The Tiled Steps and The Japanese Tea Gardens

After visiting Alamo Park and the Painted Ladies, and later Ocean Beach, we headed in search of the Tiled Steps at Golden Gate Heights.  The Tiled Steps are an outdoor staircase, with a total of 163 steps, which climb the face of a steep hill.  The staircase was beautified with a stunning mosaic by the local community, the Golden Gate Heights Neighbourhood.  The steps face west, overlooking Ocean Beach in the distance.

The job was a collaborative effort, involving several groups as well as apparently receiving some public funding.  The project must have taken some time to complete.  163 steps, and Lord knows how many tiles on each step.  The design contains stars, flowers, fish, plants, birds, bugs and many other finer details.  It also contains the names of many people, no doubt local people and/or contributors to the project.  The broader images, covering many steps, are features such as the sun and its rays or the tentacles of some sea creature or ocean currents carrying a school of fish.

The project was a collaborative effort.

The Tiled Steps attract many visitors.

The local community of Golden Gate Heights took an otherwise boring, tiring staircase and turned it into a pleasurable work of art.

Here, some fish appear to be carried along by an ocean current.

Some of the finer details.

From the top of the Tiled Steps looking down...ultimately to Ocean Beach.

Jean's knee not currently being the best, she made no attempt to climb the steep Tiled Steps.  Once we were finished here, we went the short distance to the Japanese Tea Gardens.  One hot chocolate and iced green tea later, we toured the Gardens, which were pleasant and pretty.  We saw Buddha, Japanese cultural architecture, several plants that resembled giant bonzais, ponds with fish swimming, a circular bridge, Japanese maples, and other plants of various shapes and sizes.

Inside the Japanese Tea Gardens

Typical Japanese cultural architecture

A circular bridge

The Painted Ladies and Ocean Beach

San Francisco ought to be called 'DC' - 'Deception City'.  Before you leave your hotel, the Internet tells you it's going to be 17 degrees Celcius today.  So, out you go with a coat.  But when you're walking in the sun, you have to carry your coat because you feel very very warm.  Pedestrians in all directions also wear coats, hoodies, suits and wind cheaters of various kinds because, after all, this is San Francisco.  And it seems to change quickly.  When you move across town, a blue sky becomes overcast in the blink of an eye.

The Gay Pride flag - it contains all the colours of the rainbow....except violet.  The Gay Pride parade is happening on Sunday morning.  These flags fly on Market Street.

We headed down to Market Street, and caught a bus to Alamo Park.  We were in search of the celebrated Painted Ladies, a row of seven houses all built in Victorian times.  But we were disappointed because we really didn't see what all the fuss is about.  To make matters worse, two of the 'Ladies' had scaffolding on them.  I was much more impressed with some of the modern housing we saw a little later, and with the very smart-looking City Hall, which echoes London's St Paul's Cathedral.

San Francisco City Hall

Alamo Park - the row of seven houses left of the tall building at right are the Painted Ladies.

The seven Painted Ladies were built in Victorian times.  Note the blue sky.

I preferred the modern housing.  Note it's now overcast.

Some people take pride in their front gardens.

We took the bus from Alamo Park down to Ocean Beach, which is on the western side of San Francisco.  It had been a blue sky downtown and at Alamo Park.  By the time we arrived at the beach, the sky was bright but fully overcast.  We had thought maybe the beach might be worth a look, but there was nothing there.  We ate lunch in a nearby cafe, and soon made our way back up the hill.  

We did a lot of walking this morning, but took the bus as much as possible because of the hills.  Jean's knee has been playing up.  She prefers to climb hills rather than walk down them.  After we left Ocean Beach, we went in search of the Tiled Steps at Golden Gate Heights, an outdoor staircase beautified by a stunning mosaic (see blog post 'The Tiled Steps and the Japanese Tea Gardens').

Ocean Beach - the sand looked a little like it was mixed with volcanic ash.

After leaving Ocean Beach, we climbed upwards through the streets in search of the Tiled Steps.

An afternoon at Sausalito

We had a relaxing day today.  We spent the afternoon at Sausalito, across the bay.  Below are a few photos:

At Fisherman's Wharf this morning

A store at Fisherman's Wharf

We took a boat across the bay from SF to Sausalito.

At first, the voyage was all clear...

...but in a 30-minute ferry ride across the bay, you have four seasons.  In the background, you can't see San Francisco.

The approach to Sausalito

The road along the front at Sausalito

A scene at Sausalito

Some shops

A scene at Sausalito

The Golden Gate Bridge is frequently shrouded in fog, as you see here.  Cool air above the bay and above the ocean collides with warm air over the land.  It causes a lot of fog in San Francisco during the summer.

We came back to Fisherman's Wharf in the late afternoon.

Yosemite

Today we boarded a tour, leaving at 6.15 am.  Our bus, which included Singaporeans, a Korean and a Syrian couple living in Saudi Arabia among its passengers, passed through San Francisco, crossed the Bay Bridge to Oakland, and travelled through many districts.  One  area had many small rolling hills.  Another had a wind farm with 5,000 turbines.  

We  stopped briefly at 9.40 at Merced.  Around this area, there were many almond groves.  As we proceeded on, we saw strawberries, corn fields, and more almonds.  This area was very flat...like Holland.  Later, we could see the Sierra-Nevada Mountain Range approaching.  

Eventually, the flatness was replaced again by small rolling hills, heralding the approach of the mountains.  The hills became larger, and soon it was clear we were in the Sierra-Nevada.  The scenery started to become better, and we followed a little river.  At last, we entered the Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is within the said mountain range, and it is a part of the Stanislaus National Forest.

Jean and I had a pre-arranged lunch at a hotel within Yosemite called the Ahwahnee, one of those grand alpine lodges that includes logs and large blocks of stone in its construction, a hotel which costs around $400 a night and where the Queen also once dined.  The Korean also had a booked lunch, and he ate with us.

Our bus driver and guide, Bobby and Kimberley, were great and showed us several things in the park.  We were also allowed a few hours to do our own thing, catching the park's shuttle between various points.  We took the shuttle to the visitors centre, and later to the lower point of the Yosemite Falls.  At this time of year, the falls are nearly dried up.  While walking along a trail on the forest floor, we studied the cedar trees, the sequoias and redwoods.  The latter two are of the same family, and are the two oldest living things on the planet.  These trees can live for a few thousand years.

As we walked along the cool, quiet, shaded trail, suddenly I was aware that a deer approached from the left.  It crossed the path less than two metres in front of us, his nose on the ground sniffing for food.  We halted, took photos and video.  It was a really magic moment, and it made my day.  We saw a deer!

But oh dear, sadly, today of all days, my iPad stopped saving photos and video.  All I took today with the iPad is lost.  No footage of the deer, none from Inspiration Point, nothing.  And one photo which was particularly pretty is gone.  I realised this at lunch, and ditched a lot of old images in the iPad.  I then madly went out into the heat and tried to take as many pictures as I could.  These failed too.  We will go to an Apple Shop tomorrow.  Meantime, the photos below were taken using my phone.  Maybe these look OK on a big screen, but the ones lost were so much better.

We arrived back at our hotel at 8.40 pm, a 14 and a half hour day for us.

A visit to the Redwoods

This morning we toured the Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito.  Muir Woods and Sausalito are on the other side of the bay, north of the Golden Gate Bridge, which we drove over on our way.  Muir Woods is a nature reserve, featuring the giant redwood trees famous in this part of America.  

The redwoods grow to probably a couple of hundred feet high.  They appear proud and majestic, and shade the forest floor below, protecting the many wildlife that live here, including bats, chipmunks, wrens, and butterflies.  We didn't see any of these, but we did see three deer!

Just after 11, our tour left Muir Woods and drove to Sausalito, a houseboat community, where we had lunch.  We were only here a short time, and we decided we'd return another day.  Many fine restaurants, cafes, elegant shops and art galleries are in Sausalito.  A certain sailboat called Zaca, associated with the Australian actor Errol Flynn, was built here in Sausalito.

Around these parts, they care about the environment.

Redwoods have been on earth since before the meteorite killed the dinosaurs.

The sun manages to shine through to parts of the forest floor.

Redwoods climb quite high.

A redwood's life..

Inside the redwood..

A nature trail allows the visitor to stroll and absorb nature.

Some deer live here..

Large ferns can be seen..

The town of Sausalito, across the bay from San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge