A Day in the City
Wait...wasn't I already in the city? Yes, but this time there was a little more exploring, and I wasn't alone, which made it a lot better perfect.
The plan, which was made a few weeks in advance were to head to the city and see the Academy of Sciences, a place I happened to walk by my last time in Golden Gate Park, but not exactly know what I was walking by, and at the time I don't even think I had enough money to pay since I was just strolling through the park. Neither of us had been to the Academy of Sciences, so it was a new experience for the both of us.
The entire day was really an adventure for us, and the first one was getting to the city. There was always the choice to drive, but because parking in San Francisco is expensive it seemed smarter to take public transit and so we didn't have to find parking either. A little research found that taking bart, and then muni would get us there, there was about a 10-15 minute wait in between rides, but we ended up getting to the Academy at about 1:20 after a pit stop to get some lunch.
Its one of those places I would love to go back to, especially since I didn't take any pictures, which if you have ever gone you might think I was crazy. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to take pictures, it was more that at the time I rather take it all in, it was nice to just do sight seeing and see all the beautiful birds and butterflies in the rainforest/planetarium they had. The beautiful aquarium with all sorts of fish, and sea creatures like the sea dragon and the animals living on the coral reef. We wandered and explored all (or at least it seemed all) of the academy until it was closing time.
Afterward we walked around the park a little, walked by Stow Lake, where you can rent boats and ride along the lake. It was pretty but it took us a little into the park, and without a map of the park finding the street was a little difficult, I'm pretty sure we ended up walking in a bit of a circle before leaving the park, but hey it was a nice day, and the park still had a lot to see. Afterwards we ended up hopping on Muni and heading to Pier 39, our main goal was to see the seals, and since I had been to the pier what almost a year before I knew exactly where to find the seals. The sad and slightly disappointing thing was that there was about five seals out in their spot, five! It wasn't until a month later that I found out the seals tend to disappear during the summer months and return end of July/August. Why I didn't know this before I don't know, people should really tell you so you don't go looking for the seals and get disappointed.
Sorry a bit of a rant, we walked away a little saddened, but at least five seals were better then none. Since neither of us really knew the city well enough we kind of just ended up walking around. Some how we managed to hit Union Square, Washington Square and possibly China Town (I'm still not sure). After a long search, we finally found a place to eat in Washington Square, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal if it weren't for the fact that we ended up eating pizza for lunch and Washington Square happened to be a big Italian based part of the city (there was lots of pizza places), we went for sushi instead. We kept walking, enjoyed the city, and ended up taking the last bart train out, it was nice to not have a full car of people and just relax on our way back.
The plan, which was made a few weeks in advance were to head to the city and see the Academy of Sciences, a place I happened to walk by my last time in Golden Gate Park, but not exactly know what I was walking by, and at the time I don't even think I had enough money to pay since I was just strolling through the park. Neither of us had been to the Academy of Sciences, so it was a new experience for the both of us.
The entire day was really an adventure for us, and the first one was getting to the city. There was always the choice to drive, but because parking in San Francisco is expensive it seemed smarter to take public transit and so we didn't have to find parking either. A little research found that taking bart, and then muni would get us there, there was about a 10-15 minute wait in between rides, but we ended up getting to the Academy at about 1:20 after a pit stop to get some lunch.
Its one of those places I would love to go back to, especially since I didn't take any pictures, which if you have ever gone you might think I was crazy. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to take pictures, it was more that at the time I rather take it all in, it was nice to just do sight seeing and see all the beautiful birds and butterflies in the rainforest/planetarium they had. The beautiful aquarium with all sorts of fish, and sea creatures like the sea dragon and the animals living on the coral reef. We wandered and explored all (or at least it seemed all) of the academy until it was closing time.
Afterward we walked around the park a little, walked by Stow Lake, where you can rent boats and ride along the lake. It was pretty but it took us a little into the park, and without a map of the park finding the street was a little difficult, I'm pretty sure we ended up walking in a bit of a circle before leaving the park, but hey it was a nice day, and the park still had a lot to see. Afterwards we ended up hopping on Muni and heading to Pier 39, our main goal was to see the seals, and since I had been to the pier what almost a year before I knew exactly where to find the seals. The sad and slightly disappointing thing was that there was about five seals out in their spot, five! It wasn't until a month later that I found out the seals tend to disappear during the summer months and return end of July/August. Why I didn't know this before I don't know, people should really tell you so you don't go looking for the seals and get disappointed.
Sorry a bit of a rant, we walked away a little saddened, but at least five seals were better then none. Since neither of us really knew the city well enough we kind of just ended up walking around. Some how we managed to hit Union Square, Washington Square and possibly China Town (I'm still not sure). After a long search, we finally found a place to eat in Washington Square, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal if it weren't for the fact that we ended up eating pizza for lunch and Washington Square happened to be a big Italian based part of the city (there was lots of pizza places), we went for sushi instead. We kept walking, enjoyed the city, and ended up taking the last bart train out, it was nice to not have a full car of people and just relax on our way back.
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