We caught the #5 bus from Union Square and took a 20-minute ride to Golden Gate Park. In addition to getting a taste of nature, we planned to visit the de Young Museum, the Japanese Tea Garden, and the new California Academy of Sciences, which is a combination of natural history museum, aquarium, and planetarium.
The de Young museum was hosting an exhibit of Andy Warhol pieces called "Warhol Live." It was awesome. Before today, I knew pretty much nothing about Andy Warhol, but the audio tour we took did an excellent job of introducing him and his idea of art. From the bit I understood, Warhol seemed to be a walking contradiction. He was at once enamored and yet repulsed by consumer society. He sought but avoided fame. He was interested in both the mundane and the extraordinary. He loved both the glitz (celebrities) and the dull (Campbell's soup and Brillo pads). I'm sure Ashlee would have some sort of psychological diagnosis for him, but I found his work fascinating.
One of my favorite parts of the exhibit were the different quotes of his that were peppered throughout the halls. Here are some that I jotted down:
- "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too."
- "Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."
- "If you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning."
- "I like the artificial: anything bright and shiny.
After walking through more of the de Young, we headed over to the Japanese Tea Garden. It's amazing how something like a garden can make you feel so tranquil. We sipped green tea and nibbled on rice crackers. We sat at a little bar overlooking a gurgling koi pond lined with gorgeous flowers. After tea we cracked our fortune cookies and here's what it's in store for us:
- Ashlee: "You will step on the soil of many countries."
- Scott" "All decisions you make today will be most fortunate."
After centering ourselves in the zen garden, we crossed the plaza to visit the Academy of Sciences. We were greeted with a line spilling out of the doors and around the corner. We asked how long the wait was and we were told the entire museum was completely sold out. Oh well, next time...
That left us with about four hours to kill and nothing to do. We decided to walk through the park and head in the general direction of the Haight. It was such a beautiful day! So far on this trip, Ashlee and I have totally lucked out with the weather. Today we were blessed with brilliant blue skies and big fluffy clouds. The vegetation of the park was a vibrant green. You can tell that the city takes a pretty hands-off approach to tending the park -- the trees and bushes all do whatever they want. We got to explore great stretches of footpaths and we forgot that we were in the middle of a large city! I guess that's the point of having such a park though.
When the park ended, we found ourselves in the Haight. While I'm an admitted liberal, I'll also admit that, for the most part, it has been in theory only. As a consequence, I'm not as versed in the history of the Haight as I'd like to be. Therefore I can only provide my topical impressions of the area.
Overall, the Haight, a district centered on the historial intersection of Haight and Ashbury, is a very quirky and yet mellow neighborhood that is home to a wide spectrum of people. All kinds of people were out and about: students, seniors, ex-hippies, current hippies, laid-back business types, vagrants, etc. On a philosophical level, it seemed that, for the most part, the people on the streets could be divided into two categories: (1) those who are in search of something and (2) those who have already found what they are looking for.
Ashlee and I spent half an hour or so walking the block. There were tons of shops (good for Ashlee) and many cafes (good for me). We grabbed lunch at a little Mexican food place -- delicious. We also took the obligatory photo at the Haight-Ashbury intersection. All in all, the Haight is a great place.
From the Haight, we had to walk back to the main bus line to catch a ride back to Union Square. We took a path that led down through Lower Haight past Alamo Square to Fulton. On the way, we passed through some of the most character-filled neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods in fact engendered our idea of the spirit of San Francisco. The homes were these beautiful yet dignified Victorian buildings, each one painted a different color. They all had unique entry ways and they were all crested with turret-looking attics. We could live here, we thought.
We made a brief stop at Alamo Square to see the "painted ladies," a set of these Victorian homes that are situated on a hill with the downtown skyline in the background. When we got there, we realized we had seen these homes before, and not just on the ubiqitous postcards that are sold on every corner. We are 90% sure the homes are featured in the introductory scene of the classic show "Full House." We might need to do some research to confirm this. Needless to say, it was a picturesque scene.
We caught the bus back towards our hotel. On the way we decided to stop at City Hall. It is this big beautiful building that looks perhaps even more ornate than the U.S. Capitol building in D.C.. In the SF spirit, we were allowed to walk right in and explore most of the building. The rotunda was amazing. Ashlee was thrilled to see a queue of couples lining up to get married. We snapped some pictures of a sculpture in honor of Harvey Milk along with those of Mayors Moscone and Feinstein. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of current Mayor Gavin Newsom, but settled with taking a picture in front of his office door. Pretty cool.
We made it back to our hotel room -- and took our last cable car ride on the way back. Tonight we had dinner plans with an attorney from my old firm and his wife. They were both Peace Corps volunteers in the early 90s, and in fact she worked closely with the Mongolia-China program in the D.C. headquarters. We ate at a terrific Burmese restaurant and we had a great time visiting with kindred spirits. Ashlee and I are so used to being the outliers that it's nice to chat with like-minded people. We also got some very practical advice on Peace Corps service. It was a fantastic evening.
Now we're back in room plotting our agenda for tomorrow. We'll see what we get up to next.
P.S. - Ashlee learned a new term today: "shopportunities." She loves it.
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