As usual, we thoroughly enjoyed our days in San Francisco. It is a city where I think I could live. No, I'm not moving. Not yet anyway. It's just one of a handful of places in the US where I'd consider moving.
Saturday morning breakfast was a donut and and coffee from Bob's while I sat in a laundromat on Sacramento Street washing OSFO's jeans. I always say, you can't know a city until you've tried a laundromat.
Later we took a DeSoto cab to Golden Gate Park to visit the California Academy of Sciences, a world-class scientific and
cultural institution based in San Francisco, recently opened a gorgeous
new facility in Golden Gate Park. It's a 400,000 square foot
structure that houses an aquarium, a planetarium a natural history
museum, a 4-story rainforest all under one roof.
A green roof.
It
is one awesome place. The
new facility is also home to scientists, an education department that
provides a wide range of education services, and an extensive science
library with
over 20 million specimens and artifacts.
We didn't feel like standing in line to see the rain forest exhibit or the planetarium. We did, however, spend a lot of time in the aquarium, which is spectacular.
The building itself, which is open, airy and light-filled is also the world’s greenest museum, as it is Platinum rated (the highest possible rating) for Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED). Features of sustainability extend to all facets of the facility – from the bike racks and rechargeable
vehicle stations outside the building to the radiant sub-floor heating
inside the building to the energy-generating solar panels on top of the
building!
Afterwards, we walked out of the park to Judah Street and caught the N-Judah line, an overground/underground MUNI bus. There was traffic congestion caused by a firetruck on Judah Street and we were advised by another passenger to walk to Haight Street and grab the 71 bus. Taking buses in San Francisco is ALWAYS an advenutre.
I'd been wanting to check out Haight Asbury so off we went. I noticed on my map that we were right near the Janis Joplin House.
"Who's that?" OSFO asked.
"She was my idol when I was your age," I said .
We never did find the rock legend's house but we did enjoy the painted lady houses on Cole Street, a snack at the Cole Valley Cafe and many shops on Haight Street.
Finally, after a long wait on Haight, we caught the 71 to Market Street and got off near the SONY Metreon near the Yerba Buena Gardens, where we like to browse the Chronicle Books Bookstore in the lobby. That building used to house the Where the Wild Things Are exhibit, which was an essential stop in our Henry/Alice tour of San Francisco for years. Designed by Maurice Sendak, it was a magical playground based on the illustrations and characters from that book set to Klezmer music. There was also a restaurant called, you guessed it, The Night Kitchen.
Anyway, SONY has left that building. There's no Wild Things exhibit and except for the movie multiplex, Chronicle Books, not much to do in there anymore. So we went to see Time Traveler's Wife, which is one very strange and silly movie. That said, I actually enjoyed it and OSFO, who seemed willing to accept the premise of a time traveler who constantly finds himself naked in various locales (and then manages to fin clothes that fit him), really enjoyed it.
Hepcat and the On The Go couple were home from the Monterey Historics and we watched the incredibly addictive Current channel on their big-screen TV and then grabbed some dinner at Nick's Crispy Taco, a taco place inside Rouge Nightclub, a bar/club on Polk Street with red walls and chandeliers.
The quesadillas were fantastic!
Janis Joplin photo by Richard Avedon.