We had hoped to keep you abreast of our activities while in San Francisco but we are three days behind. On Monday we rode the cable car down to Market and then took the #5 bus out to Golden Gate Park, hoping to get there before 9:30 am when the San Francisco City Guides tour of the Japanese Tea Garden began. We were a little late but the group was still at the entrance when we arrived. The Japanese Tea Garden is free from 9-10 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The azaleas were out and everything was beautifully green and a real incentive for creating one's own Japanese garden, but I will have to change our walks from straight to winding. Japanese gardens are also an incentive for pruning and training trees and bushes instead of letting them run natural and rampant. I loved this place as a kid, probably because there was moss and ferns and water, something sorely lacking in Southern California. We took lots of photos and they will eventually be added.
After the Tea Garden we walked over to the San Francisco Botanic Garden but we had to pay there, although I had thought it was free. I guess they put up a fence in the meantime. They have a fair number of interesting plantings although their "fragrance" garden was a disappointment, especially considering the number of fragrant trees we have encountered on city streets and the pink jasmine that is now in bloom here. Unfortunately I cannot identify the trees but they are evergreens. We only saw part of the Botanic Garden before we got hungry and went over to the Inner Sunset on 9th Avenue to eat at a Japanese restaurant called Kiki's. We had the bento lunches: Fernando had an unagi roll and fried dumplings, Penny had a California roll and tempura, I had teriyaki salmon and a California roll. The California roll wasn't the greatest since they mixed the artificial crab with mayonnaise (I've never seen that before) and didn't sprinkle on any tiny red fish roe (I love those crunchy jewels). Penny fell in love with the house tea since it was Gen Maicha, the Japanese green tea with roasted brown rice.
We had thought about going back to the Botanic Garden but the Beach Chalet was calling us so we took the Judah Streetcar, the N line, out to the beach. At the Botanic Garden store I had splurged and bought a $3 SF Muni transit map which has been very helpful at identifying the routes and where they go. Unfortunately when you get out that far in the Sunset the buses don't come very often and they don't stop at all on the Great Highway that runs along the beach. I had to hobble all the way over to the Beach Chalet where we refreshed ourselves with a flight of their own brews, which I never find to be as good as my regular favorites. But the murals of San Francisco were very pretty and always interesting. Then we walked over to La Playa to wait for a #18 bus that would take us up towards the Palace of the Legion of Honor where we caught the #1 bus that runs into town along California Street. Then we waited for the Powell-Mason cable car that took us home.
Taking all these buses really uses up time, and the cable cars don't come very frequently, so we were tired by the time we arrived home and we took our nap even though it was late in the afternoon. We'd had a huge lunch and so had a simple dinner of bread and cheese and a salad, and of course some wine, or was it beer? Oh wait! maybe we had our second slice of pizza at Tony's, which wasn't as good as the first day. On Monday and Tuesday nights, many of the North Beach restaurants are closed so there aren't many customers in the area and not much turnover in the pizzas.
On Tuesday we decided to do the Mission District murals so again took the cable car down to Market, walked over to Mission Street and took the #14 bus down to 16th Street. First stop was the Redstone Building to see the murals inside but first Fernando had to buy a Chilean empanada at a little hole in the wall. I'm afraid I only like the fried cheese empanadas and they don't do those decadent things here in the States. The murals in Clarion Alley were interesting but more informal than the WPA murals of Coit Tower and not as nice as the Beach Chalet murals. The ones on the Women's Building were more finished but it's always hard to take photos of things of the wall, especially when they are in the shade. The Mission is interesting in the juxtaposition of very low class stores on Mission Street and gentrified housing a street over. There was a community garden that I had to browse through, just to see what I could be growing here while my garden in Pittsburgh is frozen solid....
We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, La Quinta, where all of the patrons were Hispanic. Penny and I had a standard plate of beans, rice, salad and chiles rellenos. Fernando had the daily special of pork ribs. I think we should not have full meals but just a taco here and there because we were ready for a siesta when we finished. We're only able to do a half day of activity at our age and then we are pooped, and we still had to navigate the bus system back to the apartment: #49 north along Mission and Van Ness and the #45 up Union to Mason, and then walking the block and a half up the hill to our apartment. We have a new appreciation for hills...
However, after our refreshing nap, we had to go out and hike the Green Street steps which are at the top of our block, and then down Jones to Macondray Lane, of "Tales of the City" fame. That was really nice. A lovely leafy walkway that we must take Susan and Rich to see.
From there we went down to Chinatown but these days, after having been to Hong Kong, I'm always disappointed. Plus the stores look a bit messy and perhaps in my old age Fernando's perpetual harping to get organized is having its effect. Of course, since everything these days is from China, it doesn't have the allure that it once had.
While we were there we noticed billows of smoke coming up over the skyline from the direction of downtown. My first thought was of the1906 fire that quickly engulfed the rest of the city and I wondered if we shouldn't evacuate. But we couldn't find anything on our iPhones about the fire and we didn't hear any sirens and nobody else seemed to notice it so we went about our business. No big purchases and we soon struggled back up the hill (one of many) to the cable car, which we took back home. At $6 a pop, we have certainly recouped the cost of the 7-day MUNI passport.
After the Mexican lunch, we were only ready for a simple salad, bread and cheese at home. And of course a bottle of wine.
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