Today we decided to catch up on a few things that we had missed the other day when the wheelchair through a wheel so we caught the 38R then changed to 44 bus into Golden Gate Park, it seems that no matter what bus you get on here it always packed out or gets packed out very soon, luckily we don't have to suffer them for very long. When we got off in the park we walked round to Stow Lake that is teeming with all sorts of wildlife including what would seem to be hundred's of turtles. There is an island in the middle of the lake with a bridge over to it and a large waterfall that hasn't worked for many years I think, they use to pump water up to a reservoir near the top of the big hill on the island which is supposed to drain back down via the waterfall but I think the
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| Stow Lake Boathouse |
pump broke a few years ago and there's no money to fix it. It was nice to walk around the lake even though it wasn't that warm today but at least there is a café part of the way around and they even rent out boats but passed up on that one. after spending a couple of hours in the park we headed back round to the bus stop and caught the 44 again for a couple of stops to Irvine Street. This area is what a high street should be with lots of small independent shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs, one of the places I want to go in was Peasant Pies that makes sweet and savory homemade pies for 4 dollars each so dropped in there for a beef and potato pie while Jane had ham and egg all washed down with a coffee for less than 8 bucks. They even have a Radio Shack there and I thought they had all closed down a few years ago although this one was having a closing down sale but didn't have anything I wanted. Now it was time to catch the 66 bus for the 10-minute ride up some very steep hills to see the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project, these were created by the
local community and took a few years to complete but it was well worth it. The are many stairways within the city which are at the very basic footpaths that have been created over the years as shortcuts for locals residents and been in use for many years in most areas. Here they created something special with a mosaic tile work on the facing part of each step that forms a pattern when you look at it as you walk up all 163 of them. When I finally got to the top you cross the climb a few more concrete steps up to another road then climb the finally concrete ladder stairway to Grand View Park, it's easy to see how this park got its name as you get an almost 360-degree view over the city at nearly 700f feet above the Pacific Ocean. At this height and with the wind that was blowing the temperature felt like it was only about 6 centigrade or so, I even had to tighten my hat on my head as the wind speed was about 25 miles an hour up there but what a view. At the very top is a bench on an area about 40 by 40 feet to the summit is only small but I had it all to myself as there was no way Jane could make it up here. Back down at the bottom was a chilly Jane so we then headed a bit further along this road to The Hidden Garden Steps which is another set of tiled steps but gets fewer people looking at them due to the fact that they turn halfway down so you cant see the entire stairway in one go but at 143 steps there's not much difference in height and I would say that the artwork on here was better. So now it was back up this set of stairs to where I had parked lady Jane to get the bus back down which only run every 20 minutes. We had about a 15 minute wait as I had seen one go passed not to long ago but after standing at the line in the road and painted on the lamp post which marks the bus stop I remember I that we was stood on the wrong side of the road, for some reason the last couple of days I've done that two or three times, I keep forgetting they drive on the other side of the road here but I've not done this on previous visits to here or other cities in the US perhaps I'm just getting old.
Luckily the stop on the other side of the road was only a short walk but a little harder to find as this is just a small yellow line about 1 foot long painted in the road on a junction. Bus stops are strange here.
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| 16th Ave Tiled Steps |
Anyhow were only waiting about 5 minutes to catch one back but as there is no curb here the driver had to put the ramp out which are like a hydraulic drawbridge that folds out but even as though the bus was fully lowered it still didn't reach the floor so we both stood on it to bend it down, it didn't help that they are digging a large hole in the road here as well that a temporary steel cover on. Back down at the bottom we only had to walk around the corner and get on the N tram back into the city. The only trouble with getting off the tram in the city is that you have to use the mobile vertical toliets that they call elevators and stink of piss, some are worst than others but you don't push the button with your fingers. So now it was something to eat from Jimmy Johns and get some beer for the shop around the corner. Only two more days to go now before its time to go home. Click the album link for the full photo set as there seem to be lots of formatting problems in Blogger that they can't be bothered to sort out ever and this causes problems when adding photos by throwing the text all over the place. There will be full photo albums as well but the upload speed is just as slow as it is at home so the links to the albums get more added each day but this won't show on the notification so when a full album is complete I will post on the photo album page, I knew I put that page in for a reason. So until my next post tomorrow I shall say adios.
