For my Belgian friends and family, you could do an effort of just reading it, I bet you will understand the most, or you could use Google translate...
After I found out there are some new passport for national parks stamps available in the SF bay area, I just had to get them asap, because I'm trying to have green pins everywhere in CA
So today we did a quick run to San Francisco, partly to escape the heat in the peninsula, but mostly to get the missing stamps and to see the new additions to the Golden Gate NRA!
Our first stop was at the new Lands end Visitor Center, very pretty building and if you enter, don't forget to look up to the ceiling! They have a cafe as well and a fantastic view on the ocean and Suthro baths...
Then we continued to the new Golden Gate bridge Visitor Center, it opened to the press last Monday and was open to the public since Tuesday...
It is a nice store, but they are still working on the outside at the plaza and the lookout and also the cafe, hopefully everything will be done before the big festivities on the 27th!
They will have some new exhibits and maquettes / text panels at the lookout as well... I still like the cross section of the cable the most. It is amazing to see how big it actually is! And it seems they are making also a new bikepath from the lookout down to Crissy field.
The only downside of the new building is that it took a big chunk from the already tiny parking lot so finding a parking spot is even more difficult than before... I suggest to park at the previous lookout or even drive down to crissy field or Fort Point and hike back up via the trail. Best way would be to take public transport from downtown to the lookout...
The old pavilion, the roundhouse, is now almost empty and has a new purpose: it is the infodesk, meeting point for guided tours and you can take a 'virtual tour of the bridge' by taking a photoshoot in front of a greenscreen and have some nice souvenir pictures to take home showing you on top of the bridge... (It is pricey: $20/photo), so we were hesitant to do it, but since we already have the bridge from almost every angle on camera, it was not worth the cost, and I would rather be really on the bridge, in person, then faking it in front of a green screen
Then we drove down to Fort Point to get the missing stamp there...wonder around through the fort, looking at the old canons and enjoy once more the view of the bridge from underneath (nice perspective) half hidden in the fog...
Although it is pretty warm in the Bay-area, the wind at Fort Point and the fog rolling in, made us shiver and we ended up having a warming coffee at the Crissy Field warming hut.
Mission accomplished ! (Well, almost... I still have to get to Alcatraz one day to go get the only stamp still missing in my collection...) Time to head back south.
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