Day 4 (February 18, 2018): An alternative sort of day

Weekends evaporate, it’s as simple as that.  And long-anticipated vacation weekend getaways evaporate even faster -- like morning dew on a hot sidewalk.  And so, our last full day in San Francisco came and went.  But it was great fun! 

In a city brimming with places to eat, we enjoyed Mel’s Diner so much that we left the hotel at 8:30AM and headed there again.  The waitress even recognized us as regulars amid the weekend throngs of bacon ‘n egg seekers.

With Mel’s breakfast #3 under our belts, we headed out in the sunny-but-cool (12C) morning to start exploring, first stopping at City Hall, where a bustling Sunday morning market was underway.  City Hall, as you can see in the pics below, is very impressive – more impressive than a lot of national parliament buildings we have seen in our travels.  Rows of ‘pollarded’ trees line the grounds in front of City Hall (thanks, Juliet Whalen, for explaining what pollarding is!).  As we stood among the trees planning our next move, two uniformed guys came over to ask if they could help.  Our first reaction, in the land of Donald Trump, was that we had done something wrong.  But they were simply eager to help us.  We had a wonderful chat about Canada, real estate prices, and how SanFran has changed over the last couple of decades.  We learned that the median income required to own a home in SanFran is $300,000 per year!

Twitter’s world headquarters was nearby, so we stopped to look at that (very unassuming) building.  Somehow, we expected big glass windows showing an inner world of 20-something Twitter programmers drinking lattes, playing pinball, and eating trendy seaweed snacks on big leather sofas, while pretending to transform Twitter on extravagant salaries.  No such luck.

From Twitter, we headed to Golden Gate Park, which was our focal point for the day.  Enroute, our bus passed through the Haight-Ashbury district, where we encountered more yoga-hemp-pot-grafitti murals-soy-Buddism-New Age crystals than we thought could possibly exist.  If it’s traditional, you will NOT find it in the Haight area.  If it’s alternative, it’s thriving there.  Period.  By the time we passed through Haight, our eyeballs were so googly, we were ready for the serenity of Golden Gate Park.

You could literally spend a week exploring this 1005-acre park, which makes NYC’s Central Park look tiny.  We focused our efforts on two things: the Japanese Tea Garden, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden.  Both were wonderful to walk, as the photos show.

Feeling refreshed, we decided to tackle another of the city’s alternative areas:  the Missions District.  While Haight has a lot of murals, the Missions District is simply plastered in hundreds of murals.  Most of which are loud, bizarre, and screaming social themes.  Interesting, to say the least.  Homelessness is everywhere in SanFran, with an estimated homeless population of over 10,000.  Sadly, it seemed particularly evident in the Missions District, with its seedy overtones. 

Our Lonely Planet guide suggested we visit "826 Valencia", a non-profit student tutoring organization with a pirate storefront.  It features a small booth behind a red velvet curtain, where you are encouraged to enter and view a blowfish that actually stares and seems to smile.  No kidding.

 

From the smiling blowfish, we headed to Delores Park, which we had heard to be a gathering spot for the district.  “Gathering spot” didn’t come close to what we saw when we got there!  There were literally hundreds of young people sitting all over the hillside, chatting, watching buskers, and smoking pot.  We had never seen anything like it.  It looked like a crowd assembled for a rock concert, except there was no event, just a Sunday afternoon chillax session.  We were easily the oldest people within a square mile, so we snapped a few pics and headed back to the hotel to warm up and just rest before dinner.

At 4PM we had a late lunch of clam chowder and lattes at the hotel, and at 7:30PM, we headed out to look for a light dinner.  We walked back to Union Square, where we had started our visit on Thursday, and got the “Powell and Market” cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf.  For most of the ride, we had the entire cable car to ourselves.  It was wonderful!  We made it back to our room by 10PM and prepared for an early rise to get our plane home.

Sunday market at Civic Center

The majestic City Hall

We saw so many of these trees all over -- but this grove at City Hall really stood out.  Apparently, it's an annual pruning technique called "pollarding".

Peek a boo?

The world headquarters of Twitter.  Apartments in the building to the right go for $8000 per month, we were told.

The Haight area -- everything alternative you can imagine.

Haight-Ashbury is covered in murals.

Somehow, I cannot imagine seeing this sign in Halifax!

At Golden Gate Park -- a park of over 1000 acres in the middle of SanFran.

The Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

The Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

The Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.  Featuring Dave! ;-)

At the San Francisco Botanical Garden, also located within Golden Gate Park, the magnolias were in full bloom.  Stunning!

At the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

Coyotes within urban San Francisco!

After Golden Gate Park, the ocean was calling us. Ocean Beach is a wide stretch of beach on the western perimeter of the Park, which goes on for several miles. The chilly waters are famous for surfing. 

The Mission District has over 400 murals, such as this one.  Most with pretty blatant social messaging.

The Mission District has over 400 murals, such as this one.  Most with pretty blatant social messaging.

The Mission District has over 400 murals, such as this one.  Most with pretty blatant social messaging.

The Mission District has over 400 murals, such as this one.  Most with pretty blatant social messaging.

The Mission District has over 400 murals, such as this one.  Most with pretty blatant social messaging.

The Mission District has over 400 murals, such as this one.  Most with pretty blatant social messaging.

The always smiling, always staring blowfish at 826 Valencia, behind the red velvet curtain.  

Mission High School -- have you ever seen such ornate detail on a school!

Like the Haight-Ashbury district, the entire Mission district screamed ALTERNATIVE.  Delores Park was literally packed with little clusters of 20 and 30-somethings, all hanging out in the chilly Sunday sun, and the pot was so prolific.  You can actually see a guy (ballcap in foreground) examining the pot another guy was selling.

The view of the Financial District from Delores Park

We had the "Powell and Market" cable car all to ourselves for over 20 blocks. That's almost impossible in this city.