Justin took the day off, and Theresa made a master list of “things-to-do”
some of which were the typical things, and some of which were oddities. We all hoped in the car mid-morning, and
drove north about 50 miles to San Francisco.
Dave and Alex looked out the window with shock… “What is that? Is there
a fire?” The response from the front
seat, was a very relaxed, “Oh that… those are just clouds.” It looked like impending doom coming to eat
us from over the mountains… but apparently it was no big deal…
Our first stop was Lands End Lookout, with a walk along the
Coastal Trail, taking pictures along the way, to the Labyrinth. Once we
located the actual location of the Labyrinth, we all wandered our way
circuitously from entrance point to center.
After this, we worked our way back towards the car and headed towards “The
Spire.”
Alcatraz Island
Upon arriving, we realized we had seen this when we drove into San Francisco with Kevin and Sam, but at the time had no idea what it was. The Spire is a 90ft tall art installment of cypress tree trunks, created by Andy Goldsworthy. The 2006 piece is meant to celebrate the aging grove that was originally planted in the late 19th century.
The Wave
Organ was next on our list. After
parking the car, and making our way through a yacht club marina area, we found
ourselves at the acoustic art sculpture.
The Wave Organ was created in 1985, using PVC pipes and concrete, on a
jetty constructed of granite and stone from a demolished San Francisco cemetery. The pipes are located at varied depths to
allow a variety of sounds to be created from the waves crashing against and
into the pipes. The ideal time to visit
is high tide, and although that did not coincide with our visit, we were still
able to hear the sounds from some of the pipes.
Our tummies were beginning to rumble, so we made our way to Roam Artisan Burgers, with a quick drive by
of the “Painted Ladies,” or as Dave keeps calling them, the “three sisters.” We
had eaten here with Kevin and Sam, and since it was delicious the first time,
we had no qualms when Theresa and Justin suggested it. Last time, we both enjoyed the Tejano made
with grass fed beef (something about grass fed beef is oooh so tasty!). This time, Dave had the Heritage made with
beef once again, and Alex had a fantastic veggie burger with Tejano
toppings. French fries! Can’t forget the fries… they are cooked and
seasoned to a delicious perfection!
We moved the car once again, this time towards “The Owl Man.” Initially we thought this was something we
could tour, however, it turns out it is just a window in a private residence
filled with all sorts of owl collectibles.
The big find here, however, was NOT on our list. We happened to park in front of the Bi-RiteCreamery… so why not get some ice cream.
Dave enjoyed a triple dip of cookies-and-cream, coffee, and mint
chocolate chip. Alex enjoyed a scoop of vanilla
malt with chocolate chips and peanut brittle and a scoop of chocolate. Theresa and Justin apparently weren’t
concerned about getting kidnapped (see picture below) and shared a cone with a
scoop of brown sugar ginger salted caramel and a scoop of chocolate.
Despite the fact that we just finished eating burgers,
fries, and ice cream, we took a walk to the nearby Dandelion Chocolate. This
was an awesome place, and we would have loved to take a tour but the tour was filled
for that evening. Also, we would have
loved to have made a chocolately purchase, however, our bellies were still
quite full so we only had small samples.
We routed ourselves towards the Bernal Heights Mini-Park
Slides. This mini-park was tucked into
the hillside of a neighborhood with a pair of 35-foot long metal slides. We enjoyed a few trips down the slides before
a father and his kids showed up with something to make them even better! Wax paper!
They rubbed the wax paper all over the slides… WOW! What a difference! Now we were really cruising! Apparently, these are the 2nd best
slides in San Francisco. The best are
the Seward Slides,
but they were closed for the evening.
There is a gate that gets closed on the slides at 5pm each evening…
sadface!
The Mosaic Steps
were next! The 163 steps in the Golden
Gate Heights Neighborhood, were created and sponsored by the community. The stairs were awesome to see and walk
up. Dave was quite excited to find an
entire box of ramen noodles at the top.
We did not take them, we don’t know why they were there, but Dave was
stoked none the less.
Since it was getting later in the day, we had to cross
somethings off our list since they would no longer be open. We decided that a stop in Golden Gate Park
and a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge would round out our day.
We headed back towards San Jose, grabbed some pizza, and hung out on the couch watching The Italian Job… the namesake of the Theresa an Justin’s two black cats… Handsome Rob and Napster.
Funny/Not Funny Note: Justin hobbled around on a probably(definitely) sprained ankle all day. The injury resulted from falling out of bed in the morning because of a leg that had fallen asleep while sitting in bed.
