San Francisco: Around the Castro

26th – 30th July, 2013.

 

The primary purpose of our trip to America was to help with the preparations and of course to celebrate Laura and Arend’s wedding.  However, we still had time to enjoy many of the local sights.

Here is Pat pushing Zoe on our way up the hill to our apartment in Collingwood Street, in the Castro area.

 

Taking a break before tackling the hill.

 

On the walk from our apartment to Laura and Arend’s, at the top of a series of hills, there are many beautiful buildings to admire: 

 

 

It’s up hill all the way.

 

 

 

 

Pat on the Douglass Street steps.  There are pretty gardens either side of the steps:

 

 

 

 

Pat has made it to the top!

 

Not much further now!  There are succulents in many of the gardens along the way.

 

 

 

At last we can see their apartment.  It’s the one above the white one.  Not much further now.

 

Now we’re on Kite Hill, one of my favourite places.  It’s much browner than it was the last time we were here, and a few trees are missing, but the view is still stunning.

 

More of the view from Kite Hill.

 

At last we’ve arrived!  Here is the view from Laura and Arend’s balcony.

You can see straight up Market Street to the city.  To the right of Market Street  you can see the Castro Theatre, with its vertical red sign, and to the left of Market Street you can see the giant gay rainbow flag, symbolising the Castro.

The pointy building in the city, to the left of Market Street, is the Trans America Tower, designed so as not to cast shadows on surrounding buildings, and now an icon of San Francisco.

Mexican wine tasting party

Monday, 29th July, 2013.

 

Laura and Arend held a Mexican party for their families to choose wine for the wedding.  Sian had sculpted a Mexican skull themed fruit platter to set the scene.

 

Setting  up the wine tasting.

 

The tacos have arrived!

 

A big present.

 

Lake Tahoe to Hawaii.

 

Now that’s striking!

 

Zoe doesn’t have a very good view from here.

 

That’s better.

San Francisco: Palace of Fine Arts

Sunday, 28th July, 2013.

 

Plan A was that we would drive to Crissy Fields and take a walk along the beach towards the Golden Gate Bridge.  However, when we arrived, it was blowing a gale and freezing cold, so we walked inland instead.  Lucky Pat has two girls to keep him warm.

 

From where we were standing, Alcatraz looked suitably bleak and forbidding.

 

The Palace of Fine Arts could be seen from where we were, so we walked over for a closer look.

 

Originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo, to exhibit works of art, the Palace of Fine Arts was designed as a fictional ruin, inspired by Roman and Greek architecture.

 

After the Expo, most of the buildings were demolished. However, the Palace was so beloved that a Palace Preservation League was founded by Phoebe Apperson Hearst while the Expo was still in progress, and so it was saved from demolition. 

 

Originally intended to stand only for the duration of the Expo, the building was not durable, and by the 1950s the simulated ruin was in fact a crumbling ruin.  In 1964 the original Palace was completely demolished and reconstructed, and became home to the Exploratorium interactive museum, and the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.  Laura and Arend have seen Tim Minchin there.

Paul checks out the view.

“The Palace” is now a favourite location for weddings, wedding photographs, and wedding watchers, and is such an icon that a miniature replica of it was built in Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim.

Pedram checks out the steps.

 

Zoe slept through it all.

 

We then went and had dinner in a local restaurant, then Laura took us to a retro Americana ice cream parlour.  Is Pat going to eat both of these hot fudge sundaes?

Zoe in San Francisco

Sunday 28th July, 2013.

Zoe and Grandad.

 

Miss Mischief.

 

Zoe pats the sheep.

 

Zoe’s favourite page – the shaggy sheep dog!

 

A packet of tea is a great toy.

 

Noe Street – a typical San Francisco steep street.

Bachelorette Luncheon

27th July, 2013.

“Bachelorette Luncheon” has a much nicer ring to it than “Hen’s Party”.

 

Zoe does a spot of reading, while waiting for everyone else to get ready.

 

Zoe in her party dress, accessorised with a cardigan from Aunty Linda, fake shoes, a bib and a woolly hat. 

 

 

By one of those typically San Francisco surprising coincidences, we met up with Arend’s family on the way to catch the train.  Here we all are (minus the photographer) waiting for the train at the Castro Muni station.

 

The “Bachelorette Luncheon” was held in the Rotunda Restaurant in the atrium of the Neiman Marcus store, “perhaps the highest of the high-end stores”.  This building overlooks Union Square in a spot once occupied by the City of Paris building, constructed in the 1890s.  The enormous stained glass dome was retained – perhaps with Laura’s lunch in mind.

 

A very pleasant lunch was enjoyed by all.

 

Around the table:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoe wasn’t offered anything from the menu, so had to resort to eating her dress.

 

After lunch, we were joined by the men for a stroll around the “high end” shops around Union Square – Macy’s, Tiffany’s, Saks Fifth Avenue etc.

 

A cable car with obligatory step riders.  Don’t know that Workplace Health & Safety would allow this in Australia.

After the shopping expedition, the younger set continued on to dinner and partying until the early hours, while those who were older, pregnant or much younger, went home to bed.

California, Here We Come!

Friday, 26th July, 2013.

Anna, Pedram and Zoe, Paul, and Pat and I all arrived in San Francisco, on three different flights, within a few hours of each other, with Laura there to meet all of us.  Pat and I sailed very smoothly through the infamous LA airport – the event we had been dreading- only to have our connecting flight to San Francisco delayed by four hours due to a problem with air traffic control and fog in San Francisco.  You’d think they’d have learnt to deal with fog by now.

Feeling quite shattered after very little sleep on the flight from Brisbane, i threw dignity to the winds and stretched out on three seats in LA airport, (which involved threading my legs under a set of arm rests) and caught up on a bit of sleep there.

Laura has rented for us an absolutely delightful apartment in the Castro district – right near all the action.

 

Just to make us feel at home, there are flowering eucalypts near our apartment – but bigger and brighter than any I have seen in Australia.

 

The Angels’ Trumpets are flowering as well.

 

No, this one’s not ours, but it’s near by.

 

This house is very well shingled.

 

Abrupt grade change – yes, it drops away completely.  We’re walking out to meet Laura and Kirsty for dinner.

 

Here we are, having dinner at Barney’s.  Zoe is asleep in the pram at the end of the table.