Sunday -While the girls slept in, Sue and I went on a mission to locate breakfast fare. The neighborhood Safeway was 3 blocks away and fulfilled all our needs – milk, fruit, yogurt, bagels and pastries. Back at the hotel, everyone fueled up for a day of sightseeing and by 9:30 we were off.
Today was our first attempt at trying to master the San Francisco Muni system. Lucky for us it is not so hard to do. We boarded the #30 bus right outside the hotel, and then transferred to the #28. Our trip to Golden Gate Park took us through the Presido and along the bay, but 45 minutes later we arrived at the park.
Our first stop was the deYoung museum. We went up to the top of the 9 story tower for be beautiful views of San Francisco and the park. The Golden Gate Park is larger than Central Park in New York, is about 3.5 miles in length, and has museums, gardens, a lake, bike and hiking paths, a buffalo paddock, windmills, and appears to be a wonderful gathering place for San Franciscans (and tourists) on a beautiful Sunday. And as a bonus, one of the main roads is closed to traffic on Sundays, so there were lots of dog walkers, rollerbladers, and runners taking advantage of that.
We headed to the California Academy of Sciences next and got it a very long line of people waiting for the museum to open. That’s when the only rain shower of the day let loose but we were all prepared with our umbrellas. It didn’t last long. The museum was great. We took in the planetarium show (a bit of a snoozer according to Jen and Leslie) and then grabbed lunch in the museum cafe. Leslie and I share pork and shrimp rolls and nachos. Both were very tasty. Afterwards, we wandered around looking at the exhibit on climate change and then entered the exhibit on rainforests ” a living 4-story rainforest, where dripping water sets the beat for a symphony of croaking frogs and chirping birds. Peer into one of Borneo’s bat caves, meet chameleons from Madagascar, and climb into the tree-tops of Costa Rica to find free-flying birds and butterflies. Finally, descend in a glass elevator into the Amazonian flooded forest, where an acrylic tunnel allows you to walk beneath the catfish and arapaima that swim overhead.” It was amazing and we enjoyed looking at all the strange animals on exhibit as well at the aquarium exhibit.
After that we, we went up to the living roof, and then decided to go outside and enjoy the beautiful day. We took the shuttle ride down to the far west end to see the Dutch windmill and the blooming tulips. From there, we walked across the busy highway to Ocean Beach where the winds were blowing fierce waves onto the shore but there were lots of people out and about enjoying the day. It was beautiful.
We went in search of a refreshment break at the Beach and Park Chalet. We went upstairs to the Beach Chalet first, and although the views were great, it was too stuffy, so we abandoned our table and headed downstairs to the Park Chalet. It was a much better choice. We had drinks and sweets and enjoyed our break.
We rode the shuttle back to the deYoung museum (getting on the last one of the day – thank heavens!) and started the trip back to our hotel. We got off the 28 bus at the Golden Gate Bridge stop to take photos, and eventually made it back to Columbus Avenue. We enjoyed a bit of a break, but eventually headed out for dinner. Our plan was to go to Tony’s for pizza, but we nixed the idea of a 1.25 hour wait and went looking for another option. We settled on the tiny L’osteria del forno and enjoyed pizza and dessert. We walked the half mile back to the hotel on a beautiful evening.
We were tired but happy from all the wonderful sights and sounds and food of our first full day in San Francisco.
Wonder is the dance of the soul 