Rhapsody in International Orange (Golden Gate Bridge Post)

The night before, when we got home from San Francisco, we ate some of our bread from Boudin bakery.  (We devoured our cheese rolls.) And in the morning, we had sourdough bread for breakfast, and we realized we should have bought more sourdough bread than we did, so we plotted where we could hit another Boudin Bakery on our way out of the city toward the Golden Gate Bridge.  As we were on the highway, we saw a self-driving google car!  

Excuse the blurry cell phone camera picture!

Selfies with my buddy featuring Mom and Karen in the background

After driving around half of the border of San Francisco, a trip into an industrial park, a trip to the auto-parts store, where Dad inadvertently went over his 24 minute parking, and much confusion.  We arrived at the Boudin Bakery cafe (in the food court of the mall).  Mom and I went in and ordered 4 two pound loaves of sourdough bread and a bag of sourdough burger rolls.  (Hey! We were stocking up for quite sometime!) We were met by slight looks of confusion and "are you serious" by the cashier. This continues my streak of being judged for my family's bread addiction.  

Bread modeling (It's a thing)

        We are currently still reaping the benefits of our bread purchase, breakfast this morning!                                        

                                                

Once we had our bread, our sour dough insecurity diminished, and we carried on towards the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping in the Golden Gate Park, or rather slightly outside of the inner park area as there was nowhere to park.  However, we stopped to see the Dutch Windmill and the Queen Wilhelmina Garden.

We stopped at a National Recreation Area and scenic turnout to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was still mostly foggy.  However, Timber could come with us on the trails and she was a happy dog!

Photo-credit to Mom

                            

Happy Dog!

The Golden Gate Bridge, of course, has a visitor's center, as well as one can walk across it.  However, there was no spot to park Harvey, so upon our circling, we found a parking lot for an historic military fort which wasn't far up from the visitor's center as well as it had a trail connecting the two.  One could walk around on the stairs and on platforms of the fort, and so while everyone else finished their lunch, I went exploring!

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the Modern Engineering Marvels of the world.  Construction began on January 5, 1933 and was opened to vehicles on May 28, 1937.  The construction took place in the midst of the Great Depression and was completed in only four years.  Construction of the bridge was also record breaking because of how few fatalities there were.  Only 11 people died during the Construction.   The 4,200 foot long suspension bridge was the largest of its kind when it opened, and now is the ninth largest in the world.  In each bridge tower, there are approximately 600,000 rivets.  You might ask why the Golden Gate Bridge is painted in International Orange, and not Gold.  The answer is quite simple.  The Bridge spans the Golden Gate Straight.  The consulting architect Irving Morrow rejected carbon black and steel gray, and decided on Orange Vermillion, more popularly known today as International Orange because it is a warm color which matches the land masses and contrasts the cool colors of the sky and water.  It was also chosen for its easy visibility for passing ships.  However, the US Navy proposed the Bridge be painted in black and yellow stripes for eased visibility.  Thank goodness that idea was thrown out!

By the time we had walked down, the fog had lifted from the bridge and you could see the whole thing.  

The fog is called advection fog, and it is caused when the humid air of the Pacific Ocean flows over the chilly California current parallel to the coast.  The Golden Gate Bridge directs the fog pushing it up and down around the bridge.  High pressure can also squash it close to the ground.  The distinctive color of International Orange was chosen in part due to its visibility in the fog.  

Lucky for us, the fog had cleared up!

Hey! Karen and I match the Bridge!

View of Alcatraz from the Bridge (If you can't tell, I'm a little bummed we didn't get to go to "the Rock," but tickets for tours of the island sell out months in advance.  Oh well, I guess that's what you get when you go on a vacation without any particular plans.)

We walked out to the lowest point of the suspension cables in between the two towers.  I took a panorama, and  it makes the bridge look like a curve. 

A little flower garden spelling out the initials

My favorite of the flowers in the garden 

It began to fog up again as we were leaving.  

Harvey on the bridge

Pretty as a postcard! Good-bye San Francisco!

I'm almost caught up now! We are just outside of Crater Lake now.  Karen again has posted, a funny one that shows the affects of RV psychosis, what happens when we get trapped in here for too long together.  Timber, Dad and I still seem relatively untouched by this disease, but at this time, a cure has not been found.  Until next time!

Ciao!

Amy