Somewhere along the coastline

Drive down to LA

The drive along the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles is one of the most scenic beautiful drives you can do in your life. The Lonely Planet guide ranks it in the top 10 drives in the world and even though the majority of our trip down the coast was shrouded in rain and fog its easy to understand how it got that rank. With deep cliff drops less than a meter away from you and narrow looping roads around the coast with many blind spots this drive is not for the faint hearted. Take your time completing this trip as there is so much to see and do. 

Golden Gate Bridge

    

You can't visit San Francisco and not see the Golden Gate Bridge. Its iconic, beautiful and such a vivid rusty orangey-red colour. Even being a person who doesn't really care much about architecture, its hard not to appreciate the grandness of the design as you drive through it. It's appeared in numerous pop-culture films such as Planets of the Apes, X-men and Interview with the Vampire and we knew we couldn't leave San Francisco without seeing it.

Erick and I went to three different lookouts to view the bridge from. The first lookout was on the north end of the bridge, up a steep cliff that provided a view of the bridge and all of San Francisco. Being on an elevated height the views was absolutely stunning especially at sunset.

We then quickly drove to the south end that provided a view of the bridge from the underside. Apparently we missed the turn that allowed you to drive right under the bridge, but are kind of thankful since it is a notorious makeup place.

The final place was on the coast where we able to swim in the ocean with the bridge in the background. I totally freaked out when I found this place out. Getting here we endured the worst traffic jam of our lives but it was well worth it. The walk along the coast as well was so beautiful and calming, a perfect end to a beautiful time in San Francisco.

Muir Wood

I love nature. Wherever I travel, usually the first thing I look up, apart from the location of the nearest gay bar, is national parks close enough to escape too. Some people are drawn towards beautiful architecture, be it modern or gothic, but to me, nothing beats looking at the stunning and surreal landscapes that nature can offer.

So when I was in San Francisco it was only natural that I would check out Muir Woods National Park. Muir Woods is home to an old-growth forest that sports Coast Redwood trees. These trees are the tallest trees in the world, with many of the ones in Muir Woods being around 500 to 800 years old. Our adventure to the park was our first time out of the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan American city and into the wilderness. We decided to hire a car to make the trip easier, but in reality, it really didn’t.  Coming from the opposite side of the world where we drive on the left, suddenly driving on the right caused us numerous heart attacks, missed turns and elevated blood pressure that by the time we arrived we were just happy to have survived.