California - Presidio of San Francisco - Presidio and Golden Gate Visitor Centers.
Today, the five of us - the three kids, me and Steve, went to the Presidio Visitor Center. We are all in town to celebrate Matt's graduation from Berkeley. The Presidio is an interesting place, being that it used to be a military base. There is a lot more space here than in most of the rest of the San Francisco area. The Visitor Center gave information about the Presidio, and Angee and I had a great conversation with a couple who have the goal of going to ALL the National Park Service properties. They were up to 300-something, and told us about a few of their exploits. So, there are a few other people with similar quests I guess. Mine seems to pale in comparison.
From the Presidio, we caught a bus to take us up to the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate area had another Visitor Center, aptly named the "Golden Gate Visitor Center". At this location, we walked out onto the bridge, to about half way, and then circled back and came back. It was very nice, and high, and windy. There are so many different places here. Right after getting on the bridge, before the bridge is actually over water, you pass over a fort, which is the "Fort Point National Historic Site". From the air, it looked a lot like the fort that we had visited in Barcelona, and Matt reminded me that it was the Spanish that first settled here, so that it made sense that it would. We did not actually go visit the fort. In addition to the fort, this location is also part of the "Golden Gate National Recreational Area". The Recreation Area is actually on both sides of the bridge.