San Francisco - Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, and Muir Beach & Woods

We were happy to take the kids to the place where we got engaged nearly 15 years ago!  Although we both think the bench where Steve proposed is no longer there due to construction, it was still pretty neat to revisit the location of Steve's most romantic moment! ;)

This might have been the bench, or the one to the right

Fort Point was open, and we were able to go on a ranger-led tour.  We learned that, with skill, one can skip cannons (32 pound ones, no less) across the water, just like stones.  Who knew??  We also learned that although this Fort never came under attack. For a celebration in 1876, they fired the cannons on a ship in the bay for 12 hours and NEVER once hit it; the Navy finally set fire to it to end the celebration.  Hmmmm...I'm thinking it's a good thing it never had to participate in battle.

After leaving the Bridge area, we attempted to go to Muir Woods, but there was no parking!  There were cars everywhere, parked along the road for miles.  Instead, we ended up at Muir Beach, where we walked down to the beach and got our feet wet.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves except for Genna, who had woken up from her nap on the wrong side of the truck, apparently.  Alyssa said she wished she'd brought her swimsuit, so she could go swimming!  Don't where she gets it from; the Pacific Ocean water is definitely a tad cold for my taste!

We left Muir Beach and attempted Muir Woods again.  Steve actually found a spot in the first parking lot, but there were hoards of people everywhere!  As we entered, we say the sign saying, "Park free today."  Now it all made sense; we actually chose to go to a national park on a "national park free day."  Definitely not one of our wisest decisions.  Nonetheless, we did stay until closing, which was really only about 45 minutes.  What a bummer...Steve & I had been before & remembered it as such a beautiful, peaceful place, but today all you could hear was screeching children (not ours this time), strollers bumping along, the scuffle of shoes, and a lot of different languages being spoken.  I bet we heard more foreign languages than we heard English!  Note to self: Don't go to national parks on free day!