A Few Days Off

The past couple of days off have been really nice and full of activity.  Sunday morning started off with a half marathon, which I hadn't really trained for but managed to finish.  The weather was sunny and warm with a nice breeze, which was perfect for the race.  The first half of the run was through Golden Gate Park and the second was along the coast.  I managed to pace myself quite well, so I never had to stop and felt pretty good along the entire route.  The only negative was that the finish line was closer to the beach than I had thought so I had to walk 2-3 miles afterwards to get back home.  I guess it was a nice cool down, but longer than I had imagined.

After taking a few hours to relax post race I made my way down to Palo Alto with Zuri.  My first stop was to meet up with a pal from Duke who has just moved here as a travel nurse.  We caught up over frozen yogurt, and throughout our two hour conversation we covered all kinds of important topics.  It was so much fun to chat about Duke, life as a travel nurse, and to hear about the adventures from her previous assignment in Los Angeles!  After saying goodbye and planning to get together again very soon, I headed over to another friends place for a Super Bowl party.  It was nice to catch up with some of the travelers I worked with at Packard.  Zuri made her way around the room looking for scraps of food, begging, and receiving plenty of pets.  We didn't stay for too long because fatigue had hit me around 6:30, so we made our way back to the city in the early evening and had a quiet night at home with Aaron. 

Yesterday Aaron and I had made plans to venture to Muir Woods, which is about ten miles past the Golden Gate Bridge just outside of the city.  The drive was just amazing as the fog was rising over the bridge and only an outline of the city was visible.  It amazes me that small town America lies just over the bridge.  It only takes five to six miles to leave the city behind and find yourself on winding two lane roads with no one else around but cows and horses.  We even managed to find a small fruit and nut stand on the side of the road, and we stopped and bought dried papaya and pineapple for our hike.   Once at Muir Woods we parked and made our way to the entrance station.  We were surprised at the amount of people out and about on a Monday morning, but once into the park the crowds were not bad at all. 

The main area of the park is made up of a flat trail along a small stream surrounded by beautiful redwood groves.  This walk leads you to the famous Redwood Cathedral.  The 'Cathedral' area is appropriately named because of all the many trees towering above.  There is kind of a Notre Dame feel to the area, and it is breathtaking!  After this religious experience, we made our way up to the Dipsea Trail, which leads upward through thick forest to an open area where you can see for miles and miles.  It was a two mile hike and half way up we found a bench to sit down, stretch our legs and eat lunch.  The woods were silent except for the occasional bird chatter high up in the trees.  It was great to sit quietly and absorb the beauty of this amazing forest.  After our short break we made our way to the open space, which provided a panoramic view of the hills, the coastline and the city.  Once again, we sat for a while just to take it all in, and then took some pictures before heading up the trail for another mile or so.  This part of the hike was flat and along the edge of this hills that drop down to the coast.  The views continued to be spectacular.  Around mid-afternoon we decided to turn around so not to get in rush hour traffic when making our way back to San Francisco.  It was so much fun to spend time outside of the city for an afternoon. 

For dinner we took the bus out of town to the Olive Garden.  We used the gift card we received as a Christmas gift, and we managed to eat like kings and queens.  A bottle of wine, appetizers, huge entrees, and dessert.  I guess it was well deserved after our long hike.  After dinner we made our way to Trader Joe's to pick up some much needed food items before making our way back home.  It was a perfect day!