San Francisco, Take #2

Jill's Journal: It was nearly a fog-free day today and that meant one thing: it was the perfect time for the girls to experience the Golden Gate Bridge. Years ago, Rob and I once drove over the storied bridge in such intense fog that you could barely tell you were on a bridge at all, much less one of the most famous ones in the world.

The girls expected the bridge to be golden and I think were a little disappointed to find its official color is “International Orange.” The color was chosen partly for visibility in fog, but the bridge was so named because it crosses the Golden Gate Strait, the body of water between the city of San Francisco and Marin County to the north. It is, of course, the entrance to San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.

At the time it was built, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest (and tallest) suspension bridge in the world and an absolute marvel. It took almost a century to bring the bridge to fruition – many experts concluded a bridge couldn’t be built there due to the swirling winds, strong currents, and 500-foot-deep channel. But, San Francisco was the only large city in the U.S. served primarily by ferry, a fact that limited its growth, and city planners persisted. The cost to build the bridge in the 1930s was around $35 million; the same project would cost a minimum of $1.2 billion today.

Almost two billion cars have passed over the bridge since it was completed in 1937. I can’t think of another bridge in the world more or even equally beloved or visited or photographed…perhaps Tower Bridge in London? I don’t know that Tower Bridge can compete with this statistic though: the Golden Gate Bridge is the supposedly the most popular place in the world for suicide. It is said an average of at least one person per week hurls themselves off the bridge and into the bay. The bridge hangs 220 feet above the water, making it the equivalent of falling from a 25-story building. It’s not the fall that kills them…it’s the impact of hitting the water at 75mph. Ouch.

We took in several different vista points for the bridge and our favorite was Battery Yates on the Marin side. It was deserted instead of packed with other tourists and had the added interest of being a decommissioned gun battery/bunker that protected the bay from 1905 until the end of World War II. The girls got to run around in the historic setting while Rob and I got to soak in the beauty of the bridge. A win-win for all.

Our second major destination of the day was Golden Gate Park. It’s essentially a 1,000-acre rectangle (three miles long by one-half mile wide) in the middle of San Francisco that butts up against the ocean. There’s a bison paddock (who knew we would see bison in San Francisco?), a few lakes, some museums, a ton of sports opportunities, and a children’s playground which our girls declared the best playground ever. We took the pictures above and below at the park’s Japanese Tea Garden.

The park was begun in the 1870s after residents longed for something comparable to New York’s Central Park. I know a lot of people absolutely rave about Golden Gate Park, but to be honest, we found it a curious place. It’s not the manicured oasis that is Central Park, nor is it the exquisitely beautiful Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island. It was definitely a nice open space in a big city with a lot to offer residents, but it is not the showplace we were expecting. For example, the meadows throughout the entire park could have used a lawn mower and some TLC. Even the Japanese Tea Garden needed a little love – and anyone who has been to one knows they are usually the most meticulously tended of all gardens. Maybe the whole place is just going for the natural look?

That said, we still had a great time. We spent part of our day at the Dutch Windmill on the north side (there’s another on the south side), which was built in 1903 to pump subterranean water for the park.

Madelyn stopped to smell the flowers at the Queen Wilhelmina Garden.

Rob took some really beautiful flower photos. I take pictures and only know how to put them here on the web just as they came off the camera. He takes pictures and does cool things like make a collage. Clearly I should spend some time learning Photoshop. Yes, I’ll do that – right after I finish homeschooling three children.

Here are the girls on their second favorite bridge of the day, one that’s just a smidgeon more petite than the first.