Technically, scrambling about below the Golden Gate Bridge should count, but somehow the fog and grey-ness that day didn't feel real. As I travelled North from San Francisco, climbing through Mount Tamalpais state park got me some fantastic above the clouds views and then later sheer distance from fog trap of the bay at Point Reyes seashore got me proper Pacific up close.
Like many things I'm finding on this trip, it's the little things that can catch you out when you shift cultures to another country. For example, if you ask for a side order of something in a restaurant in the US, you'll often have it delivered as an appetiser, rather than as, you know something on the side with your main dish (go figure). On the roads, you can turn right at a red light if it's safe and overtake on any side on the freeway. The point I'm making is that some stuff you take for granted or do automatically in one place, can have dire consequences in another.
Now having to eat onion rings or French beans as a starter is livable with but going for a dip in one of the world's most populated shark zones and getting your leg ripped off by a Great White is something entirely different. In the UK, you wouldn't think twice about leaping into the water for a swim but the rules are different here. Same as going for a ramble out in the country. In the UK, the worst you might have to contend with is a Getorfmoiland or maybe the weather. Out here, it's bears (Black or Grizzly), cougars (hungry or divorced), snakes, scorpions, tetchy racoons, lizards. And the Getorfmoilands have automatic weapons too.
Nice empty beach
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