A Delicate Purple

Are you sick of flowers yet?  Good, I'm glad to hear you are not.  Imagine poor Katherine while I was taking all of these.  We had to make a rule, no more than five shots.  Enjoy, jon

Red Number Two

And not some weird dye either.  Enjoy, jon

Erica Blanda

From South Africa. Enjoy, jon

Red Flower

Perhaps red flower number one.  Wait and see more.  Enjoy, jon

Begin the Flowers

Due to the demands of school, I'm going to do about a flower a day.  If all goes well, this will knock out blog enteries for a good while.  If you have any, any, idea the scientific name for any of these, please tell me.  Enjoy, jon

Conservatory of Flowers

And boy were they conserved.  It being a Monday, when we visited, they were being conserved away from the public.  Much to the public's surprise.  It was hilarious, groups of people would walk up, look in the windows and sort of walk around aimlessly.  Sometimes people even held their kids up to the window. 

We were originally saddened by the closed on Mondays policy.  Then, we discovered there was a botanical garden just a short walk away.  So, be prepared, the following week or two will be flowers.  Just flowers. Maybe some kat.  Enjoy, jon

Row Houses

 

An example where knowledge of HDR and using my tripod would have come in handy.  You know, I carried that tripod every day.  And don't think I used it until the second to last night.  Of course, you could count when I accidently whacked that  wheelchair bound lady on the bus as "using" my tripod.

Fortunately, my always beautiful subject was with me.  Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a single good pic from this park.  Enjoy, jon

Asahi Super Lucky Cat Says....

Goodnight!  That's the end of full day three, day four overall.  Enjoy, jon

Little Boat

Perhaps the best meal we hade.  A late night trip to Isobune sushi.  Not to look down on the great ramen restaurant the night before. But, taking sushi off of little boats floating by is rather fantastic.

Each little boat had three wonderful dishes of sushi.  Grab what you would like, tally up the trays, then pay.  Its devilishy hard not to eat absolutely everything.  

You also have to snag the plate as soon as possible.  If you let a really good one pass, bam! Its gone.   I had to wait for a while to get a second chance at one of my favorite sashimi pieces, leftovers.   Enjoy, jon

Got 2 Co-mute!

As odd as it sounds, going by the mall was a pretty straight forward way to get back to the hotel from Golden Gate Park.  Market Street by Union Square is the end of many of the bus lines we were using.

Unfortunately, you gotta cruise around this neighborhood.  I was a big target for glad-handers and bums.  Walking with a dSLR and a map is not the way to go unnoticed.

 

Everyone was enjoying the holiday spirit.  Ice skating, winter bands, and a Israel protest.   The protest was a couple days later, but you get the picture.  Enjoy, jon

To the Mall!

And what a huge mall it is.    

Honestly, its the biggest mall I have ever been in.  Bar none.  Some sections were seven stories high, including a basement food court.  Just ridiculous.

 

The mall closed immediately after our arrival.  Which wasn't so bad, since I witnessed the mass exodus down North America's only curved escalator.  Enjoy, jon

Western Entrance

And all the way back to the Golden Gate Park.  What wonders.

 

After our long, loooong, walk we decided to get a beer at the Beach Chalet.  Located above the Golden Gate visitor center and home of some tasty micro-brews.  Herb said they were the best.  Herb was not aware that we have two micro-brews within a block of us.  Beer was good, food was better, cheers and a sunset the best.  Enjoy, jon

That's a Big Beach

Look at how tiny all those little Ocean Beachers are.  If only there was a way to make far away things appear to be closer.

Oh, look! And only twenty-five cents to boot!  To bad I had all I needed to see right next to me.

  

There she is again.  Its like she followed me around or something.  Wait, was I following her around?  Food for thought.  Enjoy, jon

Cliff House

Which is seriously lame compared to the Victorian monstrosity that it once was.  Fire once again ended that.

 

Certainly on a cliff.   We went inside, but didn't eat.  All we found was a cheesy gift shop. 

Perhaps it should have been a lighthouse.  As more than thirty ships have run aground just below.   Including one full of dynamite, which took a chunk out of it in the 1800's.  Enjoy, jon