Drove down the 101 with Stephanie and her mom to Mt. Tamalpais State Park, right next to Muir Woods National Monument in Marin. Turned out to be an especially clear day with great views of San Francisco, the Farallon Islands, Mt. Saint Helena, and Mt. Diablo.

It was a fun drive getting there, lots of twists and turns with stunning views of the city and the soft folds of Marin’s mountains along the way.

You can probably see Mt. Tam in the photo I took hiking up Mt. Saint Helena.

Around 4 we headed back down the mountain to get to the Golden Gate Bridge before the sun set. Since the pedestrian walkway is on the northbound side of the bridge, and we were heading south, we were kind of wondering whether we’d have to drive all the way into the city, turn around, and head back north. Turns out you can take the Sausalito exit heading south (the last one before the bridge), take a left after the exit as if you were heading up to the Marin Headlands, and then immediately take a left before going up the hill. There’s a parking lot there and a pedestrian bridge that goes under the Golden Gate bridge so you can cross over to the city side. As was our luck, we got there just time time to see the sun setting.

My favorite picture from the evening, probably because it looks more like a modernist illustration than a photo, is below. The lights on the left illuminate the towers of the bridge at night and the lights on the right were these neat round orbs of yellow.