Golden Gate Bridge and Park

Day 292 – San Francisco, USA

Today dawned bright and clear -I had checked the weather before buying a two-day ticket for a bus tour-, so I hurried back downtown.

But first, I went grocery shopping for breakfast and sandwich makings. The decent grocery shop proved to be a fair-trade, organic, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free paradise; shocking at first, but as they happen to believe that decent prices go with fair trade, I get similar prices than shopping in a decent supermarket back home.

I bought swirl bread, which wasn’t due to its shape, as I later found out, but by the swirl of dark bread in the white bread. You know, like a chocolate-vanilla marble cake, but with dark and white bread.

I had a very judgemental moment when the grungy/hippy couple in front of my paid for their fair-trade/organic/vegan/gluten-free/dairy-free groceries with food stamps (a government-subsidized food program for low-income families). Bad of me, I don’t anything about their circumstances.

My sandwiches ready, I went back on my hop-on, hop-off bus for the rest of the loop.

I made a stop at the Palace of Fine Arts, a building originally built for the fair celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, and later rebuilt in concrete when the original wood and brick construction got too old.

San Francisco – Palace of Fine Arts

I had initially thought to walk to the start of the Golden Gate Bridge from there, but it was definitely too far! So I took a few pictures from afar and got back on the bus.

San Francisco – Golden Gate Bridge – See how beautiful a day it was?

Since I didn’t know if I would get again such a bright day, I decided to walk back from the other side of the bridge. So I crossed again on the bus, ate my sandwiches on the other side, took some time to read… and the next thing I know, when I look up, this is what I see:

San Francisco – Golden Gate Bridge

Fog rolling down on the bridge! Out of nowhere! I decided to still cross it, thinking that it could still be fun, in a different way.

On the way I took a lot of pictures, details, cables disappearing in the fog, that kind of things… you can see them here.

I could here foghorns blaring regularly, some from boats, but some from the bridge itself.

I could also smell occasionally marijuana, it is a common smell in the city, and one I don’t care about.

Did you know that the bridge was named for the straight it straddles, and not for its colour (International Orange)?

Once out of the bridge, the sunshine was back! I took a -regular- bus to get to the Golden Gate Park. It took me a while to realise I took it in the wrong direction, but I finally got out, crossed the street, and waited for the one going where I wanted.

The park is huge, but I wanted to visit the Tea Garden, a Japanese garden (where you can buy and drink tea).

San Francisco – Tea time at the Tea Garden with macha cheesecake.

There were stone lanterns, flowers, carps, and of course a bridge… a beautiful, round bridge, to make Hobbits proud.

San Francisco – Tea Garden

I had just enough energy left after that to stop in a supermarket in search of tea. I was out of Earl Grey and any of its close associates (Lady Grey…).

First, the tea assortment is so small that it isn’t even mentioned in the overhead signs. It’s only because it is traditionally next to the coffee that I saw it. Since the selection was paltry, I thought the real tea offer would be further on… it wasn’t.

I came back an finally found some Earl Grey stuck between lemon-ginger and English breakfast tea. I am still traumatized (three more shops later) by the lack of proper tea selection in this country.

Coffee of course reign supreme with endless choices, but coffee, as they say, is not my cup of tea.