Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Amtrak Adventure 2019
South of Market to Golden Gate Park
Fol
lowing the established start-of-day routine for this particular
visit to San Francisco, I set out to do a solo walk south of Market
Street, as Bruce continued his working day. I had been hoping to see
the continuation of the Embarcadero to the southeast of the Ferry
Building, i.e. away from Fisherman's Wharf. I walked via Ellis and
4th to the Caltrain Station, and found most of the 4th Street
section to be fairly skanky. In fact it brought to a head some
thoughts that both Bruce and I had been having ever since our
arrival a few days previously.
Many large cities have a homelessness problem and San Francisco is no exception. But over the thirty-odd years that I'd been visiting the city, I had previously noted a very definite improvement. Not this time, though! Not only were the numbers up massively compared to last time, but many of the homeless people seemed to have serious mental health issues, which sometimes made for a less than comfortable environment for the visitor. (And I immediately acknowledge that the issues faced by such people make visitor discomfort pale into near-insignificance - unless, of course, it gets to the point where potential visitors choose to stay away.) It was as though a large number of people, who had formerly been in some kind of care, had now been dumped onto the streets.
I actually gave up when I got to Oracle Park, and boarded an N-line Muni tram back to Powell St. Imagine my surprise and dismay to find that the hitherto down-at-heel area was almost immediately transformed as the light-rail vehicle proceeded above-ground for the initial part of my short journey. (As you'll see in tomorrow's diary entry, however, all would soon be put right!)
I got back to base for the end of Bruce's working day at 1pm. We
both rode the N-line this time, as though continuing my earlier
journey, this time alighting at Duboce & Noe in the Lower Haight
district. Beautiful homes abounded as we proceeded a little bit
north and then mainly west. It was difficult to imagine how this
could be anywhere other than San Francisco. After crossing
Divisadero Street and passing the north end of Buena Vista Park, we
entered Haight-Ashbury, birthplace of 1960s hippy culture.
Having worked up an appetite by this stage, we enjoyed an
enormous Mexican burrito lunch at El Rancho Grande on
Haight Street.
After lunch, we continued west and soon reached the eastern end of the truly enormous Golden Gate Park, which is to San Francisco what Central Park is to New York. We initially saw the National AIDS Memorial Grove, just off Nancy Pelosi Drive. (It seemed a little odd to me that this very much still active senior politician was already being 'commemorated'. Perhaps 'hono(u)red' is a better word, whichever way you spell it!)
The
next notable area of the park was the so-called Music Concourse,
featuring a Beethoven statue and Spreckels Temple of Music. This
quickly led us to our main objective for the afternoon, the hugely
impressive de Young Museum. The modern building contained some
fantastic spaces, with beautiful presentation and lighting of a
varied collection of fine art.
When our visit to this excellent museum eventually drew to a close, we walked out of the south side of the park to pick up the N-line again at 9th & Irving. We once again got off at Duboce & Noe, having approached the stop from the opposite direction compared to earlier. This time, we walked southwards to Bruce's old neighbourhood when he last lived in the city, the Castro. The late-afternoon sunshine provided ideal conditions in which to walk around for a bit before enjoying well deserved drinks at two venues.
Later again, we headed back to base for a late Japanese dinner across the street from the hotel.
