Ocean Beach

Today I decided to visit Golden Gate Park and the beach to the west of San Francisco.

I start at the park and was intending to go into the botanic gardens for a look around, but it was packed with people - possibly because it was such a nice day and was a Saturday and there was an event on in the park.

They also wanted quite a lot of money to get in, so I didn't go in, but walked around the park instead.

There are numerous trails around that you can follow, although the map doesn't indicate height very well.

Some of the paths were up incredibly steep hills, whereas others just went around the hills.

There is a lake in this park, and there are lots of pedal boats and kayaks on it that people hire to go around, and it's not just one large area of water, more like a circular river around a central island, with bridges at the north and south end to get onto it.

It does seem to be a closed water system - it looks like the entire thing has been built, because this is in the highest part of the park - and the water hasn't all drained away down the hills!

I was taking photos of the river and thinking what a strange colour is was when somebody walked by and said exactly the same thing! 

It was remarkably green.

(And it wasn't part of a "half way to St Patrick's Day" thing either - that's a thing, particular in Chicago, that some Americans like to celebrate around 17th September!)

After getting half way through the park, I decided to leave and catch a bus most of the rest of the way to the coast.

I had intended to walk all the way down from Judah St (where the N line ends) to the San Francisco Zoo near Taraval St (where the L line ends) to get the light rail train back, but in the end I had to give up due to time constraints as I needed to get back to my hotel to change and get down to the ballpark for a 6.05pm start.

The beach doesn't appear to have changed.

 Not very busy, even though it was a Saturday, but quite windy and there were some kite fliers and windsurfers