Yesterday was fun. We spent the day in San Fransico, and stopped briefly in the Marin Headlands Park to look over the Golden Gate Bridge, and the old WW2 gun batteries that are on the cliff. It was very interesting, and very fun, but quite cold. It's one of a funny set of "microclimates" around the bays, and is very windy, and is probably 20o cooler that the other side of the ridge. It got warmer when we were in San Fran city, however.
Cali is like the State's version of NZ, really. Same land mass. Lots of countryside and cows, and beautiful natural resources with lots of lakes, and the coast. But, to put it into purspective, the population of the bay area of San Fran is the same as NZ. Not even the whole of one city - just the bay area.
After that, it was off to the Golden Gate Park, and we rented bicycles to make the hike to Stow Lake easier. My bike was so, so cool. It was a mountain bike, raven's wing black, with crimson and ice-white stripes down the sides, and crimson handbars and bits on it, and white shocks.
The trip was supposed to be fun and easy. Not so much There were no signs or anything, and all the paths leading to the Lake said "No Bicycles". Damn. Not good. We also saw a raven, which is supposed to be a bad omen. I'm not particularly superstitious. Goes to show me. Our car got broken into. ^-^ We biked around for close to two hours with no luck.
Thankfully, my biking skills improved dramatically. I'm usually pretty hesitant on bikes, but I was okay that day. Was at the front of the pack, and my stamina stayed with me for the most part until the last half-hour, which was good, given we were out for close to five hours. I was suprised. I expected to be an unfit mess, but I was mostly okay. Dying by the time we got to the car, however.... I can hear all you runners. Leave me alone! I'm a muso, not a sportsperson! But, I'm not even sore today at all. Well... I had a guy's bike seat, so my butt's a bit sore. Not fair. Guys are a weird species.
My only thing was that I didn't want to be the one to let the team down, 'coz no one in our family is especially fit, but they were all keeping up. I couldn't lag behind. That would batter my pride too much. Finally, however, we made it eventually. It was so idyllic and romantic and nice. There was a painter with a set of oil paints, doing a canvas print of the scene. There was a heron, which are beautiful birds, and the whole area was rimmed with sweet-smelling flowers and plants and palm trees. Gorgeous. There are photos! And, we rented a rowboat, and went out onto the HUGE lake in the middle of it all, which was so cool. I loved it. It was surreal, just too beautiful to be true. Rowing was quite hard, though. Because it was the whole family, and Dad was photographer, Mum and I had to row together, and co-ordinating it was hard. We kept veering off to her side because I was too busy watching the scenery to pull my weight, and we kept tilting, and argued about which direction to go and everything halfway around the lake!
I saw my first "wildlife" today, too, in the form of a jack rabbit, an American robin, a deer, a red-earred turtle and a squirrel. I is happy! I really missed the nature around here, and it's good to see something more interesting that birds. We see those too. Bennett mistook a turkey vulture for a bald eagle. ;o) LOL.
That's all, folks. I'll load all the pics I took tomorrow, but I can't be bothered fighting with the camera tonight. It's late now.
Good night,
Rachel
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