755/365 - Day 4 - Randomness before Leaving

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Chris has a conference all day today which means lots of randomness for me to do. Or the potential anyway.

After we split up I headed back to the hotel to lay down a bit since my sinuses were bothering me and I was feeling lazy (waking up every day at 4am because you're on Eastern time still probably doesn't help).

I finally got up and checked out of the hotel, found a banana and headed out. It was a toss up between Muir Woods and the California Academy of Sciences. Since I'd managed to burn my face the last two days in a row I opted for the indoor option. I also forewent bringing the SLR since I was tired of lugging around the weight.
I took the public transportation over to Golden Gate Park. At the point where I needed to transfer MUNI lines I got lost for a bit and missed a few trains. Eventually I found my way through the magic of google maps and asking questions.
The California Academy of Sciences was pretty neat. If I hadn't recently been to the Shedd Aquarium I probably would have spent a lot more time in the aquarium area of this place. Lots of parts of this place reminded me of others - like the hallway in the photo at the top of this post reminded me of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. The aquarium portion reminded me of several aquariums I've been to, and the interactive displays and educational pieces reminded me of parts of the Detroit Science Center.

I really do like places like these, so I enjoy seeing the different layouts, going to planetariums or educational shows, and just walking around a bit. The living rainforest was neat and I liked the interjection of live creatures into some of the exhibits. I'm sure that makes the trip all the more interesting to kids. For $25 or so dollars it was totally worth it.
My trip back to where the rental car was parked took me through Union Square where Chris's conference was. Since I was passing by about the time he was getting out, I hopped off to meet up with him downtown. Confident in my recent use of public transit, I steered us to the nearest MUNI line to head back to the rental car.

And I picked one going in the wrong direction. Oops. So we rode it all the way to the end of the line (putting us an 1 1/2 hours walk away from the car versus a simple 30 minute walk). Luckily we were able to get on the next train leaving the area a few minutes later that was headed in the correct direction. So we backtracked on an empty train (that filled up quickly) with a very friendly and lively driver. He made the return trip funny and well worth the mistake. 

Once we got back to the car we headed out to the airport. We had four hours to kill, but not knowing how bad the wait to get through security would be and the need to find gas before dropping off the car, we decided to head out to the airport.

The GPS steered us clear to AT&T park, where the SF Giants were having a game. So we spent about an hour in traffic going a few miles. If we were desperately trying to get somewhere it would have been really frustrating, but since we had a lot of time to kill it worked out.

After a mini-side trip to find gas (there aren't as many gas stations right off the freeway as you would think...) we arrived at the airport with a little under three hours to spare. And we sailed right through security. As in - there was no wait. Tuesday night at the airport must be a very quiet night.
But SFO has free wifi (unlike DTW) so I was able to grab a bite to eat, surf the internet, and do some reading on the kindle. Plus we were able to get our seats switched so we were next to each other (in the emergency exit aisle). I'd have taken some night shots with the SLR since I had so much extra room, but we were over the wing and there were lots of blinking lights on it. In retrospect I think I should have tried anyway. Both the flight arriving and leaving San Francisco. Next time...

Anyway, here's the complete slideshow of all the shots from San Francisco rolled into one!

753/365 - Day 2 - Golden Gate Park

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I tried really hard not to plot out this trip like I seem to do with everything. So while we didn't have a firm itinerary of activities for the next 3 days (ok, I dont, Chris does) I did want to see Golden Gate Park. So that was our first major destination after breakfast.

The park isnt far from where we're staying but getting there was hell. We have a rental car, so we drove. Mistake. There are a lot of hills in some areas of this town and while I've driven in Washington PA, the hills here are leagues more intimidating to drive up and down than anything I ever drove through in Pennsylvania. By the end of it was was freaked out and I wasn't even driving.
Golden Gate Park is massive. Larger than Central Park. Looking at a map and imagining the scale of it is different than walking through it. It's just amazing. So many different areas and things to see. We got there at a little after 10am and didn't leave till after 4pm. It was a long day.

There are a lot of dogs in San Francisco, and there were a lot of dogs in the park. I'd say a good 50-60% of the dogs I've seen out here so far are without leashes and very well behaved. It's awesome.
The Golden Gate Park has several lakes, gardens, picnic areas, street vendors, museums, and more. There are a bunch of places we could have gone to and walked through, but we mostly just meandered through the park. We did walk through the Japanese Tea Garden and I am eying the California Academy of Sciences as a thing to do one of the days Chris is at his work conference.
There are a lot of nice areas of mini-hikes as well. Though we didn't go across to Strawberry Hill that looked like it might have been an interesting trek.
By the time we left the park it was in full swing. Drum circles and music blaring out in different areas, ice cream trucks parked along the road, steady traffic coming in and out, and lots of families enjoying a Sunday picnic.
In the evening we walked further down through Fisherman's Wharf. I was hoping to get a bite of seafood to eat but I'm always wary and uncomfortable with food stands selling food I've not tried before and all of the restaurants with seating would have cost us $60 easy. So instead we opted to try an In-N-Out Burger. That little joint was amazingly fast, friendly, and efficient given how packed that restaurant was (guess everyone else had the same idea as us). The food wasn't bad either. Not super greasy and their french fries (which we watched them cut in the restaurant) taste pretty good (similar to Wendy's new fries).
We both ended the day with sunburns on our faces and arms. Not terrible, but tender. Tomorrow should be an interesting trip to Union Square and beyond. Still have to figure out what to do for 1/2 the day while Chris is at his conference.

Anyway, here's a slideshow of the shots from Golden Gate Park.

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