and the fantastic views. I loved a photo exhibit from 2012 of the different workers who keep the bridge functioning. Some of their jobs no longer exist, such as the toll taker or the person who moved the dividing cones in the road. I remember seeing that little car driving down the middle of the bridge as the person shifted the lane markers. What a terrifying job! It’s still hard to believe we would drive across that bridge at 50+ miles an hour with nothing dividing oncoming traffic except flimsy cones.
On the way back we opted to take the Batteries to Bluffs Trail, which let us down to Marshall Beach then back up again near Baker Beach, with stunning views of the Golden Gate and wildflowers galore. On top of one of the bunkers there was a small group of people speaking Portuguese setting up for a video shoot for a skateboarding film. We took a long sand ladder down to Baker beach, removed our shoes and enjoyed a delicious walk in the sand. The clouds had lightened and it was a fantastic afternoon to watch kids frolicking in the surf, dogs chasing after balls and people enjoying a respite at the beach.
Later, when I took Otis out for his evening walk, we could see the cars gathering to watch the sunset at the beach, what a beautiful night.
