Alex Bovee

Ever since we arrived in San Francisco, we had been wanting to check out the shoreline of the Presidio and Baker Beach.  It’s not much of a hike and is a fun afternoon get away if you only have a few hours to kill - which we did.

We loaded up the car at about 2:30 on Sunday, packed some snacks for Lilly, and headed over to the Presidio.  We parked right off of Lincoln Ave next to a World War II memorial that we had no idea existed until we drove up to it.  The memorial is to honor those who were lost at sea in the Pacific during World War II and never found.



The first stop on the hike is an old coastal battery that sits mid-way down the cliff.  You could see where there were previously huge guns stationed, because there is a circle in the concrete about 10 feet in diameter with large bolts every two feet around the circumference.  Kind of a shame they weren’t still there - that would have been incredible.  My guess is that maybe it’s a bit too ominous for cargo ships and tugboats coming into the Bay to have huge guns pointed at them.  Either that, or the gov needed the steel and decided to recycle it.  Probably the latter.

From the battery, we headed further down towards the ocean and ended up at Baker Beach.  It was pretty cold that day, so we didn’t really hang around.  But, the beach itself offered some great views and gorgeous pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We tooled around for a few, got some pictures of the family, and then hiked back up to Lincoln road and the car.



We thought that would be the end of the trip, but thanks to Trivia Night last Thursday, I found out that the Legion of Honor is also in San Francisco.  So, we added a quick stop there to our itinerary for the trip home.  The building, statues, and huge steel sculpture were all pretty cool, but we didn’t get a chance to see much else as there was a wedding going on and they had commandeered most of the structure and surrounding area.  We also didn’t realize it at the time, but there is a small Holocaust Memorial near the parking lot of the Legion of Honor.  It was a bit disturbing, so we didn’t let Lilly see it.  Eventually she caught a glimpse though and asked why all the people were laying down :(

Since we didn’t get to check out much of the Legion of Honor, it’s definitely on our to-do list for a day when it’s not so cloudy and maybe a little bit warmer.