San Francisco Part 1

I spent the day in Golden Gate Park, only a small part of San Francisco. In fact, I only spent the day in part of the park. There are thousands of acres to explore and I only went to three different areas.



I started out at the smaller of the playgrounds. I enjoy swings and slides.


Redwood trees are a big part of the park's landscape.



After the playground it was time to visit the Japanese Tea Garden. This is one of the most beautiful tea gardens in the country, or so all the tourist books claim. It's believable.


The Japanese crackers, sesame cookies, and almond cookies were very good. The iced green tea, however, was really gross. It needed equal parts honey, but since a large part of my diet consists of sugar, sometimes plain things are hard to swallow.


Golden Gate Park is the largets urban park in the United States. My guess would have been Central Park in NY. I don't know if only the park is considered the total area, or if it includes all of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.


After I left the Tea Garden I strolled the to the Strybing Arboretum, San Francisco's Botanical Garden. With the flowers in bloom, it was very fragrant. This is a beautiful place for a picnic. There are many benches in the area where you can people watch or just take in the fresh air. Today was a beautiful day for SF. It's typically foggy and windy, but I really lucked out.



Certainly my favorite part of the Arboretum is the California Native Plants section.

I'm happy it was a beautiful day, but I only saw a small part of the park. Soon I will go back to visit the Conservatory of Flowers, the AIDS Memorial Garden, Stow Lake, Strawberry Hill, and maybe the Buffalo Paddock. I did drive up to the paddock today but could only see one bison way in the distance.