Keropie's Cuties: The Muir Woods...as written by Aurora (and Julie because of the inability to update on time & needing to cheat by using her daughter's travel diary!)

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Today we really wanted to go to the Muir Woods (because Damien and I chickened out of driving to Yosemite!) But it was too long to walk. So we caught a long bus to the bright red Golden Gate Bridge. When we were at the bridge we caught another bus. It was meant to be to Marin City but it didn't end up going there (I'm not sure where we ended up but it wasn't far from where we were meant to be. We went in to a photo shop to ask for directions and the owner was extremely kind and called a taxi for us and had a chat. It turns out he is a French Man who came to America and made his dollar in the hey day of photo developing and had a few stores, but alas digital cameras has changed that. Completely unnecessary information, but interesting enough and part of our we got lost story and were rescued). Then we caught a taxi to the Muir Woods (because we missed the free shuttles that run on the weekend and did not want the time constraints of a tour, besides we saved heaps of $$).
At the Muir Woods we saw an abundance of Redwood trees that were a thousand years old (her words not mine!). There were lots of pieces of writing about the trees. Soon we saw a piece of writing about burls. If you do know what burls are I will tell you. Burls are the most amazing thing on trees. They allow another tree to grow back when the tree dies or is destroyed. We went on an extremely long hike through the woods along the long rocky stream.
(The trees were amazing, just being in there smelling them and touching them was indescribable. This place had an amazing energy to it. The way these trees grow and continue to grow are nothing short of amazing - like the burls and also can resprout from their roots. They are generally found in family groups too and if there is a stand alone tree the soil would have had to have been exposed to certain elements to nurture the seed. We spent 3 hours there and could have spent more. There are a lot of trails of varying lengths. The little stream is home to wild salmon which we didn't see but it is one of the last known habitats for this fish. We stopped for lunch at the woods - inside the cafe only due to bear potentials). At the store we had delicious pizza. Later we went to the Legion of Honor and saw stuff outside like the Thinker Sculpture (Lol at the stuff - we saw the Thinker and various other sculptures in front of this amazing pillar building that houses an art gallery. We unsuccessfully tried to pose like the Thinker, didn't quite get the feel in the photo that we were after LOL)

(This was our last day in San Francisco and despite the sheer exhaustion we did feel sad leaving this gorgeous city. There were still many things that we wished we could have seen! But we feel very satisfied, more then satisfied seeing what we did. We headed off to the airport to stay close by at an airport hotel, only for the shuttle bus organised by the hotel not show up for 2 hours and being constantly told it will be there in 20 mins. They kept driving by and not stopping. I was a cranky bear by then as we had a 3.30am start for a 6am flight and didn't get to bed until midnight after a very late dinner. Our 7.30 arrival time at the hotel blew out to 9.30pm without dinner until 10pm. This may sound like a whinge but just noting it as part of the day! And much to Damien and the kids excitement, they had McDonald's for dinner - supersized!!)

Hope you enjoy the photo's.