It was great to have a chat with Keith and Mike this morning on Facetime and lovely to see the house and Monty. Everyone was fine and it puts my mind at rest that they're all OK! We had toast for breakfast, with lots of coffee and after showering we made our way back down to the City College bus stop to catch the number 43 which would take us to Haight Ashbury.
The bus was almost full this time but wound its way through some lovely residential areas and some very steep hills! We got off the bus at Cole which is where Sophie wanted to go as she has a strange interest in Charles Manson and really wanted to go to the house where he lived in the 1960s.
We'd actually passed it on the bus so we re-traced our steps and found it.
Next up was coffee so we crossed the road and queued up at a quaint little coffee house, but there was only one member of staff working so we gave up and went out onto the main Haight Street to see if we could find a place. The street is very colourful and everywhere we went we could smell marijuana and incense. A lot of the shops weren't open yet but we did find a cafe called Sparrow where we ordered a Capricorn coffee (me) and a herbal tea for Sophie, accompanied by croissants and jam.
The morning had started off cloudy but the sun had now come out and there was a brisk chilly wind blowing through the door of the cafe. It was very enjoyable, though, and Sophie said she wanted to find a thrift store or vintage shop to look for clothes.
There were several to choose from but if we thought we were going to pick up bargains like we had in Naples, we were very wrong. We went into a couple and the prices were similar to what you'd pay on the High street. In another, the designer vintage items were hundreds of dollars, so we quickly gave up on that idea!
Sophie seemed uneasy on Haight Street, saying she didn't like the atmosphere.
This really surprised me as I thought she would be in her element here! I have to agree there was a weird kind of atmosphere, though, and there were some pretty strange shops (and people) about. There were a couple of Tibetan/Himalayan shops with strong aromas of incense wafting about and lots of vintage themed places. We did find a lovely little place selling memorabilia and gifts called San Francisco Mercantile and I bought a mug to replace my Celebration one, while Sophie splashed out on some earrings.
We walked along the street in the direction of Golden Gate Park and went into a Whole Food store that Sophie felt comfortable in! Here, there were a lot of people doing their weekend shop and the prices matched the clientele - we saw a bottle of beer for $30 and there were some beautiful fresh food counters.
Opposite was the entrance to Golden Gate Park and the atmosphere changed completely. Families were out playing soccer and there were numerous groups of people who looked like they were celebrating children's birthday parties as they had food set out on picnic tables and balloons everywhere.
The road running through the park was stuffed full of Audi SUVs, Mercedes and numerous, to Sophie's delight, Teslas. She had never seen so many and loves the cars!
We walked through with throngs of people (listening to Californian conversations) and made our way to the Japanese Tea Garden which is right in the middle of the park. There was a queue to go in and we had to pay $18 on my credit card, no cash!
The money was worth it though as the Tea Garden is beautiful and around every corner was a gorgeous view.
There were lovely streams and little ponds full of Koi carp and sweet stepping stone bridges. There was also a very steep bridge that Sophie climbed over!
Before leaving we went to the teahouse and enjoyed Japanese teas and a selection of biscuits and Fortune cookies.
Our teas looked like urine samples, but they tasted nice and it was heaven to sit and relax and people watch for half an hour!
We left the Tea Garden and walked out of the park past the De Young museum which had a showing of Monet paintings. This area was beautiful and there were lots of palm trees in front of the museum. Opposite there was something going on as there was music and people milling about in the sunshine.
We had to find the 44 bus as we wanted to go to Steiner Street and see Mrs Doubtfire's house. We finally, managed to work out where we needed to catch the bus and alighted on Filmore, so we had to walk back a couple of blocks.
The house is on the corner of Broadway and Steiner and the hills were mega steep! This part of San Francisco is utterly beautiful with grand houses lining the quiet streets and the views over the bay were gorgeous! We had to go down a very steep hill to get to the house and there was a gaggle of girls outside taking photographs. It looked different to me, but then it was filmed over 20 years ago!
We stayed awhile admiring the views and then climbed back up the hill. I was glad when it levelled out and I wouldn't have fancied driving, to be honest!
We walked back to the bus stop through a neighbourhood of beautiful houses and little shops and cafes. A branch that seems popular is Peet's Coffee so we might have to give it a try before we leave.
We got back onto the bus and rode it until it stopped, right by the piers. The plan was to have an early dinner and then get the BART back to the apartment. We crossed the road and looked at a couple of restaurants but they were on the expensive side - $28 for fish and chips - so we decided to head back into the city to find somewhere.
We had strayed into the Financial district so there was very little choice, unfortunately. By now, we were a little weary and hungry and getting fed up so after wandering around for far longer than we should have, we took the BART to Powell.
The shopping district was packed with people but there were very few restaurants and one was horrendously expensive! The main courses were all around $30 so we made the decision to head back on the BART to our apartment and get dinner at the nearby Safeway. Not really what we'd had in mind!
We took the bus and it stopped just outside Safeway. Inside we bought some fried chicken tenders, mashed potato and a salad that turned out to be one of the most delicious we'd ever eaten! We also bought two bottles of white wine so the meal turned out to be lovely even though we would have preferred to have been waited on and not done any washing up!
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