Grace Lu

August 7, 2016

Sea LionsHey everybody!

So this weekend, my friends from WashU came to visit me! I met up with them after work, where I gave them a brief tour of my office before heading off to the piers and the Ferry Building. We took the Bart to Embarcadero and walked all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. This time, I got to see the sea lions on Pier 39, something that I missed the last time I went to the Wharf. It feels great to be able to show some of my friends what my life is like here, as I am unable to describe it as well with words. We spent a good evening out by wandering around some of the more popular and touristy areas, but I think I was able to give them a relatively good idea of the city.

My main event this weekend though, was going hiking at Yosemite National Park. My friend and I left early to drive the four hours to Yosemite: there was massive traffic due to everybody trying to get into the park and find parking, so we unfortunately started our hike a lot later than anticipated. We decided on hiking the Glacier Point Trail, as it was about 4 miles. We didn’t think that 4 miles would be too bad. The viewpoints that you hit on the trail are in the following order: Union Point, Glacier Point, and Sentinel Dome. We thought that we would be able to get up to Glacier Point; however, the trail we decided to hike on was extremely steep! For those of you who are not accustomed to hiking, I recommend starting with some of the easier trails, as I felt like I had thrown myself into the climb a bit unprepared fitness level-wise. My friend and I decided to tackle one of the hardest trails in the park, and the whole way up was a lot of huffing and puffing for me. Nonetheless, we managed to get an amazingly beautiful view of the park once we arrived at Union Point. It only took us about an hour to go downhill, which shows how steep the climb was!

The next morning, my friend and I decided to go for another hike: we went to Mirror Lake, an easy hike that would supposedly lead us to a beautiful lake that was supposed to show a reflection of Half Dome. It was quite a disappointment though when we arrived, as the entire lake had dried up! So instead of finishing the hike as we originally planned, we decided to head back to the car and try driving to some of the viewpoints instead. I’m glad that I got to spend a weekend at one of the most famous parks in the state though: this is definitely a trip that I recommend for other interns who decide on spending their summers in San Francisco. I am extremely exhausted and sore at the moment, but I think it was one of the best weekends I’ve had so far!

I’m approaching my last week here, so I’ll only have a few more posts left. I’m going to try my best doing as much as possible and I’ll make sure to update you all as I approach my last few days!