Bike, Don't Hike

See that cutie? That's my boyfriend. He's sooooo great- he takes me everywhere, moves just as fast or slow as I'm comfortable with...ok I can't keep this up without making a joke about riding so I'll just stop.

I did go for a fantastic bike ride the other day. I started in the Mission and rode up the 'wiggle' (a series of streets you switchback on to go up a giant hill without going on the actual giant hill) to Golden Gate Park. I rode all the way from the Haight end of the park to the beach! See?

That's the windmill right by the beach end of Golden Gate Park. I was curious about why there would be a windmill (officially called the Dutch Windmill) in the park so I did some interneting and this is what I found:

Originally the area of Golden Gate Park was arid, bare, and too windy for anything to grow. San Francisco decided to kill two birds with one stone, harnessing the wind with the windmill to pump water out of underground wells and water all of the trees and foliage planted in Golden Gate Park. It worked well and the park became the world's largest botanical garden at the time. Now the windmill is just a monument- it doesn't work or anything- but it still looks cool in an 'out of place' kind of way. If you want to read more you should go to http://www.dform.com/projects/windmill/index.html. Veeeeery interesting.

My long bike ride dumped me out at the beach where I ate a peanut butter sandwich and a banana and read until it got too cold and windy. The weather here is so diverse. When I started my ride in the Mission it was sunny and warm (because the Mission is perfect) and then as I rode up the hill it just got warmer. Halfway through the park it started to get cloudy, then windy, then cold...beachy, I guess. You need to dress in layers just to go across town. Weird.

I think biking around the city might be my new favorite thing, especially if I am able to upgrade my bike soon. It's so fun and liberating to just ride wherever, explore any street you can ride down, get lost and then find out that you're really close to somewhere you've been before. Kind of like life...