Muir Woods Friday

Friday in San Francisco began with a tour to Muir Woods, and ended in a Detective Agency. Needless to say, another full day!

Muir Woods

Our morning tour out of the city took us across the Golden Gate Bridge once more to Marin County to visit the Muir Woods National Monument, the community of Sausalito, and the Marin Headlands.

The first stop was Muir Woods, where we took a short hike among the big coastal redwoods. The coastal fog encourages vigorous growth in the forest making it a much denser and darker forest than we had seen elsewhere on our trip, and we were surprised to see some of the big redwoods growing so close together and at all sorts of precarious angles. It was a nice quiet walk through some really beautiful woods.

Walking through Muir Woods

After the woods we stopped in Sausalito for lunch and a quick wander about the town. Sausalito is a picturesque little community across the bay from San Francisco. Its a fairly wealthy place, and we were in awe of some of the mansions that clung to the steep hills that rose up from the main street. There’s also a large number of houseboats in Sausalito, which reminded us a little bit of our time in the Netherlands.

Sausalito

Before heading back into San Francisco for the afternoon we made one last stop, high above the Golden Gate Bridge at a lookout on the Marin Headlands. Here we had yet another fantastic perspective of the Golden Gate and the Bay Area.

View from the Marin Headlands

Back in San Francisco, we slowly made our way across town to visit one of Elizabeth’s new friends from Grad Induction. On the way we stopped by Pier 39 to visit the raucous Sea Lions who call the place home before making the exhausting climb up through North Beach to Coit Tower, a monument built in the 1930s that provides yet more excellent views of the city. From there it was more walking with one quick stop in the landmark independent bookstore, City Lights.

Coit Tower

In the evening we went out for cocktails at a speakeasy called Wilson & Wilson Detective Agency. After giving our password at the unmarked entrance, we were lead through two locked doors into the bar. We took our seats at the bar and embarked on a three course menu of noir-themed cocktails. It was a great evening, and really interesting spot for a drink (or three) to end the day.

In case you missed them, here are links to our previous blog posts about this trip:
A Week in San Francisco (Part I)
Napa Valley Monday
A Week in San Francisco (Part II)
Yosemite Wednesday
A Week in San Francisco (Part III)

And here is our last blog post about the trip:
A Week in San Francisco (Part IV)

Finally, here are some more pictures from our Friday in San Francisco: