A San Francisco Helicopter Tour

This Saturday, we got to go on a helicopter tour of the San Francisco Bay. Some of our friends gave it to us as a wedding present, and on a recent day of life organization, we finally booked it. We started out in Sausalito, and we didn't really know what to expect. The other people in the group were foreign tourists, which, in San Francisco, is usually a bad sign. Once we got there and got up in the helicopter, though, it was seriously cool. We were snapping pictures like crazy the whole time because there was so much to see, but unfortunately the pictures don't do the sights justice. 

When we boarded, it was so loud, and I was hunched over even though I knew the propellers were several feet above the door. 

We had to wear the ear gear - I don't know the technical names for anything having to do with helicopters, so please forgive me. The pilot would talk to us about what we were passing, and when he wasn't talking to us, there were old school San Francisco songs playing like "San Franciscan Nights" by Eric Burdon and the Animals.

You can barely see it from this photo, but this is a point with a little lighthouse on it in Marin. The point overlooks the Golden Gate and San Francisco, and I saw really dreamy pictures taken from right by the lighthouse once. I had completely forgotten about it until we flew over it, but now I've got a visit to that lighthouse on my to-do list. 

We flew over Ocean Beach and came past the Outer Sunset, an area of the city that I often forget about since I rarely go out that far. It was neat to see from the sky, though, and I was amazed by how perfectly straight all the streets were. 

I was shocked to see the roof of the Cal Academy of Sciences looked like this. Makes me wanna visit that sometime. 

A view of the city you don't see much from just over the edge of Golden Gate Park.

I've driven past the graveyard in the Presidio before, but I didn't really realize how vast it was until Saturday.

My absolute favorite part of the tour was flying under and then over the Golden Gate Bridge! The pilot hardly gave us any warning, and suddenly we were swooping down toward the water and looking up at the bridge from below. 

We were loving having our new iPhone 4s's (4ses?) with cameras that were 1000 times better than our old school iPhone 3's. 

We came back toward the financial district and circled the Transamerica building and Coit tower.

 This picture, which I think is of Tiburon, looks like an old timey postcard to me. I love it. 

We left Sausalito both agreeing that these views were some of the most beautiful we'd ever seen. If you're a San Francisco resident, or if you're just visiting the city, I would recommend this a hundred times over!