golden gating

I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time yesterday. It was splendid, as advertised.
But the really noteworthy parts of the adventure happened before...and after.
My brother john picked me up to hike the Marin headlands, particularly the coast. We took my bike, and parted ways the next day in Santa Rosa. I took a train to San Rafael, and from there it took three and a half hours to get home to Haight-Ashbury (there were mountainous roads and false starts, as i prefer asking for directions over scrupulous map scrutiny). My lunch break was glorious, nestled into a two-foot rest nook at the center point of the bridge. I munched on sesame wheat bread and guacamole, while sharing smiles with the bikers passing by. It was blustery, but not quite cold. I watched the ships far below, most of them sailing craft, and marveled that they made any progress at all, with a powerful current below and strong winds above seemingly working at cross purposes.
I wondered a tiny bit what all the fuss was about, though. It was just a bridge, like any other huge city bridge. Wondrous, but worthy of being on the short list of terrorist dream targets? Taking out the Bay Bridge would disrupt far more commerce, i should think.
The silliest part of the adventure happened when i got back to San Francisco, however. Looking at my map, i saw that when i emerged from the Presidio nature area, Lyon Avenue would give me an almost perfectly straight shot home. Take a look at Lyon on a map. I'm not crazy, it appears as a street, yes? After a few blocks, the street became little more than a flora-covered wall. You have to take stairways to continue. There's nothing unusual about that, in a city that can be more mountaineering miasma than scenic stroll. But even though block after block of Lyon is nothing but staircase, they keep posting street signs! Is this just a relic of some mayoral administration with a heightened sense of whimsy?
Lyon Avenue - the silliest street in the world.
My twenty-mile trek was the first big adventure for my new bike, a Peugeot nearly as old as myself.
The other silly bookend of the trip belonged to my brother. Watch what happened when he got to the bottom of the thirty-floor staircase to the Point Reyes Lighthouse...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlmzZXoJAlA&feature=youtu.be