it's just an inch in distance on the map....

...and not really that far. I love to walk, and I do walk fast. I love to hike too, and it's so different from walking. I can do either and enjoy both and specially when the scenery along the route taken is fantastic as it was this day! It started off a bright day with the greatest fluffy clouds I've seen in some time. The day previous was very hot but today promised a weak breeze (delivered as promised) and not such high temperatures.

I met up with a small group of about eight hikers, and starting from Baker Beach, we took to the road leading upward toward the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza......

.....continuing under the bridge and down toward Fort Mason. The views were of course amazing and though I've seen the sights often, there were a few spots I hadn't seen before, and it was pure joy. I last did something like this as a pre-teen lad with only a bicycle, and I didn't have a camera yet alone the interest of photography yet. Now I live here as an adult with a car, and though the areas I am driving through are "familiar", it just isn't the same.

From Fort Mason we went up a short hill and down to Aquatic Park at the base of steep Hyde Street, then to a Fishermen's Wharf italian restaurant for a quick lunch, then continued out of the wharf area toward the Ferry Building, where the hike ended and we boarded a MUNI bus to get us within walking distance of the parking lot at Baker's Beach where our cars and a mess of stop-N-go traffic awaited us.

It was just a wee-bit over 8 miles that was completed in just a bit over two hours; the group was overall slower than the rapid pace I like, but still, I'm patient and can hike/walk slow or fast; I just get bored though. The route was filled with many sightings of pelicans which I attempted capturing at each opportunity as it presented itself. All of the beaches we neared or transited through were crowded with families and children as the day was hot and bright.

It was great to get out of the hot apartment though I had a friend visiting from out of state, so I was busy all week playing a combination of host tour guide and tourist myself, as many of the places I had taken my friend to, were those places I hadn't been to since I was a wee lad! It was so interesting to see the differences, plus then I walked everywhere; now I had to figure out how to get there by car! My friend and I had gone to the headlands also, and also was lucky enough to witness some gorgeous red flaming sunsets (below), plus the unusual and rare creation of a cloud funnel in the warm airs above Marin County. My friend also helped me to take advantage of stop-N-go traffic on the Bay Bridge to get some pictures of Coit Tower and the waterfront of my hometown from the bridge's upper deck... something I've been driving to do for many years/decades but difficult when you are the driver and camera-man.