#2608 Enjoying the Repurposed Presidio Military Base in San Francisco

The briny Pacific wind whips your cheeks as you power-walk the beachfront at Crissy Field while the brilliant, International Orange of the Golden Gate Bridge hits your eyes like a firebrand. Soon, sipping organic cocoa in the Warming Hut cafe, you realize you're in what was the longest continually operating military base in the country -- from 1846 until 1989. Now the National Park Service and Presidio Trust run the show, LucasFilm rents studios, surfers rip waves at Fort Point, and hipsters snoop the pet cemetery and schedule parties at the Presidio bowling alley. How things have changed.