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Friday, May 21, 2010

Exhortation to Exploration: Sutro Baths and Land's End


Today was too beautiful of a day to waste, especially since it is projected to rain in San Francisco for the next two days, so I HAD to get out. Also I've been cooped up in my room practicing all this week. But enough about that.


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I went to one of San Francisco's lesser known historical landmarks, Sutro Baths. But first, I had lunch at Louis' Restaurant which is just up the path from Sutro Baths; It's a little cute red house with a great view of the baths, and the ocean.That's where it is on Google Maps; It looks peculiar and unremarkable from above. So here's a picture of the pool from my point of view.

Nice!

Near that point where I took the picture it got sandy and there was this sinister-looking tunnel to my right, and it was howling. So naturally I had to go in.
Trust me, it was much darker and scarier than my phone camera shows. It was extremely windy the whole time, and it turns out the tunnel didn't lead anywhere - just a blocked off view of some seaside rocks and waves.
I didn't have anywhere to be so I walked up the path on the other side and kept exploring.


One last view of Sutro Baths!

Ugh. All these stairs. I pretty much kept to the left for a long time and kept going. At times I wondered if it was possible bringing Elly here, but I couldn't see myself biking against the wind. It's quite brutal, right next to the ocean.
Eventually I came upon this sight. Hey! That looks familiar. The trail here was smooth enough to bike, but quickly degraded into a sloping dirt path. Oh well.
If you look carefully in the right side, there's a cement semicircle outcrop with benches that you can sit in and enjoy the view. I am about here, now:
Hopefully, you get the idea. Okay let's keep going!

Somewhere along the way I came across this sign:
Mile rock beach? Sounds good. Let's go there! Oh wait:


Stairs! My mortal enemy. Hm, the lens flare makes that path look downright heavenly, but at the time it was so dark it looked like steps leading to the underworld. After stairs, stairs, and more stairs, I got to:



A really neat little beach. I wonder why there are no rocks in that big spot on the beach? Anyway, there was a path up the cliff on the side, so I climbed that.

At first I approached the Land's End point not expecting much. I am here now, by the way:

At this turnaround there was so much wind I was mildly anxious about getting thrown off the cliff. But then I came across a curious bunch of rocks, definitely placed by hand - and I recognized the pattern excitedly before standing over it. (It's curiously cut-off in the google map aerial image. A shame.)

Can you figure out what it is?
It's a labyrinth!

By the way, I risked my life to take that picture! I climbed on another rocky outcrop above the labyrinth, and at this point was completely and fully exposed to the wind in all directions. I felt like my phone was going to fly out of my hands, and then I'd have lost all the pictures I took today! Oh no.

Then I needed to pee, so I went home.

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