Wonderful garden at Emily and Theo's home
Paul and Kiddo, one of the two rescued dogs. One ear up and one ear down.
We went into Oakland in the morning on Wednesday. There is a lovely lake (Lake Merritt) with a walking path that goes all the way around as well as several lovely gardens near the lake. We managed to see all sorts of birds (a lot of Coots) and then visited the Botanical and Bonsai gardens which were also very lovely.
The first thing we noticed at Lake Merritt was the trees. Gnarled and ancient in appearance, leaning over and sometimes right into the water. Wonderful Japanese feeling.
We also saw squirrels, lovely redish with wonderfully fluffy tails! They were very tame and if we had food with us they would have easily and quickly taken it right from our hands.
Coots and ducks all swimming together. All being fed by attendants at the park.
We think that this might be a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron. That's as close as we can get with our bird guide.
The gardens were beautiful. What more can one say? The gardens were just lovely and so many things were in blossom that Marty was taking photos of everything.
After our excursion to Lake Merritt we reconnected with Emily and headed into San Francisco just to look around and do some walking. Our first stop was Chinatown, which is huge compared to Boston's and we're thinking maybe even New York's (but it has been years since we have been in NYC's). There are so very many shops and bakeries it is enough to make one dizzy.
We thought the street lamps were really quite lovely.
There were stores selling Chinese medicines and then there were stores selling things like those shown above for which we had not clue what they were. Some were dried sea creatures at prices/pound that would boggle the mind (over $400/lb). We also saw the magnificent Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill, but it was too dark for photos.
And then came a hard-learned lesson: never take the street signs for granted. Never overstay the no parking in tow-away zones because at the witching hour (in our case it was 4:00 pm) returning to the car at 4:10 pm was 10 minutes too late. The car(s) were all gone from the street! This starting the ball rolling to retrieve the car and pay the fines...hope you are all sitting down, $520 for just the towing then add to that the 82$ fine for parking and it becomes a $600 adventure you don't want to repeat. After a few beers and wine life was feeling a little better but it was a shocker to us all!
Thursday morning we decided that it would be great to get to Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. The drive in from Oakland was uneventful and the drive up to the park was wonderful. We had the opportunity to see all sorts of fascinating houses. Built so close together and many appeared to be joined. There wonderful details on the outsides, raised patterns around doors and between floors of the houses; so unlike anything we've seen in Maine or the eastern US.
Golden Gate Park is wonderful. It has it all really. There are gardens, paths, a Japanese Tea Garden, Conservatory of Flowers, de Young Museum, and more than 1,000 acres of well cared for green and open spaces.
One of the stunning features of the GGP is the Monterey Cypress. Although this is considered a medium-sized evergreen, to us they loomed over our heads and were awe-inspiring. They are limited in range to only west central California, there are those in the park which stand out and one cannot but be drawn to them.
We walked through the botanical garden which was beautifully laid out and we saw things organized by the world's regions as well as ancient plants. The rhododendrons were in bloom which was a treat as well as other flowers.
There was a wonderful Japanese Tea Garden which Paul had told us about so we didn't dare pass up the opportunity to visit that. It was wonderful! Such a peaceful place where one could easily spend an entire day sitting on a bench and just meditating.
The view into the Tea Garden just as one enters the garden.
Following the Golden Gate Park we headed a short distance up the peninsula toward the Presidio. Along the way, we stopped at a Polish deli for some sandwiches. This was in a predominantly Russian/Eastern European neighborhood. The sandwiches were great, but had so much sliced meat in them that we couldn't finish them.
The Presidio is now a park; previously an Army installation, and is fabulously located right at the tip of the SF peninsula at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove right up to the tip and got "our" shots of the bridge. The red brick building is Fort Point, which was built during the Civil War.
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