May
26
Solo Sightseeing
Filed Under San Francisco 2009
On Tuesday, I woke up to the first sunny morning of my stay. Of course it had to be the day that Erin returned to work. Her first words to me, in a whiney voice, were “I don’t wanna go to work!” Aww, poor thing. I accompanied her most of the way with my rented bike and then took off to conquor Telegraph Hill. Atop this hill stands Coit Tower which provides fantstic views of the city. I parked my bike a few blocks below and hiked my way up. The views from the base were nice, but I was never given the opportunity to see them from atop the tower as the elevator was closed for maintenance that day. I still walked around inside the base of the tower to admire the murals painted by many famous artists of the war era.
After hiking back down the hill, I decided that I had enough time to bike over to the Palace of Fine Arts. I’m glad I did. The PFA was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal. How fitting having taken the Panama Canal cruise five months back. The PFA actually consists of a towering dome supported by columns, and colonnaded walkways. The sight is so massive and grand that it feels as if you’re stumbling upon the ruins of an ancient Roman city. Absolutely magnificant and perfect for photography. A man-made lagoon graces the area in front of the structures, so kids were happily feeding ducks.
I would have liked to spend more time there, but I needed to return my bike and hop on the BART to Berkeley. In Berkeley, I met the wife of a family that my parents and I befriended on our Alaska cruise last August. I was sad the husband and son couldn’t make it, but work and school kept them from joining the wife who works in Berkeley. She treated me to lunch at a Thai restaurant and we had a good time catching up and chatting. My two cruises have blurred together that I had thought they were on our Panama cruise. I was so confused when she kept asking me questions about Panama, thinking to myself, “well, you were there, weren’t you?” It’s too bad we couldn’t chat longer, but she pointed me in the direction of the Berkeley campus saying I should go to the top of its campanile for a great view of the whole Bay Area. Wouldn’t you know, the campanile was under construction as well.
After returning to San Francisco via the BART, I hopped on a bus back to the apartment. A lady in a motorized wheelchair got on at the next stop. A couple of stops later, she was ready to get off. I think the bus driver was preparing to raise the chair lift at the front of the bus when a woman of perhaps 30 and a little girl got on. I could never hear what the bus driver was saying, so I can only assume that he asked this woman didn’t she know that she wasn’t supposed to step on while he was preparing to let the wheeled lady off? The woman was really offended by what must have been a rude tone in his voice to which she replied that no, it wasn’t common sense that she would know this because in her country, the wheelchairs exit out the back door. I guess the bus driver kept egging her on, saying that she had no common sense, and she was very loud in replying that no, he was being very rude. Neither of them wanted to give up the fight which continued for another stop when all of a sudden the driver decided to decommission the bus right then and there because the woman was causing trouble. So we all had to get off the bus and wait for the next one while he called the police. They both should have let it go, but I think the driver went too far to kick everyone off.
Finally back at Erin’s apartment, I lightened up the load in my backpack, changed shoes and got on yet another bus, this time headed for Golden Gate Park. My initial plan was to visit the de Young Museum, but it was scheduled to close pretty soon. Instead, I headed for the Japanese Tea Garden and had 45 minutes to walk around. What a beautiful place planted with Japanese maples, bamboo plants, streams and ponds, and even a pagoda. The acreage is quite small, but they made perfect use of every inch, hiding what was around the next corner with strategic landscaping. When the garden closed at 6pm, I bused back to the apartment to meet Erin who had gotten off of work. We ate some leftovers for dinner and relaxed for a bit. That evening, a friend of Erin’s was having a pre-wedding party with his fiancee and all of their friends in town. Erin wanted to stop in and at least say hi, but she didn’t think we’d have to stay too long since she didn’t know any of the groom’s other friends. As it was my last evening in town, I suggested we go out for dessert afterward.
Quite a lot of people showed up for this party. The hosts had put candy (Nerds, Starbursts, Pop Rocks, York Peppermint Patties) on the bar and tables. Erin said her hello to her friend, and then we sidled up to the bar for a drink before going for dessert. Well, it happened that we were excited about the candy, so we stood there with our drinks and indulging in sugar. Turns out that Starbursts but not Nerds go well with beer. This pairing ended up being a pretty satisfying dessert, so we decided to walk it off instead. Erin took me to a couple of spots to see some nighttime views of the city before we made our way back to the apartment for some sleep.