Happy Tuesday and for those of you who had yesterday off, I hope that you had a great long weekend! I had an adventure filled several days actually, and drove more last weekend than I have in a couple of months! First was a stop to
Grass Valley, a town where gold was discovered in 1850. Their main mine, the Empire Mine was the richest hard rock mine in California, producing 5.8 million ounces of gold in its operating history of 106 years. Just to put that in perspective, currently one ounce of gold is sold for about $2,000.00! I spent a couple of days spending time with family, playing games and hiking around Empire Mine, which is now a park with dirt paths for hiking.
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| Mill St. Grass Valley in December |
Next, I headed to Monterey and Carmel for the annual MLK girls trip with K, A & L. We had a great time searching through the tidepools for fancy shells, eating candy, playing in the waves and watching the sea otters try to crack things while floating on their backs (they are so cute!) We also drove the 17 mile drive, which winds along the coast and has some great views! I think the girls were happier to just find shells on the beach and were not as impressed by the drive, but we had fun all the same! It rained a bit on Saturday and Sunday, but overall we had pretty good weather and I even got a tad burnt!
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| Carmel Beach |
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| Lone Cypress Tree - 17 Mile Drive |
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| L looking for otters at the Monterey pier. |
On Monday, I went with a friend to hike San Francisco's
crosstown trail, which is a 17 mile trail that goes from Candlestick Point, which is on the southeast side of town to the Cliff House, which is on the northwest side of town.
It is actually a really cool taste of the city, and goes through some neighborhoods and parks that I had never been in before. It also tries to go on a lot of dirt, so it would randomly just pop into the trees on a path that you may not have even noticed. It also went on a lot of hidden stairways (
which I have talked about before) and I found some of those too that I had not been on before. All in all, it was a great way to see the city in a different way than I had seen. However, it did go through some of the places on my
10 things to do in San Francisco list too, for example, we went on Irving Street and stopped there for pho!
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| 16th Ave. tiled steps - very cool mosaic! |
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| 16th Ave. stairs with Ocean Beach in background. |
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| Moraga stairs with downtown San Francisco in background. |
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| Ocean Beach |
This was the second "town tour" walk I have done in the last month; the first was the same kind of thing in the city of Pacifica on new year's weekend. So now I think I need to make one or find one for Oakland and that can be the next one in the tour of the town series! Maybe I will try to include
some of my favorite nooks and crannies on my next tour!
How was your weekend!? Have you ever been to the California coast? Have you ever done a walking tour or a long walk around the neighborhoods of your town?
This is beautiful - what an epic hike and look at all those stairs! What a great workout!
ReplyDeleteI've never been to California, but it's on my bucket list for sure! We walk around our town regularly, but I don't know if it's big enough for a proper "tour" - ha.
I also walk around my town regularly, but I am not sure it is a tour per se. I would say a tour would have to hit up a few interesting items/historical items? I definitely have found some fun things in Oakland but have not really strung them all together for a visitor or anything like that.
DeleteWhat a great tour. I ate at Cliff House once when visiting friends in SF. Such a beautiful spot, and such a piece of history.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Cliff House is great! However, it has actually been closed for a few years, but I believe it may have been recently bought, which is great, as it really is a great location and is an institution of San Francisco! They moved the toy museum that was in the basement though; I think it is now at Fisherman's Wharf.
DeleteWhat lovely pictures! And good timing for me to read this post, as I'm going to San Francisco this weekend. My trip is mainly to see a medical specialist, which isn't fun, but I'll have the weekend free to explore. Seeing these pictures makes me feel more excited about the trip!
ReplyDeleteUg, that is not a very fun trip, but hopefully you have a little time (and energy) to get out and walk around a bit. It is supposed to be nice weather, even though it has been raining lately. I hope you get some nice days! if you did not already see my other post about the 10 things to do in San Francisco, you should check it out!
Delete17 miles!!!! Did you do all of it? How long did it take??? I'm totally there, I'm just *mind blown* at the distance. The longest hike for my hiking challenge is *only* 7 miles.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an amazing weekend.
Yes, we did all of it, but you could totally do pieces with no issue. The only difficulty is that it is a point to point, and it was hard to get to the ends (haha we had to Uber to one and walk to the other)! My friend and I are both trail runners and a normal Saturday run could be anywhere from 12 - 20 miles, so we have both had some time on feet to prepare, but a coworker of mine did the entire thing a few months ago and he was very sore afterward. The worst part was the downhill stairs, and my calves are definitely feeling that!
DeleteSea otters are SO cute but also, did you know that they are violent sexual predators? It's true! I mean, sexual predators to other otters. If you don't listen to the Ologies podcast, may I suggest it? It is SO interesting. Anyhoo, other than the secret life of otters...I think this looks like such a fun time. It's so beautiful! It's funny to see photos like this when we have snow, etc. It's an interesting world we live in!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I am putting this podcast on my list! I think I did hear something about the otters at some point, and I have also heard something similar about dolphins! I don't want to think about that as they are both special creatures, gosh darn it!
DeleteIt is interesting that you are getting snow, the Midwest is getting a cold snap, and I am picking up shells on the beach in 50 degree weather. Thank goodness for this though; otherwise, where would the snowbirds go? Also I plan to do some traveling in April this year, and am glad there are some semi-warmer places to visit at that time!
Wow you packed a lot into your weekend! That 17 mile hike sounds super interesting but how long did it take you guys?? It's a great way to see the city, though, and discover some new nooks and crannies. We walk a lot in our neighborhood during the spring/summer/fall but at most I probably walk 4-6 miles and that is only if I am just w/ Taco in the stroller. The longest we can go with Paul on his scooter is about 2-2.5 miles? He gets tired fast! I would like him to learn to ride his bike as then we can go further but he isn't very interested in his bike since he's so good at scooting!
ReplyDeleteYou know I've been to the CA coast as I've generally visited you when visiting that area. I haven't seen the area that you were in for your girls trip. Do you guys vary where you go for your girls weekend? Do you still go to 3 Sisters in Oregon, too? I think that trip happens during a different time of year.
You would really like the area we were in. We went to Big Sur, which is a well known part of the coast, and if you want you can drive all the way down highway 1, which goes along the coast for most of the length of the state, but it is pretty slow (but beautiful!) Next time you visit, it would be fun to do part of it; Santa Cruz is also beautiful plus it has rides and an arcade for the kids.
DeleteSo far for our girls weekend, we have been to Austin, Mendocino and Monterey. K goes to Monterey about once a year, so this was her pick. She would prefer not to have to fly with the kids, so we have been going to drivable places. We do still go to Sisters, but for me that is in July. They often go without me, sometimes in May or June depending on the year.
That crosstown trail sounds awesome! What a fun way to see the city. I'd just need to break that into 3-mile chunks, haha. That's a lot of walking to do!
ReplyDeleteI've done walking tours in other cities but never in my own. Jenny just posted about some tours in Tampa and I need to check them out! She knows more about my city now than I do!
I think a lot of the time visitors see a lot more of the historical things in our towns, whereas we do the mundane - groceries, neighborhood, work...etc. I often need people to come see me in order to see those kinds of things; I did not go to Alcatraz until I had lived in the city for like five years, and only because someone came to see me! I looked up tours in Oakland and there are ones with a lot of cool things - historical, murals, etc. that I will probably incorporate into my crosstown walk!
DeleteI love the crosstown trail. I've heard of it but never done it. How long did it take you?
ReplyDeleteIt took about six hours, including a stop for lunch.
DeleteWow, 17 miles with hills! Color me impressed. This has never occurred to me. My cousin and I did a couple of 10 - 12 mile days in France a couple of years ago, but they were broken up with other things like museums and such. I love Ocean Beach, have been going there since I was a kid. The cousin I went to France with came to Northern California a few months ago and I took her to see the Musee Mechanique at Fisherman's Wharf, and we laughed our heads off. One of my favorite places. I liked when it was at the Cliff House, but I suspect that it gets more visitors where it is now.
ReplyDeleteDid you see any progress on new tenants going in at the Cliff House? I hope a couple of good restaurants go in there, it's such a wonderful space.
The Cliff House looked the same to me, i.e. no flurries of activity or anything, but I hope that it picks up over there soon! If you don't want to do the entire 17 miles, I would suggest doing the section with the 16th Ave steps (in the photo) as they are so cool. Plus you are close to Irving and can go and get pho on the way. I guess you could put it on your itinerary if people visit you! The gpx (map) info is here if you ever want to try it: https://crosstowntrail.org.
DeleteThis is so cool! I did a similar city-themed walk when I lived in Tokyo called the Yamathon, which follows the circular Yamanote line. It was so fun. https://portmanteausuitcase.com/2015/06/01/tokyo-weekend/
ReplyDeleteI am going to do this crosstown walk soon- thank you for the write-up!
The Yamathon sounds like fun too! I went to Tokyo years ago, but we took the subway a lot then! I was active but definitely not active enough to do a marathon and my friend with me would probably not have been into that either! However, that sounds like something I will keep on my list for next time I go!
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