15 Apr Day Trip to Sausalito

Written By: Seoyun Choi

Have you heard about the small town called Sausalito on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge? It is the place that takes about 30 minutes when you take an Uber. Sausalito is kind of a small village on the bay, so you can enjoy the beautiful view and cozy vibe there and delicious foods, of course. If the weather is clear and warm when you wake up, you could make a plan to go to Sausalito. The good weather makes your short trip more perfect.

I arrived Sausalito at 2 PM and we enjoyed some ice cream. There is a famous ice cream store called “LAPPEAT’S ICE CREAM”. They have various flavors which taste very good. I tried cherry with chocolate chunk and it was really good with fresh cherry and big chocolate chunks. Sitting on the bench and warm sunshine, made it taste even better.

After eating ice cream, me and my friends looked around for cute souvenirs and selected shops. There are cute postcards and magnets which contain the Sausalito view and also there are some chocolate fudge shops that you can enjoy. I bought some postcards and one magnet. It was quite different, because there was the Sausalito view on the postcards. We enjoyed shopping at these small shops and took a walk along a path. Then you can see Sausalito downtown. It’s called “downtown”, but the vibe is quite different from the place we know (San Francisco). There are some nice restaurants which are next to the water, cafes and various shops like jewelry and thrifting. Keep walking along the road with a nice view, you could see the harbor where many yachts and ships are docked. You can notice that I keep mentioning that I walked, so it’s better that you wear comfortable shoes to enjoy Sausalito. I walked and walked and enjoyed the sunlight above me and I took a break sitting on the bench. I took selfies and listened to music, and it was so good because I could enjoy the peace. If you want “peace” with nature, you have to visit Sausalito.

My friend and I enjoyed the nature and the vibe of the village, so we headed to the restaurant where I made a reservation. It was called “Barrel House Tavern ” which serves seafood dishes and pastas. We chose outside seats, and it was the perfect choice. We could see the bay during the meal. It made me feel like I was floating on the water and eating delicious food. I ate calamari, fries and pasta, it tasted so good. I enjoyed all the sunshine, bay views, sunset and scenery during dinner. After having dinner, we took a ferry to come back to the dormitory. It was the last ferry that day, and it was the perfect choice because we could see a beautiful and gorgeous night view of San Francisco. The night view of Sausalito was good because you can see many small but shiny lights in the village, and also the night view of ferry buildings was beautiful. You can see neon signs of San Francisco which greet you happily. If we landed at the ferry building, the short trip would be over.

I spent about 7 hours enjoying Sausalito, and it was enough time. If you want to enjoy the cozy and warm vibe which is not downtown, you must enjoy it. I strongly recommend it!

Day Trip to Yosemite National Park

Have you heard about the Yosemite National Park in California? I heard the name from my wallpaper on my MacBook.. If you use a MacBook, you can find the wallpaper which contains Yosemite’s view. That’s why I decided to go to Yosemite. I couldn’t miss the opportunity! I can see the real view of my wallpaper. So I booked a Korean guide tour with my friends to go to Yosemite.

On that day, my friends and I headed to Union Square at 3 AM. The reason why we met our guide so early is because it takes more than 3 hours to go to Yosemite. We met our guide at 3:45 and we headed to Yosemite. Of course I was down for the count until arriving at Yosemite. After arriving at Yosemite, we had breakfast with sandwiches and coffee. It was a good choice because the temperature was very low and I needed hot beverages to get warm. As we started our tour, we saw a waterfall which is really huge. During tour, I saw the same waterfall from various locations. I knew that it was the same waterfall, but it shows different view and feeling to me. It was enormous that I felt nature’s grandeur and make beautiful rainbows because of waterdrops. We moved to another viewpoint to see the El Capitan where I wanted to see most before, because my MacBook wallpaper is El Capitan. When I saw the El Capitan, I thought the wallpaper didn’t contain the real beauty of it. In reality, El Capitan was more gorgeous because of its vertical cliffs and its grandeur. I took a picture and of course it didn’t do it justice, so I tried to see as much as I could to remember the view. After seeing El Capitan, the tour guide took us to the point where the half dome was visible. He told us that the North Face logo was modeled after the half dome and after hearing that saying, the half dome looked like the North Face logo. It was fun fact that I could know about history of North Face. I also dropped by a souvenir shop where I could buy some things. My tour guide mentioned that there are some beers commemorating Yosemite and it tastes good, so I bought some beer to try and some postcards. If you like to collect some magnets and postcards, it will be heaven for you, because there are so many photos of Yosemite by postcards and magnets which I never saw downtown or somewhere and beer tasted good too. After we visited all the points that are popular and took lots of pictures, I came back to Union Square at 6 PM. I was so tired because I woke up so early, but it deserved it. If you want to see and feel nature’s real beauty, I highly recommend Yosemite National Park.