Nataliya and Seth's San Francisco Vacation
We started the day by heading to the post office for some stamps. The early
mornings are very cool, but we were a bit better prepared this morning. After
getting our stamps, we began a long walk to another restaurant that ranked
very highly for their breakfast. When we finally got to the restaurant, we
discovered that it was closed on Monday. Since we were fairly close to
Golden Gate Park, we decided to walk and look for a cafe on the way.
We stopped at Alamo Park to rest from all the walking and look at the row
of Victorian homes which
you'll find on many of the travel guides and postcards. Looked like a bunch
of homes that you might see in North Bergen, NJ, squeezed next to one another.
Still, we thought we might as well take a picture of them just the same.
That's when I discovered that I had left the camera back in the hotel room.
Nataliya suggested that we just go up through the park and worry about pictures
another time, but I really wanted to get the camera. So, we looked at the bus
map and found a bus nearby went right near our hotel. If I had my camera,
this was what the houses looked like. (I cheated and bought a postcard
instead of returning to this spot just to take a picture.)
We got off the bus on Market St. and stopped in the San Francisco Shopping
Centre and ate "breakfast" - a cup of coffee and a shake for
Nataliya, and Chinese food (Panda Express) for me. (Breakfast of champions...)
To my credit, it was around 11am anyway. :)
After camera retrieval, we walked back to the bus stop and took it right
to Golden Gate Park. This park is beautiful, full of flowers and trees. We
took some pictures of some very pretty flowers and started walking through
the park. There were some helpful signs that made our job of getting around
easier. We decided to go to the Japanese Tea Gardens.
The Japanese Tea Garden was a nice serene-type setting with running water,
swimming carp, stone pathways and carefully groomed trees and shrubs. We
first stopped for some tea and cookies before exploring the area and taking
pictures. It was relaxing. However, I thought it looked very similar to a
Chinese Garden - perhaps I'm missing the subtle differences in design. Either
way, it was very nice.
Then we walked through the Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens which
featured plants, shrubs, trees and vines from all over the world. There were
things in here which I'd never seen before and it was nice to touch, smell,
and see the thousands of plant varieties they collected. I think we both
enjoyed the herbal garden most which offered many different herbs and spices
- many of them them the same herb but with subtle differences.
From there, we encountered a lake that circled an inner island. (I guess you
could almost call it a large moat.) We walked about half-way around, noticing
row and paddle boats inside. We found out where they could be rented and
decided to rent one. Initially, Nataliya wanted to rent the paddle boat, but
I would have difficulty paddling and suggested we row instead. Nataliya agreed
to the row boat if I rowed to which I gladly agreed! We both enjoyed rowing
around the island, although I had some difficulty steering with so many other
rented boats in the way. Halfway through our ride, we saw a waterfall and we
brought the rowboat on the rocks and took some photos. As we rowed back, my
brother called me to let me know that the clutch in his car was fixed and that
he was more than happy to drive around! We suggested meeting up near the
Golden Gate Bridge and he thought it was a great idea!
As we rowed back,
I saw a fallen tree on the water and saw a flying bird in one of the branches.
Nataliya thought I was nuts for stopping and maneuvering the rowboat to get a
photo of the branch. You be the judge - was it worth stopping for and taking a picture?
Once we got out of the boat, we started walking out of the park - or at least
what we perceived to be out of the park, and spotted the Rose Garden. There
were many different varieties and colors of roses spread around, some with
amazing scents and others with barely any. After Nataliya stopped to smell the
roses, we headed out of the park to meet up with my brother.
Once out of the park, we hopped on another bus and headed to the Golden Gate
Bridge. We passed by The Presidio and Nataliya mentioned that she wanted to
check out that park another time. The last stop was at the Golden Gate bridge
and once we got off the bus, we noticed that the winds
had really picked up and it was pretty cold. We had to do the touristy thing
and get a photo of us standing next to the cables which was sitting there to
show you how thick the bridge cables were and how a cross section of the cable
would look like. We got a small snack and
we walked around the gift shop before walking on some paths, trying to get a
great view of the bridge. They have a lot of pathways around the area and
a bunch of places to rest or take photos of the bridge and surroundings.
A mutual friend, George, challenged us (via email) to take a better picture of
the Golden Gate Bridge than he did. His actual quote was "Have a great
time in SF, and try to bring back a picture better than
this one (yes it's a
dare!)" Well, I'm not one to let a challenge like this go without a
challenge, so I made it a point to do exactly what he dared me to do!
With that said, here's out Golden Gate Bridge picture that puts yours to shame:
I think this is an excellent picture, wouldn't you agree? The fact that this
picture scanned in from a postcard and not from my camera doesn't make a
difference, does it? He challenged me to bring back a picture that was
better - he didn't say it had to be from my camera!
I tried, though! It's not fair that because of the cooler temperatures, the
clouds hid most of the bridge. As a result, the best picture I got from my
camera wasn't very impressive... this is the results of my bridge photo
attempt:
Oh well. So do I still win the challenge? Sure, I know what you meant,
George, but you weren't very specific with your dare! Still, we did
manage to get some nice scenic photographs ... if you consider overcast
and low clouds to be scenic... sigh...
Finally, Jared met up with us (the clutch attached to the vehicle) and he
drove us across the Golden Gate Bridge. The views were very nice, but the low
clouds obscured much of the scenery. He drive us to Sausalito and we decided
to get out and walk around. There were a lot of cute stores, and we did some
wine tasting in one of them. Also, Nataliya found her
Chupa-Chups so she was happy.
From there, we went back into the city and Jared drove down Lombard Street with us - it's really a weird street! As he drove through the hilly streets in
bash: s: command not found
thought that all these hills are wasted without a good snowfall to make them
fun. By this time, we were all very hungry and decided to go for dinner at
a Thai restaurant Nataliya found in her research -
Thep Phanom.
This was an excellent choice as the food was great! According to the
imformation Nataliya found, this was the best Thai food San Francisco has
to offer.
Jared drove us back to our hotel and we all said 'goodnight' before going our
separate ways. Nataliya noticed that I was sunburned on the arms, neck and
face from all the walking we did today, but Nataliya was as white as ever!
Shortly after returning to the hotel, we both went to sleep.
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