Buena Vista Park

On Sunday I went on a hike through Buena Vista Park, which is about a five minute walk from my house. I love the park for it's tall hill, beautiful trees, outstanding views of the city, and it's ability to convince you that you are in the middle of the wilderness when you are only a few minutes walk from home. Here is an example of how wild the park looks (Who would think it's in the center of the city?):



From the peak of the hill/mountain that the park centers around, you can see awesome views of nearly the whole city. Here's one from the eastern peak looking towards downtown, with the TransAmerica pyramid in the middle:



And of course, no view of the city is complete without the Golden Gate Bridge:



The park is a great place to relax or even get a workout, which is definitely possible since getting to the top requires climbing a couple hundred stairs and a good deal of steep paths. It's a great way to unwind from a week of stress at work and assorted other things. It is really close to my neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury, which I also really like. Tonight I hung out with my friend that I met at the laundromat of all places, just touring the sights, sounds, and smells (mostly from the free-wheeling pot culture here) of the neighborhood. We discovered that within two blocks of my house is a great bookstore and a cute little second-floor Thai restaurant with a significant vegetarian menu, always a big selling point to me!