California Academy of Sciences, Lands End, Golden State Warriors

DAY 2

It was just as well we had a good breakfast....(and this is only part of it) because we had SUCH A BUSY DAY :) we nearly didn't have time to eat.

San Francisco looked nice in the early morning sun...

We HOHO bussed and soon arrived at the California Academy of Sciences,

one of the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 26 million exhibits. 

WOW, we could have spent all day here. 

A T Rex skeleton was waiting for us,

He seemed friendly enough.

Whales really ARE huge.

This was to be part of the WHALES exhibition, what a pity we were a day too early.

We chose to go up  3 floors of rainforest   that were abundant with beautiful parakeets, amazing blue headed birds, huge butterflies... (and very humid)

while below us, huge fish were swimming 

There was so much more we would have liked  to see, an observatory, a planetarium, penguins.... but time was running out.

It was a big tick for California Academy of Sciences and somewhere to revisit NEXT TIME we visit Cub.

Anyway, we hopped back on the bus which continued alongside Golden Gates Park.

Who would have thought that a Scotsman, who wouldn't take NO for an answer, was responsible for making good quality soil out of sand and horse manure to create one of San Francisco's greatest treasures, the  Golden Gates Park  after others before him had deemed it impossible. His name was John Maclaren  and his target was to plant ONE MILLION trees (apparently that target has nearly been reached.) Maclaren had the great idea of letting loose into the park 2 mountain lions and a grizzly bear called Monarch, who incidentally now lies, stuffed, in the California Academy of Sciences. Maclaren hated statues with a passion. He planted trees around them so they couldn't be seen and the statue that was given to him of himself in honour of creating the park was only found after his death, hidden in his basement, His statue is now in the park and can be seen from the bus. It is not on a plinth, but right down on the grass as close to nature as possible .

A working windmill.

The bus stopped at OCEAN BEACH so we hopped off.

We got off at Land's End and walked along the path to Mile Point.

 I was looking forward to my plank. 

It was a Zesty plank!

The Legion of Honor

Just across the golf course near Mile Point stands a Fine Arts Museum The Legion of Honor and we saw Rubens, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Van Gogh... 

and Rodin's THE THINKER.

Heck what a great day and there's more! 

The HOHO bus drove us through  Chinatown and then up Nob Hill, we saw the Victorian houses called Painted Ladies, (houses painted with more than 5 colours) and we passed the house where Jimmy Hendrix lived.

We  even sang Scott Fitzgerald's one hit wonder.

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

Cub had got tickets for the basketball tonight  so we took a BART across the bridge to Oakland where they now play and what a hoot.

A relatively dull game suddenly became quite exciting at half time...

as they filmed a punch-up on court for an American soap, (there were at least 3 takes and the cheers got louder every time) and then the relatively dull game suddenly became ridiculously exciting as ...

Golden State warriors were 2 up with 7 seconds left,

then 1 down with 4 seconds left,

THEN

Harrison Barnes got the winner with 2 seconds to spare OMG!!!

62-13. #DubNation #Warriors90sNight pic.twitter.com/bKm4AnkZfD
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) April 3, 2015

GO WARRIORS! GO WARRIORS!

What a fantastic day. 

Did we have lunch? Did we even have dinner? Who cares.

GO WARRIORS!

San Francisco MUIR WOODS

DAY 1

The very lovely staff at Inn San Francisco pointed us in the right direction for the 49 bus, and then the very lovely people on the 49 bus recommended we hopped across onto the 47 bus when we got so far along, so we were nearer to the sightseeing stop and before we knew it we were ready to hop on the 

Hop on Hop off bus

We bought the 2 day pass and did 4 tours, Sausalito, beaches tour, night tour and downtown tour, and tickets incuded 3 extras admissions so we chose Muir Woods (which meant we wasted no time in going over the famous Golden Gate bridge), the California Academy of Sciences and a boat ride back across the bay. How exciting!!

First view of the famous Golden Gate Bridge

Great excitement on the bus as we drove over it...

 There were plenty of people biking over it.

Of course there was a plank once we had crossed over it, in Sausalito, although I was the only person doing one. Always look for an opportunity to plank.

We loved Muir Woods. 

It is a peaceful place with several trails to follow and thousands of magnificent redwoods to test our photography skills and the mobility in our necks. 

Muir Woods is one of the world's last remaining ancient redwood forests, redwoods being the TALLEST LIVING THINGS on earth.  It was cool, quiet, peaceful and absolutely fabulous.

We had a great couple of hours walking the trails of Muir Woods. 

John Kent bought the forest to protect the Redwoods and to prevent the Water Board from damming and flooding the valley. However, he wanted no credit for it, just because he was able to afford to buy it, so the forest was named after his friend William Muir, another naturalist.

l, Kent, r, Muir

The cluster of trees on the left is a family of trees, the tree on the right would have grown from just one tiny seed. 

They were so impressive. We learned lessons from the redwoods. 

Stand tall. Drink lots of water. Look after your family. Enjoy the view. 

We also saw shamrock,

And we saw a chipmunk.

And a bear.

And after half an hour in the gift shop we hop-on-and-offed back to Sausalito.

Sausalito was lovely. We sat on a wall eating fish 'n' chips, watching a humming bird in the trees, we had a nosey in the shops and we watched pelicans diving for and catching fish.

 LOOK AT MY PELICAN PHOTO! 

We took the ferry across the bay back to Ferry Building 1....

...then realised we were about 14 blocks away from where we needed to be for the night tour, 

AAARRRGGGHHH!! 

So we squeezed on an absolutely RAMMED tram and made it back to the night tour busstop with minutes to spare. You can't beat a bit of  Hollindale-style "Tight Schedule" haha.

It was too dark to photograph the night tour, but here is a San Francisco hill.

 It's steep.

Very steep.

What a great day. 

Cub had been working all day till 9pm, working, as in, having a drink with his new member of staff, so we met him outside Macy's in Union Square when he had finished working/drinking and went for a pizza in Zero Zero. It was a great day but we were now a bit goosed, a bit jet lagged 

.....and still had no cases....

Heck, we were ready for our feather bed.

MAN > LHR > SFO !!!!!! Easter 2015

Well WE arrived in San Francisco, but our cases didn't. We weren't surprised though, our flight from Manchester had been delayed due to gale force winds (oh yes, we felt those alright) (bouncy bouncy plane) which meant we  had to run for our connecting flight across Heathrow.

But who cared?! 

We were in SAN FRANCISCO!!! YIPPEE!

The Inn San Francisco 

We will definitely be staying HERE again! What a brilliant B+B. 

Jars of sweets dotted about everywhere, feather beds, superb healthy breakfasts, fresh flowers, a hot tub, antiques, soft lighting, ...we absolutely loved it. This Victorian home is in the Mission District of San Francisco, giving us chance to see an area other tourists may otherwise miss and is walking distance from Cub's flat and office (especially if you like hills). There is a rooftop terrace with 360 degree views of San Francisco, The staff there are super friendly and super helpful. It was such a great find. We stayed in room 43. 

 Anyway, we booked in, then walked to Cub's and then  went for a burger supper (yes, I did) in a sporty bar watching the Golden State Warriors doing their layups and slamdunks, before retiring to our feather bed ready to explore SF tomorrow. If I could sleep- I was so excited.