Baker Beach, San Francisco

You can see the Golden Gate from most of this city, but Baker Beach is where you get the whole span at once, with the headlands stacked up behind it and a stretch of sand to wait on while the light comes around. Someone had pitched a small tent near the waterline. Someone else was standing ankle deep in the surf with their back to all of it. Neither of them looked at the bridge once the entire time I was there, which is what living somewhere eventually does to a landmark. I had been here six months and had not got there yet.