All Around San Fran

This has been our final day in San Francisco and we attempted to cover just a few high points of the city. A difficult feat, when in truth you would need to be here a month to come close. Getting around is reasonably easy, as there are a multitude of public transport options. We started off with a trolley bus to market street, which is the main commercial street, walked two blocks north to Union Square. Here you have Saks Fifth Avenue on one side, Macy’s opposite, Tiffany’s to the left and The Francis Hotel on the only side left. Window shopping is by far the best option! We picked up a bus to the Golden Gate Park. This a huge green space bigger than and based on Central Park in New York. This part of the city was originally sand dunes, before being reclaimed and stabilised with natural flora. With in its bounds are the California Academy of Science, the deYoung Museum, a Bison paddock, yes with real bison in it, a large Kew style conservatory, the Botanic Gardens the Japanese Tea Gardens. We neither had the time or energy to explore all, but did our best to cover a small section! Being garden lovers, I suppose it was inevitable that we would eventually gravitate towards the Japanese Tea Garden. It is a legacy from the Midwinter Fair of 1894. It was beautifully landscaped by the Hagiwara family, who looked after the garden until the advent of World War 11, when like all Japanese Americans they were interned and after the war the city would not let them return. Fortunately, their beautiful creation has continued to be be nurtured and has matured into the largest such garden outside of Japan.
Tired out, we caught the Big Red Bus back towards Fisherman’s Wharf via downtown. ‘Oh look’ says Peter ‘a shop called Good Vibrations-
after the blog!’ ‘Not a total surprise’ says I, ‘this is California and being a Beach Boys fan, I named it after one of their songs that would set the scene’. It was only as we drew closer that I thought the window display seemed rather odd and on closer examination the wording over the door became readable. Here was the San Francisco Museum of Vibrators! You will probably not be surprised to hear that we did not jump off the bus to investigate further. A final supper at Scoma (very good seafood restaurant in the fishing marina) beckoned and somehow seemed more appealing. A quirky place San Fran, as stated in an earlier episode!!Read more