It’s our last day in San Fran and we’ve left some of the big stuff until the end. We headed to a brekkie place we’d spotted on our first day and I had a magnificent blueberry pancake with lots of fruit and cream. It was really good. Then we wandered down to Pier 39 to take a closer look at the sea lions - hoping there weren’t as many people as we had seen on Sunday afternoon. The place was pretty deserted at 9:00am, so I’d recommend heading down there on a weekday morning. We strolled through the shops on the pier, looked at the beautifully ornate carousel (where you could ride sea lions as well as horses) and then came around the corner to the noise of the sea lions. There were so many of them, all flopping over each other and banging around for the most comfortable spot. There were blissed out ones facing the sun (you could imagine them thinking “oh yeah, this is the life”, and there were ones all snuggled in together. They’ve certainly made themselves at home on the pier.
Next we set off on our latest adventure of conquering laundromats the world over. Sadly, this one was no different to any of the others we’ve seen, except it was a lot cheaper and easier to get change! It’s actually a nice bit of time out where we can sit down and read and languish in the quiet. Lunchtime after washing saw us head to Boudins, the bakery at the wharf so I could eat the clam chowder and Mark could have a crab sandwich. OMG, everything they tell you about the clam chowder is true. It’s in every meal place, but I’d been told Boudins was the place to go. It was divine. Divine! Then, it was time to jump in the car….
We headed off to find our hippie moment of peace and love at Haight-Ashbury. The intersection of these two streets is where the flower power movement started. These days, it’s more like being able to find your spaced out drug dealer instead. It was all very reminiscent of Camden town in London - lots of groovy little shops selling all sorts of things, but also a little grimy with lots of second hand vases and Bob Marley shirts. We had to go around the block(s) a few times and then Mark ran a red light, right at the important, history-making corner itself. Say no more.
Our next stop was Golden Gate Park. Little did we know, but this park is about the same size as Central Park in New York - so it’s bloody big. You can drive through it, but the problem was, roadworks. Everywhere. On every street that we could turn left at to get into the park. Seriously, we spent almost an hour trying to get in there. We’d go left to be able to sneak up behind it and head straight through a set of lights, only to find a ‘left turn only’ sign due to road works. It was a total mission. We eventually made it in, I’m not really sure how, but we were in and that was all that mattered. The first thing we came across was a rose garden. We took the time to smell the roses, as you should, but only a few of them had any perfume. The ones that did were glorious. I think we were a little late though - it would have been magnificent in summer. Next we went to see the Bison Park. They have a section that has Bison, seemingly a successful breeding program as well considering the husband of the Mayor (some time ago) bought her a male and female bison for a birthday present. Romantic. For the bison maybe. Anyway, as excited as I was (because so far, the only bison I had seen was the big stuffed head hanging on the wall of the restaurant at Sierra Sky Lodge), it was a big let down. The poor bison. They were sad bison. There were two of them in the field (I don't think they were the birthday gift ones) and they just looked depressed. There were also some in a pen, but when we read the little information plaque it said that bison were about six feet tall at the shoulder - these guys were far from that. They were small and shrunken. We both felt awful for them, so we left.
It was getting late, and so we headed for THE bridge. No words can describe how completely spectacular it is. Little wonder it is one of the architectural icons of the world. It’s not really the bridge as much as the placement of it. I’ll get to that… We drove across it, I think driving across any bridge is a little underwhelming. I thought this one needed a paint actually. It’s bloody long and everyone has their phones up videoing the moment (yeah, ok, me too). We reached the end and headed down to Sausalito as we’d read about a community of house boats that sounded interesting. As is always the case for us, the satnav had different ideas. Where the rest of the world head down a nice straight street to the part you all really want to get to, our satnav sent us on some narrow hairpin turns that made Sicily look like child's play. One or two of them, we needed to back up a little just to get around them. Even the satnav seemed to emphasise the words “sharp turn”. We eventually made it down, found a park, went for a walk. Saw some retirees enjoying a game of bocce while some hippie guys played guitar riffs in the park. The rich retired and the grotty, unemployed youth - but they were all enjoying themselves. As is often the case in SF, the smell of pot wafted past. I think it was the hippie guys, not the bocce players. Either way, not a houseboat in sight.
We wanted to take some more photos from the city side of the bay, so we headed back over. We found a car park and it was pay and display. We counted out our quarters and dimes for the machine but I lost a dime before I realised I was trying to pay the credit card slot instead of the coin slot (hey, it was a big day!). Then, we found out that the pay part ended at 5pm - it was 5:30pm so we were ok. Again, issues with the selfie stick, but we were in hysterics so we were having fun even if we didn’t get any good photos. As we were leaving, I noticed the line of houses outside the parking lot. I’m sure they were important in some way, but I didn’t know, and I haven’t googled it yet. However, they were boxes, little boxes, little boxes made of ticky tacky… and so on. They were identical.
It was our plan to take a quick look at the Palace of Fine Arts before we left San Fran, and so Mark followed his nose (he wanted me to write that) and found it without the silly bloody satnav. On the way we drove past the military cemetery, and through a military compound of some kind. We came across the Walt Disney Family Museum which I had kindly conceded that we didn’t have time to see that day, only to find it’s closed on Tuesdays anyway! (Check these small details before you head out kiddies). We found what we were looking for via Mark’s nose (mind you, it’s a bloody tall building so you can’t really miss it, shhh, but yeah, he did a good job) and had a wander around. It’s left over from one of the exhibitions and it is indeed a beautiful structure surrounded by a lake. It’s definitely worth going to see.
By this time, it was cold, we were tired and hungry, and we felt as if we had seen the things we wanted to see in SF (yep, no Alcatraz - neither one of us wanted to, despite everyone telling us it was a ‘can't-miss-it’ thing). We enjoyed our last seafood dinner and headed back to the hotel, ready to make an early start in the morning. Oh, there's lots of homeless people in SF. Walking back we saw the police talking to a group of them. As the police were walking away, one guy yelled after them “Have a good night guys, and thanks for not being assholes”. It made me laugh. We dropped into 7-11 to pick up some water for the drive, and as we walked out, a guy with a bag slung over his shoulder turned on his ‘beat box’. Seriously, I almost had a heart attack - you could have been in a nightclub - it was SO loud. What’s with that? “Hey man, listen to my crappy rap music: you have no choice. I’m too cool”. It goes with the place though - it’s pretty eclectic. And then the smell of pot wafted over us again…..
No comments:
Post a Comment