A Trip to the Golden Gate Bridge

The son of one of Guibo's friends in his hometown is doing some training in San Ramon. We went to visit him  on Saturday and took him to see the Golden Gate bridge. Before the sightseeing, we went to Chinatown for lunch. The young man's comment for Chinatown was "it is so much like China". Yes, the smell of Chinese herbs and Chinese food, the crowded small shops, and Chinese characters on store signs. Also the litter scattered sidewalk though. Sign.

The weather was sunny, nearly perfect for San Francisco. I forgot my jacket and luckily was not frozen. It has been years since my last visit to the bridge. The bridge is as beautiful as I remembered. The monument, bridge models, and display are all very nice and informative, although the kids had no interest in learning about the design and building of the bridge.

While driving toward the bridge, we had a brief discussion about the color of it. "It's orange, or orange red, red orange." That's what I saw and what I remembered as well. But everybody else insisted that it was red. How could that color be red?? Before we heading out,  in the gift shop I found little cans of paint on which printed "International Orange". Ha, I was right!

Two incidents worth mentioning. One is James' fear for height. While we were driving across the Bay Bridge, he nervously hold onto his car seat arm rest all the time. "Are you afraid?" I asked him. He nodded. Later he refused to walk onto the Golden Gate Bridge.

Another incident was that Daniel got lost for about 15 minutes. He was taking pictures and was not paying attention when the rest of us going down the trail leading to the sea. Because he is always running ahead of everybody on outings, Guibo and I assumed that he was  ahead of us. It was James who told us that Daniel did not come down with family. Guibo: "Let him be. He will find us at the parking lot." Me: "No, I will go back to find him." Uttering a silent prayer, I ran up the trail. There were people everywhere. Bicycles too. Thankfully, I spotted Daniel's red T-shirt not far from the gift shop just minutes after I came up the trail. He was apparently upset but not panicking. Here's Daniel's account of what happened after being lost.
"I went to the car in the park lot and waited for a while but didn't see any of you. I'm going to go into the gift shop to borrow their phone to call you." That's pretty impressive to me. I should have taught him and James a lesson on "what to do when you are lost" but never did. Seems that he didn't really need it :).