    | It seemed as if the entire Bay area was covered in bold murals. From the window in our hotel room we could catch a glimpse of a brightly colored one, mostly obscured by fencing and intervening structures. Once we reached the CalTrain station we could see it in its full glory, painted under an overpass in the car park where the shelters are to wait for the train, a shaft of light at a random diagonal angle illuminating the image. :: The CalTrain took us in to San Francisco where we bought day passes for public transport. And then our expedition started. Catching the Muni (light rail) N Judah outbound, we went until 8th Avenue, where we caught the No. 44 Bus, thinking it would drop us close to the Japanese Tea Garden. It did not, instead stopping on the North side of the Golden Gate Park, so we decided to hike back into the park to the garden, where we promptly ran into a major construction project, with only vague indications of which way to get around it. In the mean time it was getting close to noon, and our breakfast, though much better at this hotel, was still very light and I had had no snack in between. My blood sugar plummeted and I started to feel all the signs of an impending crash: the shaking, clamminess, disorientation. Digging for my emergency glucose tablets, I manage to ward off immediate danger, but it told us clearly that we should look for a place to have lunch. Regretfully giving up the Japanese Tea Garden as out of our reach, we stopped for a few minutes to let the poppet work off some excess energy at the massive blue playground structure, before returning to the bus stand. At first we thought we would try to catch a bus going east, back to downtown, but ended up on the same No. 44, going back South of the Park. We trooped into an Indian restaurant advertising a lunch buffet, only to turn around again, since the meager choices were uninspiring. With several others to choose from, we ended inside Park Chow, a trendy restaurant with an interesting menu - all in all a good choice. ::  Then back on the Muni, continuing westwards to 19th Avenue, where we went on a proper safari - even ended up going in circles - to find a bus stop for the No. 29. This bus route goes on Lincoln Boulevard along the West coast through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where we hoped to get some brilliant views of the bridge.And they were breath-taking! The bus made two unscheduled stops to let off other sightseers, and at the second of these, we decided to get down as well. Amazing views, but since it was an unscheduled stop, we were unsure of whether we would be able to get a bus again. We waited almost an hour for a bus that is supposed to run every 30 mins. and were getting truly desperate when one finally appeared. It turned out that the proper vista point and entrance to the bridge was less than 15 minutes' walk further along - if only we had known! This allowed us views of the bridge from the other angle as well, Alcatraz and all the touristy things like the section of the massive cable that is used in the bridge, and a close up of some of the >27,500 wires that make up that cable! :: Bus No. 28 took us eastwards, back toward town, No. 22 took us South a bit, and No. 1 took us into the heart of China Town. After browsing around a while, and gaping at the intricate details you only notice when looking up at the top levels of the buildings, we came to the conclusion that we were all knackered. We found a completely vegetarian Chinese restaurant for dinner, and then climbed the steps back up to California Avenue to grab the cable car. After all, no visit to San Francisco would be complete without a ride in one of these, right? We ended up going in the wrong direction, but fortunately since we had the daily passes, we just waited it out and rode it all the way back again to the Embarcadero where we wanted to be in the first place. :: The conductor was a jovial fellow who encouraged us to sit on the open benches after the majority of passengers had disembarked, and I clung to Angel Face for dear life after snaking my leg around one of the supports, so scared that she would impulsively lean forward and fall into the road. When we reached the terminus, the conductor invited her to ring the bell, and that absolutely made that little girl's day. At the Embarcadero we had to wait a while for the right Muni, and by the time we reach the Cal Train station, we had missed our train by 4 minutes. So, nothing could be done but settle in for an hour's wait for the next one. :: All in all a long, exhausting day, but a thoroughly satisfying one. We had missed out on two of our main agenda items: the Japanese Tea Gardens (due to the building projects in the park) and the crooked bit of Lombard Street (time constraints given the long waits for buses), but what we did see and experience more than made up for it. It had been my first visit to the Golden Gate bridge despite the fact that we had had visited there before and had even lived in the Bay area for a while, and for Nini the bridge was a particularly powerful and moving sight, one of the entries on her "Must-See before I die"-list. 
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on September 10, 2004 8:59 PM.
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