After a restful Friday we were ready to be tourists again! So today we decided to go to Golden Gate Park as there are so many things to see and do there. We found a bus that went straight to the park along Hayes Street (number 21) but we just missed it so we decided to have a little wander up Hayes St. where there were quite a few nice looking restaurants and shops which we'll come back to another day.

We managed to catch another bus after running for it (lucky I had my new trainers on!) and even though Google Maps said it would take 30 minutes to get to the park it didn't feel like it took that long. Google Maps is so much more than just maps. You can get directions for travelling by car, on foot or by public transport which is brilliant as it will tell you which bus to get on and the schedule. However, I think the best part of the website is you can click and view photos of the route/area so you can get an idea of where you're going, which is invaluable if you have no sense of direction like me! This is why I get a little nervous going out without Steve (who seems to have an inbuilt compass) and I tend to stick to going to places I know or make sure I take the map with me!

Anyway, we got off the bus at Arguello Boulevard as we wanted to go to the Conservatory of Flowers first. The park is huge and there weren't that many signs but Steve managed to find the conservatory like a trusty sniffer dog! The park is really beautiful and you could easily just spend the day chilling out and having a picnic. However, we wanted to try and do as many things as possible so we went straight into the Conservatory which is modelled on the Palm House at Kew Gardens.

The Conservatory is split into sections: potted plants, lowland and highland tropics, aquatic plants and special exhibits. In the lowland tropics room it was really hot and humid to keep all those weird and wonderful exotic plants happy, but it was difficult to take photos as my lens kept steaming up! We didn't stay too long in this room as it was too hot, but really it was nothing compared to heat of the Humid Tropics Biome at the Eden Project!

We found all the different rooms interesting, not because we're horticultural experts, but because it was really good photography practice. In the first room we entered there was a spiky plant which had large water droplets and we both spent about 10-15 minutes trying to photograph the damn thing, but it was really difficult for the camera to focus in the dim light. After getting frustrated we eventually gave up and then I spotted a weird red star-shaped pod on a tree and tried to take a photo but yet again I couldn't get a picture which wasn't blurry. Steve managed to get a couple of good shots, which I put down to his height advantage thus he can get a better angle, but really he has a lot more patience and skill than me! He found a good combination of camera settings and because we have the same Digital SLR I set my camera to those settings and the rest of my photos came out great! Like my bro' likes to say, I have all the gear but no idea! heehee!

The special exhibition they had on was the Butterfly Zone which was really good as there were over 25 species of butterfly fluttering amongst the flowers. They were very photogenic and stayed quite still as they took hearty drinks from the lovely flowers. A few nearly got trampled on by an over-enthusiastic toddler who couldn't resist touching them after her parents encouraged her to do so, thus she nearly sent Steve flying as she chased after the poor butterflies. There's not much more I can say about the butterflies except that it was a cool exhibit - check out the photos, they speak for themselves really (unfortunately due to compression for this website the quality isn't that good).

We spent a couple of hours in the Conservatory so for $5 each it was really good value for money, especially with the butterfly exhibition. When we left the Conservatory it was lunchtime and we were getting peckish so found a nice bench and we munched on the bananas and popcorn we'd brought with us. It was so nice and relaxing to sit and watch people stroll by and be away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a while.

After our very nutrious lunch we headed towards the Japanese Tea Garden which wasn't very well sign-posted so luckily we had our map! We'd intended to go to the California Academy of Sciences too (as there's an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum and a 4-storey rainforest inside!) but when we walked past it the queues were crazy with school kids, so we decided to skip the hassle and headed for the Zen of the Garden. It cost $10 each to get in but we think it was worth it, but then we've always liked Japanese style gardens. As soon as we walked through the gates we were WOWed and it was hard to decide what to take a photo of first, because everywhere you turned there was an interesting piece of architecture or a beautiful foliage. I particularly liked all the flowing water which is typical of Japanese Gardens. There were 5-acres to explore so we spent a couple of hours just wandering around, taking photos and soaking up the atmosphere.

On our way out of the park we realised we didn't have any change for the bus and then Steve spotted a hog-dog vendor on the side of the road (JFK Drive, sort of near the De Young Museum). So we raced over and after perusing what I consider an extensive menu of hot-dog sausages (All Beef, Lemon Chicken, Louisiana and Bratwurst) I played safe and opted for an All Beef and Steve took a gamble on the Louisiana. For $4 each I was impressed with the size of the sausages (get your mind out of the gutter!) and mine was a very tasty, good quality frankfurter so I was very happy. We had no idea what to expect of Steve's Louisiana, so when he bit into it he wasn't expected the fiery heat of chili! He liked it though and didn't think it was that hot, but when I tried it my mouth was on fire so I'm glad I didn't order that one! However, it did warm me up as the weather was turning a little chilly. Anyway, the vendor is called Happy Belly and they live up to their name. They also have two other carts in Golden Gate Park: one at Stanyan (near Conservatory of Flowers) and all the way at the end of the park near Ocean Beach.

We hope to return to the park to see of the other things, but we've only got 5 weeks left and there's still so much to see and do!

http://maps.google.com/maps
http://www.sfgate.com/neighborhoods/sf/goldengatepark/
http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/
https://www.calacademy.org
http://www.happybellyfoods.com/