A weekend in the Bay Area
Something a bit different
A change of pace
People who follow my blog will know that I mostly write about running, martial arts, and my thoughts and ‘philosophical thinking’ surrounding those things. I normally take inspiration from what has happened recently and then write a bit of an essay about what happened.
This week is a bit different. I have not been doing anything particularly sporty over the past week because I’ve been out of town on business. I have however just spent a week in the Bay Area (California), and I think it would make a nice change of pace to write up a bit of a travel blog about it.
Golden Gate Bridge
Probably the most iconic landmark in the Bay Area is the Golden Gate Bridge. Going and seeing this bridge was an absolute must. So I did all the business I needed to do in the area, jumped on a bus, and got taken to the Golden Gate Bridge toll gates.
My image of California has always been that the area is hot. I’d been to San Diego once a few years ago, so I was expecting similar weather. It turns out that San Francisco can get quite chilly. Luckily I prepared and had a hoodie with me.
When I arrived at the bridge there were clouds/fog around the top of it and a strong wind was blowing across the bridge. As I was walking from one side to the other I noticed that there was a small mountain with a flat top that people seemed to have hiked up to. It wasn’t on my original plan to go and see that, but since it was there I decided to find a way up that mountain.
When you get to the other side of the bridge you can find a path that takes you under the bridge and to the other side. I took that path and found a trail entrance that took me to an area that used to be used as some kind of fortified gun emplacement. I’m glad I went up here because this was clearly the best place to see the bridge from.
I climbed back down, and found my way to the bus stop. It took a while to get back to the city because buses were very few and far between. The whole journey on the bridge took me about an hour and half and was about 8.5 km in length. Be prepared for a long walk if you go.
Sunnyvale Bay Trail parkrun
If I’m around somewhere for a weekend and there is a parkrun, I’m going to go out of my way to do the parkrun. The closest parkrun to me was the Sunnyvale Bay Trail parkrun.
This parkrun is an out and back course. It started at one of the entrances to the Bay Trail and was an out and back style parkrun on a dusty, gravel trail that goes through wetlands. The beginning of the course was a bit tight and I got stuck behind a lot of people at the start, but once I got going I managed to make up a lot of time. The turns on the gravel path were a bit precarious, but it was quite a nice, scenic run.
My watch told me that I completed 5K in about 19:40 but my parkrun time was just over 20 minutes. The course itself was a little longer than 5K, so you need to really put some extra effort in if you want a specific official time.
The parkrun group went out for a coffee in downtown Sunnyvale after. I enjoyed talking to the locals and also to some of the other people who were visiting. I ended up getting some inspiration for something else to do from one of them. (More on that later).
In-N-Out Burger
I sometimes come across people from California talking about a burger chain called In-N-Out. This chain seems to be part of California culture and people who eat there swear it is the best burger place in the world.
Over the weekend I ended up going to In-N-Out burger twice. This wasn’t necessarily something I planned, but I now think I’ve had the full experience so can comment on the place.
The first time I went (I ran to an In-N-Out after the parkrun), I just got a basic burger and fries. Pretty good. Pretty fresh. Nice staff. Clean restaurant. Not too expensive. All positive points that contribute to the good reputation of the place. But I hadn’t tried an ‘Animal style’ burger or fries. I don’t know if or when I will come back to California, so I decided to go back and try again the next day.
Before going to my ‘mystery’ location on my final day, I went back a different In-N-Out and ordered an, ‘Animal style double-double, with animal fries.’ These items are not on the menu. They are a poorly kept secret that you just have to ask for.
An animal style burger has grilled onions rather than raw onions, has mustard grilled patties, and has extra thousand island spread and pickles. Animal fries are topped with cheese, onions, and thousand island spread.
I would say that the animal style burger is an improvement but the fries are a bit much.
Final verdict: I enjoyed In-N-Out burger. It’s good but for me, it is not the best burger place in the world. I think it is the context of it being California culture that makes Californians love it so much. And I can understand that.
Very decent burgers, with a side of placebo.
The Winchester Mystery House
After the parkrun one of the other tourists told me that they had booked a tour for the Winchester Mystery House. I had actually heard about this but I didn’t realize it was in the area. Once I realized I was close to the place I booked a tour for the following day.
The Winchester Mystery House was built over a period 40 years for Sarah Winchester. Her husband, William Winchester was the inventor of the Winchester repeating rifle, which could fire 15 bullets before needing to be reloaded. These guns were incredibly effective and made the Winchester family a lot of money. But after William died of tuberculosis and left everything to Sarah, she started adding extensions to their house.
Sarah Winchester was a very spiritual person. But not only had she lost her husband but she had also lost a child earlier in her life. After consulting a medium, she was told that the source of her misfortune was that she was being haunted by the spirits of those who were killed by Winchester rifles. So to combat this, she started building a gigantic mansion with weird features set up to confuse the ghosts, like stair leading into the ceiling, doors that open onto walls, windows in the floor, and even a door that simply led to a 10 ft drop.
There are 160 rooms in the house and the tour took us through most of them. There was the possibility to pay extra and go and see the attics and basements (I saw some people wearing hard hats to do this), but I didn’t think I needed to spend the extra $20 to go and see a few extra rooms. The tour itself was already $45. But it was very much worth the price and I’m glad I used a day to go and see it. The house is stunning, the tours are well conducted, and it really is a unique place to visit. I highly recommend going if you happen to be in San Jose.
Final thoughts
There are obviously a lot of things to do in the Bay Area that I didn’t get around to doing. This wasn’t an exhaustive list of everything that I did in the area, but these were the main things I wanted to do while I was in town, and I had a very good few days there.
I know this article was a bit different to my usual writing, but I hope it was a welcome change. I will probably write similar articles in the future if something else comes along to totally throw a spanner into the works.
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