San Francisco day 6: Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park and Twin Peaks

Today the plans were to go to Golden Gate Park, the Japanese Tea Garden and Twin Peaks

On the way to the Japanese Tea Garden we passed this brown fire truck

It was interesting to see a brown fire truck, normally they are red


Just so that you know if you get to the Japanese Tea Garden before 10 AM on a Monday, you get in for free, otherwise it is $9 per person.  The Japanese Tea Garden is inside the Golden Gate Park. We got to the Japanese Tea Garden around 9:30 AM





The temple inside the garden


View of the tea house

Some fortune stones that are for sale in the gift shop

Some porcelain kitties

Some more porcelain kitties


Matcha


I ordered this and it was good. Texture was interesting. It was served with a marshmallow textured like dessert which was filled with bean paste.  Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves. It is special in two aspects of farming and processing: the green tea plants for matcha are shade-grown for about three weeks before harvest and the stems and veins are removed in processing

Japanese Tea Garden Gate


Buddha Statue


Interesting Bridge


Golden Gate Park

Interesting little bridge


Chinese Pavillion


Interesting flowers




Twin Peaks

The Twin Peaks are two prominent hills with an elevation of about 925 feet (282 m)[1] located near the geographic center of San Francisco, California. Only 928 foot (283 m) Mount Davidson is higher within the city.

Picture of one peak taken from the other peak


View of downtown San Francisco


Panorama from Twin Peaks

Financial District


Another view of San Francisco


Financial District


Some kind of tower


The one thing you will notice when you get up on Twin Peaks is that it is really windy, so make sure to hold on to your hats and phones

San Francisco day 5: Japantown, Missions District, Lands End

The plan for today was to visit Japantown and Lands End

Japantown is located 3 blocks from where we were renting a house, this made it very easy to get there :-)
There are a bunch of stores, restaurants as well as cultural showrooms and societies


Plaque to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Kanrin Maru



The Kanrin Maru, was the first Japanese ship ever to cross the Pacific, and its arrival in San Francisco made history

Some street signs in Japanese

Webster



Buchanan (Osaka Way)



These are 4 different pictures I put together from signs that are on various spots



I came back to Japantown for 5 minutes at night, that is why these 2 pictures are nightshots

The Peace Pagoda



A restaurant in restaurant row



The fillmore music venue



Some interesting houses




Mural near the fillmore for the Boom Boom Room


Towards the Mission district, we passed City Hall


Rogue One mural in the mission district


In the Mission District I could not believe how many homeless people were roaming around. I was talking to a driver about this and he said there are a lot of them in San Francisco because of the weather. According to the driver, in the 1980s, a lot of mental institutions were closed and the people who were in the institutions were let out. A lot of them ended up homeless

We took public transportation to Lands End. By the way having lived in New York, the public transportation system in San Francisco is a total mess. They really should come up with some kind of clipper card which you can by at every station. right now for the Muni you have to buy tickets there for Bart somewhere else etc etc


Panorama from the visitor center




Sutro Baths



The Sutro Baths was a large, privately owned public saltwater swimming pool complex, this is what is left now


A person meditating



With a view like that, I am sure his troubles seemed far away even if for a little while


A giant camera obscura

The beach with the black rocks



We then hiked on the Coastal Trail, here are some pictures I took from that hike


Mile Rock Beach

A hazy view of the Golden Gate bridge




Another panorama




Eagle Point



Hidden labyrinth at Eagle's Point, constructed by local artist Eduardo Aguilera

This what it for the day

San Francisco day 4: Sausalito and Muir Woods

Today's plan was to go to Sausalito and Muir Woods

We started to walk down towards the ferry, on the way there we passed the new SalesForce Tower which is still under construction



Salesforce Tower, formerly known as the Transbay Tower, is a 1,070-foot (326 m)[1] office skyscraper under construction in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. It is located at 415 Mission Street between First and Fremont Streets, next to the Transbay Transit Center site. Salesforce Tower is the centerpiece of the San Francisco Transbay redevelopment plan


We also saw the following sign on the wall of a church we passed


We bought the tickets and had some time to spare so we looked around at the farmers market, and who do we see?




Yep, that is Andrew Zimmern, host of one of my favorite shows Bizzare Foods. He is in town filming for this new show which will air in 2018

We planned to take the first ferry, it was delayed by an hour, so our plans were a little derailed
By the time we made it to Sausalito, it was nice and sunny



Once we got of the boat, I saw this man with a dog playing guitar



We then rushed to find the shuttle to Muir Woods. The ride to Muir Woods is a little scary, a lot of people get freaked out. There are only 2 lanes and you are really close to just toppling over down the mountain only to die in a horrible accident
The ride was about 30 minutes or so





Now I have to warn you, none of these pictures are doing Muir Woods any justice. You have to be there to appreciate the beauty and size of Muir Woods. The tallest tree is 379.3 feet/115.61 meters, this is taller than the Statue of Liberty




Trees with some humans for scale



Some more trees



Steps into the woods



My kids in front of some trees

We spent around 3 hours in Muir Woods but would have stayed longer if we didn't have to catch the shuttle back to the ferry

Took this shot of a sailboat with the GoldenGate bridge in the background


Back in San Francisco I noticed this line at Tadich Grill


The Tadich Grill is a seafood restaurant located in the Financial District neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the oldest continuously running restaurant in San Francisco

That is all for today.