Trip to San Francisco

My friend Lindsay and I decided to venture over to San Francisco on Labor Day. Our day started kinda late because we each had things to do and wrap up before heading out so we left Berkeley around 3:30 or 4 and jumped on the BART heading to San Fran. We had found out while at the game on Saturday, to be prepared for the cool evenings so we had packed some long sleeved shirts. We got off the BART and took the bus to the Golden Gate Park. While riding the bus, we passed through some of th e downtown areas or at least the shopping district. Basically all the stores we might see in a mall are lined up along the streets. It is definitely different seeing Abecrombie and Express and American Eagle not in a mall. At least for me, it was different. The bus driver was kind enough to let us know the museums and things were going to be closed in the park because 1) it was late and 2) it was Labor Day! Duh, we should have thought of that! But we took off through the park! The first thing we came to was the conservatory! It was this huge white Victorian building with a giganitic dome on top!

 It is like a great big greenhouse!I hope to go back there in the near future! To the south (i think) was this very large open area with flowers, trees, and people everywhere. It is what one might typically think of San Fran or New York City. People were riding bikes, walking dogs, roller skating, sitting under a tree with their significant other, people reading books, kids playing and a saxophone playing from the bridge! The grass was so green and bright; the flowers were unbelieveable! It was quite a site! We kept walking, trying to take it all in before it got too dark! We went by the DeYoung Museum. This is apparently a pretty well known museum. Right now a well renowned glass blower has his stuff on exhibit. 

We walked past it to the Japanese Tea Garden. 

We were able to get in to it. It is a garden designed with Buddhuist style. There was a great big Buddha statue, water falls, zen garden (the one with the tiny rocks), dwarf trees, pagodas, peace lanterns and much more. There was a beautiful waterfall and little ponds. In the middle of it was a tea house where you could have tea in the little teeny tiny cups and tea pots. I plan on getting me a tea set, since I love tea so much! But this place made you relax and take a deep breath. There was such a refreshing spirit about this place. It was so calming. We walked through a Rose garden after we left the tea garden. The roses were so pretty!

Then we decided we still had some time, we would go to the beach. So we got back on the bus and headed for Ocean Beach. We walked up and the beach seemed like it went on and on for ever! The beach was probably a 1/4 mile to the water and who knows how long on the shoreline. The sand was so fine! There were dogs playing catch, couples drinking wine as the sun went down, kids splashing in the frigid water, and the sun hanging in the sky! I rolled up my pant legs and went and splashed around for a bit but it was a bit too cold for me! Lindsay and I just sat on the beach for a while and then decided to walk on down the beach to just scope things out. Well as we were walking down the beach, Lindsay yells, "Oh no, we are in the middle of a football game!" So I actually take notice and sure enough there were two guys trying to play defense and two trying to play offense. Well Lindsay took off running out of the way and I stood there held up my hands and said, "I'm open, I'm open. Throw it to me!" So the guy finally threw it to me and I ran and scored a touchdown! Go Liz! So the guys all laughed and were like, "Well you know what this means right? You two have to play! We laughed and then said ok, sure! So we ended up playing some football on the beach! As we finished up the game, the sun was just on the horizon and the sun set was so beautiful! The sky was changing colors and the sun was right on top of the water! It was awesome! That was about it for this adventure to San Fran!


It was a great day!