walk a bajillion miles

Luke and I went to San Francisco in early September.  Thank goodness we were together there.  He was excellent at reading the street map for the grid streets there (my sense of direction there was way off) and I excelled at reading the Golden Gate park trail map (he was super lost on that one).  It was a perfect balance of map reading skills.

I bet you are wandering about those bajillion miles.  Apparently my sense of how far things are away in terms of walking distance is way off.  We hoofed it close to 10 miles--not bad for running but not pleasant with the extreme hills of the city.
First on the agenda walking from near Union Square to see the Full House house.  This was probably a 3 mile journey.  Full House house, you were nice looking.  I wish it wasn't so foggy out.  We probably shouldn't have left so early in the morning so the fog would have evaporated.  Oh well.

painted ladies

Additional hiking at this point for another mile or so to Golden Gate park.  I consult the map and realize that once you get to the park the map is not to scale and the ocean is actually 4.5 miles away so we board a MUNI bus to get to the Golden Gate bridge (which is not located in Golden Gate park but the Presidio that is really close to the park). Luke eagerly sits on the short bus ride to the Presidio.  We find out that September is the foggiest month typically and the bridge is not super visible today.  Bummer. I still want to walk across the bridge part way since only the top part is veiled in fog.  The bridge vibrates and it is a bit unnerving for Luke so we high tail it off the bridge.

I look at the map and figure that it isn't that much of a hike, like 2 miles, to the Walt Disney Family Museum.  Luke asks about a bus--he's had enough of my crazy idea to walk everywhere.  FREE bus in the Presidio park--bonus!  Current distance walked so far about 4.5 miles.

I am beyond excited about the Walt Disney Family Museum.  We pay the admission fee and wander around, reading and looking at all things Disney.  No photos were allowed in the museum and incase you are wondering it is NOT "affiliated" with Disney although they have permission to use documents/film pieces/etc... I loved it.

I handed Luke a granola bar and drink to enjoy on the porch while I visited the gift shop.  He was checking out the map and we boarded the free bus and took it for a full Presidio loop before realizing that it didn't stop where we thought it would.  We did end up exiting close to where we wanted to though after getting some assistance from the driver.

yay Disney

We end up in Walgreen's since that is where you can buy a MUNI bus pass.  We each purchase a 3 day pass and then I convince him that it isn't that far of a walk to Ghiradelli Square.  Bring on another 3 miles so now our total mileage walked is 7.5 miles.  We stop for Pizza on the way.  Luke almost gets sucked into a movie on tv that started when we sat down to order.  Sitting=bad since it takes away all motivation to keep moving forwarad.

Ghiradelli Square

it was butterscotch and not caramel :(

We gladly enjoyed a sundaes at Ghiradelli Square.  "Manfriend, it's really not that much further to walk to see the crooked street from here.  It's like 6 blocks.  Why don't we check it out and then go back to our hotel since we've done a lot today already?"  Somehow he agrees to this idea.  Lombard street is only one block long--why did I think it would be longer/bigger???  Oh well.  Distance hoofed so far almost 9 miles.

Lombard Street
I'm ready to walk back towards the hotel and find a place along the way to stop for a quick bite for dinner (soup and sandwich maybe).  Luke busts out the map and points saying we are getting on this bus and getting off here (almost next to the hotel).  I concede to the idea, but only if we can go shopping at Union Square when we get back.  He glares at me as if to say, "are you kidding me?"  We do go shopping, but only so he can get some new sneakers since his are falling apart.  This little shopping trip brings the day to about 10 miles walked.  Even I am tuckered out since walking miles feel very different than running  miles... Luke conks out and I check out maps and things to do, scheming for day 2 of exploring.