San Fransisco/Berkeley - Final day!

More sightseeing happened on Monday!  Dana, Henry, and I went into a different part of San Fransisco and saw more interesting sights!  We went to Golden Gate Park, which, interestingly enough, is not by the Golden Gate Bridge.  We walked around inside the park, and visited the Japanese Tea Garden. It was peaceful and lovely.  Also a bit expensive.  But mostly lovely.

Me, Dana, and Henry at the Japanese Tea Garden

I asked if we could walk to Alamo Square and see cool old Victorian houses, so we did.  There were so many awesome houses on the walk!! I loved seeing the old Victorians.

Alamo Square

It was an excellent trip, beautiful weather, fun sights to see, and great to spend time with good friends.  Also Dana cooks really good food! I can see why people want to live here.

San Fransisco/Berkely continued!

Dana and I spent Sunday exploring a bit closer to home.  Her neighborhood is basically built into the side of the mountain.  We walked down the hill to the Claremont Hotel, a fancy club/hotel in Berkely.  Then, we walked back up. Then we were exhausted. 

Beautiful eucalyptus grove behind the Claremont.

After lunch we went to the Redwood Regional Park.  It was amazing! We hiked all over, and the trees were just beautiful.  It was a really refreshing change from the Tucson desert.

San Fransisco/Berkeley!

For the long President's Day weekend, February 13-16 I went to San Fransisco to visit Dana, my friend from here in Tucson, who moved to Berkeley in December with her boyfriend, Henry.

It was great seeing Dana and catching up with her, and we did tons of stuff.  On Valentine's Day, February 14th, we did tourist stuff in downtown San Fransisco.  We started off at Fisherman's Wharf, where we got tasty heart-shaped sourdough rolls.

Alcatraz

Golden Gate Bridge from underneath!

We walked along the waterfront all the way to Fort Point, which is UNDER the Golden Gate Bridge.  The walk was lovely, it was a beautiful day, sunny, not too hot or cold.  Along the way, we stopped at the San Fransisco Maritime National Historic Park.

Captain Dana of the Balclutha!

We got to board really cool old boats, and we chatted with some guys restoring an antique boat. We also stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts, and walked around the impressive outside greek-temple-esque structures which were built to celebrate the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915.

You can't even begin to tell how large and impressive the Palace of Fine Arts really is.

Palace of Fine Arts

 Fort Point was really cool, too. It was built just before the Civil War, and was the only fortification on the West Coast. It never saw any action protecting America.

An artistic shot from Dana - The fort had passages leading around spiral staircases.

Looking across the courtyard of Fort Point to the lighthouse and Golden Gate Bridge

 After that we walked up to the Golden Gate Bridge, and then went back to Dana's house in Berkley.  From her balcony, there is an amazing panoramic view of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and San Fransisco. And the sunset was absolutely beautiful.