Tourist Mistakes

***Thanks for the comments, and the record number of hits on yesterday's post. It's weird that even in this insanely connected world, sometimes all we really need is to reach out. You guys are awesome!***

The long-awaited picture essay: San Francisco, day two!

We started the day not quite as early [thank goodness!] and after some scrambling online, found out that the bus we'd taken back the night before had a stop RIGHT NEXT TO our hotel. Actually, it was maybe a ten minute walk away, but still. That's more time I could have been sleeping. Alas.

Once we got into town, I guess my parents hadn't figured out the transit system map, so we walked to Chinatown. Which is not that far, except then you'll also be walking all around Chinatown. Poor planning, instance number one. [We were making every touristy mistake possible that day...]

It was a very lovely place to walk, at least.

After lots of wandering [and lots of stopping to sit in once place for 20 minutes...], we found a fortune cookie factory and then a little authentic place for lunch. And I ate Chinese food. And I really liked it. It was miraculous. Then next door there was a place that had gelato, and so we got a couple of cups of those. These were giant cups. I should have taken a picture. But it was almost difficult for the five of us to finish 3 of them. I got the Coconut, which was the family favorite. Because, duh, coconut flavored anything with Asian food is always wonderful.

Now for mistake number two. We started heading back to the main road to go to the MOMA. [What I consider the main road is the one all the metro stops and sketchy-bus stops were on. Market, I think it was called.] Maybe we even took a bus, I honestly don't remember at this point. Then we got almost there and stopped at the Yerba Buena Gardens.

Not a mistake, although we did linger for ages. Nothing much happened in that 20 minutes, other than a guy occasionally doing acrobatics.

No, the mistake was forgetting to check the schedule and trying to go to the museum on the day it was closed. After a pause to snap a picture and a quick peek inside the gift store [and, let's be honest, we all took advantage of a public restroom], we proceeded on to the Golden Gate Park.

Yay solidarity! If it weren't so cold, San Fran would be a perfect place for me.

This time we were forced to take the bus. Although maybe this was the day that we also stopped at this cutesy bookstore that my parents had stopped in YEARS ago when they were in San Fran with friends. Not even intentional. [Yes! While editing I just remembered! It was! But before we got to the park.]

But anyway, it was about this point that I started taking maps from my mother, the official paper-carrier, to figure out how to get places. So we got ourselves to the De Young Museum with minimal movement, which was good because the place was huge. And full of beautiful, beautiful art.

This was only the entrance. I wish I could've taken pictures everywhere!

They kicked us out at closing time, when we found out that our handy City Pass covered this and a different museum - but only if you went on the same day. AND the other museum has lots of Impressionists. I was brokenhearted. But I got over that quickly because we were hurrying down to the Castro District, first for some sustainable, good-cause-supporting food.

Vegetarian sandwich with avocado. BEST. SANDWICH. EVER.

And then we hurried, hurried, hurried down a couple of blocks so we wouldn't walk in [too] late for a lovely, lovely service at the Metropolitan Community Church of San Fran. My sister found it online, so she knows what the service was called, but it was kind of nondenominational/universalist/spiritual. It was the perfect pause in a busy day - simple, focused, inclusive.

We also met a super friendly guy from Norway whose hometown had been taken over by Texans.

We walked back to a metro station, taking pictures along the way. Then we took the T line in a roundabout way around the city and got dropped off at the last stop, which coincided with a sketchy-bus stop. We were a smidge early, which was good because if we had missed the bus, it would have been an extra hour of a wait. But we were early, which meant a longish wait in the dark and cold. Luckily, we made it back to our hotel with no mishaps AND it was cheaper where we got on. All's well that ends well.

Partying in San Fran, day three, coming soon to a theater blog near you!