Green & Blue - Nature & Ocean

Thursday morning started out with a great breakfast at the Inn, then we checked out the new Presidio Visitor Center, adjacent to the bus terminal. By public transport (a day pass goes for $ 5,70!!!), we took a bus to Lands End, with the once famous Suthro Baths (above), a popular water entertainment park created  in 1894 by Adolph Sutro, a self-made millionaire. Former Cliff House, once part of it, is shut down and we walked on along Ocean Beach (below) on Great Highway, which is now pedestrian and bikes only and goes under the name "Sunset Dunes Park". Unfortunately, it was cloudy and a bit greyish,,,

Next stop: Golden Gate Park, larger than Central Park in NYC, but not quite as old: It opened in 1870. T the same thing happened with the JFK Promenade as with the Ocean Boulevard: closed for car traffic. In addition, this route is much greener now, with seating and decorated with different artwork like the latest, „Naga“, a huge metal snake (far below). Promenade goes through GGP and passes the Academy of Science, the DeYoung Museum, the Japanese and Botanical Gardens.  

Academy of Science and deYoung Museum above

 

Haight-Ashbury below:

Walked on to Haight-Ashbury, the former hippie, flower-power, crazy neighborhood. Still a bit crazy (see photos above)! Visited the new Counter Culture Museum (below), just open for a couple of months and focusing on the 1960s countercultural revolution. Other "chapters" are   the civil rights, anti-war, modern feminist, psychedelic, environmental, and LGBTQ+ rights movements which all blossomed here in San Francisco during the hippie era.

 

 Fort Mason:

,,, and the view from there towards Alcatraz:

From Haight-Ashbury we took a bus down to Fort Mason, on the waterfront. Not much change there, but fantastic new gardens now open to the public: The Black Point Historic Gardens. The site was developed with gardens and pathways in the 1850s by early San Francisco residents in terraces on a slope. Offering striking views of the bay and city, connecting San Francisco’s Aquatic Park (pic below) to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) at Fort Mason. Below, some views from Black Point overview,,,

,,, and, the gardens themselves:

 Further up: another fantastic garden: The Fort Mason Community Garden - no wonder, the waiting list at the blackboard was sooo long! Views alone are worth the wait for a little flower/veggie bed.

What fascinated us most today: the self-driving, fully autonomous Waymo cars (below). Mostly electric Jaguars, with no driver in the car! They operate as Uber or Lyft, picking up passengers. We walked,,, and walked,,, about 10 mi/ 16 km at the end of the day.