Point Reyes National Seashore & San Francisco
This is a continuation of a previous post...
The next morning we left Joshua Tree hitting the 101 all the way back to Oakland (with a stop at In-N-Out for lunch) to stay with family for the rest of our trip...and to finally take a shower. When we arrived Tommy's uncle had the most incredible dinner ready for us, and afterwards we went on a walk around Lake Merritt. The next morning we returned our rental car to the airport and used the BART to get us back to Oakland. After breakfast we headed to Point Reyes National Seashore for a nice long hike. When we started out on the Tomales Point Trail we discovered that the rainy season that California had during the winter produced the most beautiful landscape of wild flowers. As we went further on the hike we were also treated to seeing the Tule Elk that call Point Reyes home (and Tomales Point a preservation). We hiked almost to the end of the trail when we decided to leave the path, and have a picnic lunch on a cliff overlooking the coast. Our lunch view was so incredibly gorgeous that it rivaled the jaw dropping coastal views we had seen earlier this trip.
After lunch the thought of leaving that perfect little spot was very difficult, but we mustered up the energy and decided to hike back to the car. Tomales Point was the perfect hike to cap off the nature portion of our trip. Point Reyes definitely has so much left for us explore so don't be surprised when you see a full #meadadventures here at some point.
Back to Oakland for another amazing dinner cooked for us, and an early bedtime to charge up for tomorrow's full day in the city. We woke up bright and early using the BART to get us into the city. For me, breakfast HAD to be a famous "Cruffin" from Mr. Holmes Bakehouse , and Tommy was along for a bite. My full review of this croissant + muffin + filling (I was too hungry and excited to see what our flavor was that day) is that it was pretty good...okay, it was really good and the whole vibe was so cute.
I think we were feeling the rush of the sugar from the cruffin because we decided to forgo the BART and walk to our next destination, Baker Beach. According to Google it was only 4.1 miles away, and with us both being long distance runners, that mileage didn't scare us. The great thing about walking instead of using a vehicle to get you from point A to point B is that you get to see so much more and experience new sights and smells. However, the bad thing about walking is that you see so much more and turn a 4 mile walk into something much longer. When we finally reached the beach, I was blown away by the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from this angle. I have seen the bridge enough times now that it shouldn't make me this excited, but we all know that I flip for giant architectural pieces (i.e. Chicago's Bean, Knoxville's Sunsphere, Seattle's Space Needle...I could go on). I think this is probably a good place for this particular #meadadventures tip: Baker Beach not only has an amazing view of the bridge, but it is also a nude beach. Keep this in mind if you have children and are trying to get a great Instagram picture...you may be having a conversation that you're not exactly ready to have on your vacation.
From Baker Beach we decided to keep both the bridge and the walking theme going by using the Coastal Trail to get to Golden Gate from there. We were about halfway across the bridge before realizing that we had almost walked right past lunchtime. We had heard that if you want some really good Mexican food that the place to go is the Mission, and everything we had heard was right. Two giant burritos from Taqueria El Farolito later, and we were recharged for more sightseeing.
San Francisco's hills are no joke. You see them on television, in a movie, or even in pictures, but n.o.t.h.i.n.g prepares you to walk up them. We went from the Mission to the Castro and almost all of those miles felt like it was done at a vertical angle. However, I still stand firm on that walking is the perfect way to maneuver through a new place. From the Castro we decided to head back to meet up with Matt and Warren for dinner at Sidebar. It was located off of Lake Merritt giving us the perfect excuse to make multiple trips around the lake. I have to say, as much as I love the city, I definitely had a love affair with Oakland this trip. The whole day was such a nice goodbye to California...for now.
