My friend and I went to San Francisco last month. Photography is a big hobby of hers and she was awesome enough to teach me some stuff.
I don't have photoshop, which, from looking at these, it's pretty evident. But, we had a lot of fun.
Coit Tower
We were on a mission. Before our self guided photography walking tour through the city, we wanted to have some dim sum. It was a challenging day. Using yelp, we found what we thought was a dim sum place that could be on our way to another picturesque locale, but when we got there, it looked like an American Diner that was trying something new. No thank you.
We then yelped "Dim Sum" again and based on knowing that we wanted to go to Fisherman's Wharf, we headed towards
Dim Sum Club in Russian Hill. When we got there, we were hungry!
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| St. Peter and Paul Church |
At that point, it was past noon, we'd walked more than twice the distance we expected, and I hadn't eaten anything. I was ready to just eat
something even if it wasn't what we expected, then go somewhere else if need be.
Well, this particular post isn't about food. That will be in a different
blog.
I'll just say that it was good, though.
We took off to the Wharf. It was relatively quiet there; probably because it was Wednesday afternoon and not crowded... At all. I have never seen it so dead.
My friend and I were a bit disappointed with ourselves, because even though we intended to leave room to eat at the Wharf, we were beyond stuffed from our brunch. We had even took off a few items off our dim sum list in hopes of accommodating. We were so BEYOND stuffed such that even the freshly steamed crab didn't even make our mouths water. Boy, what a bummer I don't have a second stomach!
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| Coit Tower |
We took a few pictures around the area, but none of mine were decent enough to share in this post. The light just wasn't in our favor.
We decided to go to
Coit Tower and climb the stairs to get some nice views of the City.
Along the way, we saw the St. Peter and Paul Church which is across the street from a park. When we started to cross the street to get a better angle, we saw that we weren't the only tourists that were appreciative of its beauty.
A few snaps here, a few there and then we resumed our walk to the tower.
When we got there, it was around 4pm. We took a few pictures around the base of the tower. Some of the Bay Bridge, some of Golden Gate, some of what we could see of the city. It was a hazy day, so we didn't get anything good there either.
When we tried to climb the stairs, we were told that the only way up was through the elevator. We passed. Part of this day was to get exercise and add as many steps to my friend's counter as possible. No elevators for these chicks, so all we could capture was the tower itself. Darn.
Baker Beach
One of my friends who lives in the Bay Area is always taking amazing pictures from
Baker Beach.
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| Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach |
I loved the idea of capturing Golden Gate from the beach, so I dragged my friend here so we could get some of our own pictures.
We were playing with our phones and taking selfies when I noticed...
If you get too close to the rocks, it becomes a nude beach. My friend was taking her selfie and I tried to subtly warn her.
"Ummm... why don't you wait a moment before taking that."
"Huh? Why?" she replied. I head nodded in the direction of which she was about to take a picture and happily succeeded in stopping her before she captured an unexpected surprise. It was a close one though!
One particular gentleman seemed to be on a mission to photo bomb our pictures. When we climbed up some stairs to get a different angle, he laid spread eagle at the foot of the stairs. Not cool, dude... not cool.
I was also very relieved that when I checked my pictures, I was in the clear too. Phew! Definitely didn't want to capture anything of *that* nature. Ahem.
Hooray for having patience and a little bit of luck!
Land's End
We had dinner at
Mi Lindo Peru with a few friends that live in the area. They were asking us about what we were doing, and it boils down to this:
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| Land's End Trail |
- Eating
- Walking
- Taking Pictures
Pretty much in that order.
When they heard this, one friend asked if we had gone to see the
Labyrinth. After googling it, we decided to make it happen.
We used Uber for the first time and were able to take advantage of their UberPool which makes each ride anywhere in SF $5. The only catch is that the driver may pick up additional riders (up to 2 max).
No problem there, since taking the bus would take more than twice the amount of time and cost just $0.50 less. No brainer right?! Was pretty awesome!
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| Mile Rock Beach |
We were dropped off at the trailhead and started on our way. It was still relatively early and we were able to capture some really fun shots.
Most of the trail was in the shade, so I had a chance to play around with the manual settings to adjust the picture.
There were so many interesting shots that we stopped practically every few feet.
If you are ever in search of the Labyrinth, follow signs for "
Mile Rock Beach". We saw the sign for it and kept going because we thought that it was further along the trail. So, we went merrily along our way, until we reached the golf course. No Labyrinth to be found.
We checked our map and found that we completely missed the trail. Why? Because we didn't know that Mile Rock Beach is right next to it! As we walked back towards the way we came, my friend spotted the elusive Labyrinth below on the cliff.
We went back to the trail and started the descent. There is a fork, and both lead to the Labyrinth. The direct path is the dirt path, but if you take the stairs, it will also take you to the beach.
It was a beautiful day, and even though there was a haze that blanketed the horizon, we were really glad we came out there. Next time I come here to take pictures, I'll definitely come back.
We **almost** thought about taking it easy and getting a makeover at Macy's. That will be another day.
