San Francisco Day 4

Our last day in San Francisco and we finally made it over to the Legion of Honor. I’m not really big on art museums – I overdose very fast – but I enjoy them in small doses. Ken was interested in this one because of their collection of Rodins.

The day dawned pretty much like the last with a heavy fog.

Fog enshrouded Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum

Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker with another extraordinary thinker. But Ken claims that “No, I’m the thinker!”

Inside we looked at their porcelain china collection and chuckling when we saw chickens (family joke for Ken). Then on to the Rodin collection and a bunch of other things I no longer recall.

When we left the museum, it was still foggy (marine layer again) but we headed toward the coast anyway. We stopped at the overlook to the Sutro Baths but didn’t bother hiking down to them. This landmark was an entertainment complex built in 1896 and burned in 1966. It was going to be demolished anyway, so the fire just hurried it along.

Sutro Baths from the overlook. Still not a lot of wave action

We continued down the coast and entered Golden Gate Park near the Dutch Windmill. This windmill and another one were originally built to supply irrigation water to the park plantings. They were subsequently replaced by electric pumps and were almost destroyed by neglect. This windmill was restored in 1981 and the other in 2012. We didn’t tour either one, just stopped for a photo op.

Ken’s trusty Charger in front of the Dutch Windmill
in Golden Gate Park

At this point there was some talk about lunch, but I suggested we skip it and head down to the waterfront for an early supper instead. So we headed over to St. Mary’s Cathedral. This is the third St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. The original building of the first is still standing and is now known as Old St. Mary’s. The second building was destroyed by arson in 1962. This third one was finished in 1971. It’s a very modern design and decidedly different than any I’ve seen before.

Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption

Main entrance

The nave

The Baldacchino by Richard Lippold

The Shrine of the Pentecost

The Shine of the Crucifixion

After this it was back to the hotel for a bit of downtime, then off to the waterfront again. We debated taking the cable cars to the Cable Car Museum but the lines were just as long as they were Saturday. I didn’t feel like waiting an hour to get on a car and only have about a half hour at the museum before it closed. So we walked on.

Next item to pique our interest was the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. The government shutdown was now over so the National Parks were open again so we walked in. Things were still chaotic since you can’t just flip a switch and everything runs immediately like it did before closing. I couldn’t figure out where the office was so I couldn’t pick up a brochure, but there were sufficient signs out on the dock to tell us what type of vessel we were looking at. For whatever reason, neither of us took any pictures so that’s that.

We continued walking up Jefferson St and, after looking a couple of menus, settled on Cioppino’s for our supper. Food was decent, prices touristy but OK, and the outside street scene fun to watch.

I deliberately chose a fairly light meal (crab cakes & salad) because I wanted to stop at Ghirardelli's for desert. We had walked past it each time we went to the Buena Vista Café, but I was too full to have any interest each time. This time, I made it the priority. I ordered the salt caramel/dark fudge sundae and Ken got the Black Forest sundae.

Ken dipping into *my* sundae instead of his

I’m too busy figuring how to post a picture from my cellphone to dip into his

After that desert, we waddled on back to the hotel and called it a night. Thus endeth our time in San Francisco. My overall impression? A great place to live if you’re young but it must be very difficult for the elderly or disabled.

 

[written 12/21/13 – somehow I missed this day during the trip write up]