And so my San Francisco adventure continues with the second day. As Wisconsin is still remaining cold, cloudy and windy despite being mid may, I look back at this one lovely day I spent in bright and sunny San Francisco. Now that I think about it, I had pretty great weather during the daytime and never saw any of it's trademark fog that you could apparently even purchase a can off. All the locals were gleeming about with their unleashed dogs, seriously, out of the probably 20-30 dogs I saw only two were leashed! And they were all so friendly, the dogs and owners. It makes me happy that I dedicated most of that day towards the Golden Gate park, which is so so so amazing. I am so glad I went during the prime of spring. All the flowers were in bloom and it was gorgeous!
I am a little upset I didn't go to any of the major attractions within the park, like the Japanese Tea Garden, Botanical gardens or any of the museums. They were pretty busy, being spring break time, but what warded me off was their $7 entry fee for each of the gardens and I had no cash on me. I did make a mental note that the tea garden has free entry it's first hour of operation for my next visit late June!
I mostly just wandered around the gorgeous lakes filled with paddle boats and canoes. I even ran into this cute little kitty on the leash who I am now facebook friends with. Yeah, I'm good at mingling with the locals... I also noticed the seagulls at this park were much more sane compared to the Fisherman's Warf gulls. Instead of screeching and hovering around garbage cans you could find them chilling amongst the resident turtles and some weird hybrid of a duck and chicken type bird. A fellow photographer stopped and questioned the strange poultry, we both were stumped and baffled to see them, especially in a city park!
Wandering around the park sans entering cool costly attractions took up about half the day, then I started walking to THE golden gate bridge, and not just the underbelly of it. It was a pretty long and boring walk that I really wish I would have hopped a bus for if only I had the cash. Nearly a mile and a half wasn't even paved, and the rest I had to zig zag through a semi-interesting park. But it was worth it.
By the time I got to the bridge I joined the crowds of Myspace-esq photographers going to town and in the process of making their newest Facebook profile picture. From the bridge I enviously looked at Alcatrez knowing it would have to wait until the next trip, which I have already booked the ticket for the "award winning nigh tour"! I bet I have you all excited for that blog post now...
Anyway, being the nice day that it was there were all sorts of bike riders and joggers along the path underneath, and looking out into the water I saw several kite surfers! I think that's what they're called at least, but if you look real closely in the Alcatrez pic you can faintly see one!
I only walked half the bridge before I started to head back admiring the parks and wonderful architecture knowing that when I got back to the hostel my scheduled airport shuttle would come and take me away. I can't complain too much though, I loved that flight considering it left at midnight and got me home at 6am. Meaning I had a whole day in SF without having to pay for an extra nights stay. Huzzah!
I am glad though that this much anticipated city was fully worth the hype. And I'm so stoked that come mid June I will be making a pit stop in Denver to visit one of my best friends and her Army husband before heading to SF again. I have never been so broke and tight with money in my life, but at least I can truly say I'm much happier than I've ever been!
Cheers!