Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Three Day Whirlwind

The Olympics' Facebook page told me the other day sometime in the past week that the Opening Ceremonies happened a month ago. And that means that we were in San Francisco watching them a month ago, and it's kind of embarrassing that it's taken me this long to write travel posts about it. So I'm getting it done today - one final wrap-up for the last three days.

We started Day Three by actually getting to the Museum of Modern Art, where we split up and spent several hours wandering and wandering. It was fabulous. Of course, I also love art museums, so I was bound to think that. But this one really, really was wonderful.

And sparkly :)
We took a long train/bus ride to the beach, where we got our feet wet and generally ran around in a very silly fashion. I even walked through the sand. It was kind of terrible, especially since we didn't get back to our hotel to wash our feet for hours.

But there was a pretty flower.
We then proceeded to the nearby Golden Gate Park to hang out at the California Academy of Sciences. We spent some blessed minutes inside a 80 degree rainforest and then experienced a fake earthquake. The simulator thing was very hyped all over the city but it wasn't that exciting. The exhibit that went with it was interesting though.
You had to check for butterflies before you left to make sure none got out.
Since we were just more or less across the street, I said we should go to the National AIDS Memorial Grove. It was beautiful. We only stayed for a few minutes, but the trails there seemed very magical. It was almost like being back at Machu Picchu, wandering through the Inca mists.

Occasionally, and for good reason, I get sentimental about nature.
We were then very hungry and decided to find somewhere to eat near to where we were. After some wandering through a not very touristy area and almost giving up, my sister pointed across the street and said, "That looks like a restaurant." And it was. And it was a delicious, delicious fancy Italian place. And we ate tons and tons of food.

Day Four came, too bright and early, and we started off making our way to the Painted Ladies for my mumsy. They were painted and very popular with the tourists. It really wasn't all that exciting because there is just SO MUCH gorgeous old architecture in San Fran. Especially compared to the suburbs.

The best picture with the least amount of random tourists in it.
Then we got to my sister's favorite part of the trip: shopping forever and ever. Specifically, vintage shopping forever and ever. Which I am okay with up to a point. I almost got a fancy designer dress - Marc Jacobs, maybe - for $20, but it was too small. Also, a beautiful, beautiful of Italian-made Robin Hood boots exactly like the kind I've been wanting for ages and ages, but again, too small.

This is the street to shop on. Even the guidebook said so!
Meanwhile, my father went and found a place to eat, which was the lovely Red Victorian that I had pointed out across from our last shopping stop. We had some tasty, tasty vegan BBQ chicken. And it tasted just like chicken. Then, because the place was quirky and cutesy and owned by a lady who had previously lived in a commune in Hawai'i [because, why not?!] we took a tour of all the funky themed rooms. So if you're ever in San Francisco, you should stay there.

We took the bus through El Presidio, just to check that off the list, then hurried through the Palace of Fine Arts, because I thought it was lovely. Then we tried to find the Maritime Museum, but failed through some mislabeling on the building. It had closed earlier that it was supposed to anyway. [Okay, well, earlier than the information desk thing we called to ask what time it closed told us.]

Fancy, fancy, fancy.
This lack of finding things upset my sister, who wanted to go to the only Gay/Lesbian History Museum in the country, which would have been cool, but she had just spent too darn much time shopping for us to get everything done. From the pier area, we walked over to the trolleys. However, because it was super crowded and we apparently like doing everything backwards, we hiked uphill to the twisty Lombard Street and took the Trolley back down, because taking the trolley is something every tourist has to do.

Photo proof. We were literally on it for two minutes. Or thereabouts.
Then we had a tasty, tasty seafood dinner at this place my mom noticed while we were on the bus. And we went back and got a table in the tiny, tiny restaurant and it was wonderful.

Saturday was literally a whirlwind day. We got up even earlier, sped downtown, and then split up. My dad and sisters went back to Golden Gate Park and saw some buffalos or something. Meanwhile, my mom and I went the historical route and toured the Mission Dolores and her Basilica.

I took about 100 pictures here, but not any good ones of both the Mission and the Basilica. The original Mission is the smaller white building.
We did a little wandering in the Mission District and then headed back to our Caltrain station to await the rest of the family. After some goofing around and picture taking, both on and off the train, we got back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff, hopped on the hotel shuttle and got to the airport. And then we had to wait in the security line for ages, meaning we didn't have lunch for ever longer. [I do not enjoy being hungry, clearly.] And that's about it. The plane didn't crash, we I savored the warm weather, and now summer vacation is a month in the past.

Just kidding! I graduated, so I'm on permanent vacation until I can find a job! Commence teasing sister who has to wake up at 5:30 and begging people to hire me.

2 comments:

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  2. Hey, Great post. What did you just graduate from? Good luck with job search!
    Unrelated, but.... I wonder i I can email you? I noticed a comment you left on Natalie Whipple's blog re anxiety and stuff...just wondering if you are open to chat with another reader/writer in that boat ? If so, maybe you can give me your email or i can give you mine? Thanks!

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