Golden Gate Park

Another destination that I wanted to walk to and explore was Golden Gate Park. Now it would make sense for the Golden Gate Park would be the park located by the Golden Gate Bridge, but that is not the case. Golden Gate Park is in a different part of the city. To get to the park from the area we were staying, you have to walk through another district that I really wanted to see: Haight-Ashbury.

There are so many beautiful Victorian houses in San Francisco, and I wanted to take pictures of so many of them. I have to say that I really felt weird about taking pictures of stranger's homes so I mostly did not. The above is one that I could not resist photographing as I walked to Haight-Ashbury.

Haight-Ashbury is one of the more funky and interesting districts of San Francisco. The street I walked down was lined with cute little shops and restaurants. I was glad that I had another destination in mind though, because I probably would have gotten in trouble shopping in all of those cute little shops! The above picture is another shot inspired by my Time Out guide book. There is a picture of the legs from above in my book, and I was glad that I just happened to find them on my walk so that I could take my own picture!

Once I got to the park, I realized just how dauntedly large it is. My plan was to walk through the entire park and then end up at the coast as the park ends at the ocean. Then the plan was to walk up to Lincoln Park and see the Legion of Honor Art Museum. So I started the trek through the park.

One of the first highlights of the park you come to is the Conservatory. I considered paying the admission to enter the greenhouse, but there are plenty of gardens to photograph outside.

Okay so I went a little crazy taking pictures of the dahlias!

Next I walked through the National Aids Memorial Grove.

As I walked through the park, the fog kept rolling in off the ocean making me very excited to see the coast!

After making my way out of the Grove, I came upon the De Young Museum. Since I was ultimately on my way to the Legion of Honor art museum, I decided to pass on the De Young.

More fog!

A couple of sculptures outside the De Young Museum.

When I was done photographing the sculptures, I had a glance at my GPS to see what kind of progress I was making on my walk through the park. At the point, I had only walked through a quarter of the park so I decided to pick up the pace.

The next point of interest I happened upon was the Japanese Garden.

At this point, I had to reassess my plan. I really was not even a third of the way through the park. In the back of my head, I had been hoping to have a second shot at the Wicked lottery that night, and if I continued on my journey I would miss it. Plus given how long I was taking to walk through the park, it would have been dark by the time I made it to the Legion of Honor Museum. It was at this point that I decided to make the Golden Gate Park and walk up the coast to the Legion of Honor another entry in my ever growing "next time" list. So I hoofed it back through the park, back through Haight-Ashbury, and made it back to the Orpheum Theatre. As I have already stated, I did not win the lottery. Oh well! Next time!