Golden Gate Bridge

I'm finally getting around to reviewing some of my images from our trip to San Francisco. First, I have to say....we had an AWESOME time! Thanks to Darla and Rebecca for NOT SUCKING! :) The four of us had a good laugh about "friends who don't suck". Vacationing with other people can be.....let's say, tedious. We're pretty selective about who we'll vacation with. Generally, we fly solo. We love our friends and family, but an entire week or more sharing a vacation with them can be a whole new experience. I wouldn't say that I'm difficult to get along with (others may disagree with that statement!), but I have my ways and they don't always mesh with others. I like to get there, see it and move to the next thing. I don't like to waste my time lingering around the hotel or spend too much time at one location. You might miss something! :) The 4 of us had a fabulous time and no one even hinted at the desire to kill each other. It was a perfect trip. We really enjoyed it. We're now talking about Boston in 2010!

So, that being said, let's talk about our outing to "the bridge". Now, we had never been to San Francisco, but prior to our trip I had done a little surfing online for cool places to shoot. I knew I wouldn't have a ton of time to shoot and that our locations would be limited because we decided to use public transportation instead of renting a car. So, the rest of the group was gracious enough to humor me and make a trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge long after dark. I wanted to shoot the bridge at night because I thought it would offer a cool subject. We weren't sure what the best way to get there would be so we asked the concierge at the girl's hotel if he could assist us in finding the best bus route to the bridge. He looked at us and said, "Now??? You want to go to the bridge, now???". :) I'm sure he thought we were a little nuts. He told us which bus to take and where to transfer. The bus ride took about half an hour I'd say. We waited for our transfer for about 10 minutes so maybe as much as 45 minutes total. When we arrived at the bridge we didn't even get off the bus. It was pitch black out there!!!! There didn't appear to be any lights at all on the bridge. It totally ruined my plan. I was majorly bummed. We just rode the bus back around, transferred again and called it a night. I couldn't believe it!!! Where had all of these beautiful pictures of the bridge lit up at night come from???? Is this the right bridge? Have I completely lost my mind????? I thought it had lights? I felt like a total moron having drug them all out there for a 2 hour bus excursion, in the dark, with the weirdos and for what????

The next day it dawned on me. I didn't just feel like a moron, I WAS a moron!!!! When you're on the bus, the lights are on inside. I'm on the brightly lit bus looking out into the blackness for some monstrously huge bridge that I'm expecting to be brightly lit. The reality of it is that the actual bridge itself isn't lit at all. There are no lights on the uprights of the bridge itself. The bridge is "lit" by huge spotlight style lighting at the base of the uprights. When you're inside a brightly lit "room" (or a bus!) your eyes can't adjust to the darkness outside enough to see the uprights of the bridge. DUH!!! The gang was extremely gracious about the whole episode. We laughed about it the rest of the trip. We also made another 2 hour round trip on the bus back to the bridge and captured this shot. It was cold, it was foggy, it was late.......you were patient. Thank you for not sucking! :)