Monday was our big day in San Francisco. We had snagged a primo parking spot, just outside our garden apartment’s gate, which made offloading the vehicle pretty easy. Not wanting to give up that spot, we left the car there today, as we went walk about. In the morning, we headed downhill, knowing at the end of the day that we would have to walk back up that hill or take an Uber. We headed to Golden Gate Park, San Francisco’s version of Central Park or closer to home, Forest Park. Everything was so green. Probably because the marine layer was misting most of the morning. Our first stop was the San Francisco Botanical Garden, where with reciprocity, we got in for free with our MoBot membership. It was a beautiful garden, smaller and denser than the Saint Louis one. We enjoyed it until noon. At which point we headed south out of the park and snagged some lunch at “LaLe”, a cosmopolitan eatery, with some French flare, but also basic American cuisine. I had lunch with a chicken wrap, while Anne had breakfast with a Seattle frittata. Recharged, we reentered the park and headed to the California Academy of Science, because the art museum was closed and it was still cold out. We spent the rest of the afternoon there and closed the place. There are two huge spheres in the museum. We toured the first, which was a recreation of the Amazon jungle. The second ball was the planetarium, which we had a reservation for, but technical difficulties caused a cancelation of our show. I suspect that the marine layer clouded it over again. Which was just as well, because I was kind of scienced out by then and the museum closed shortly later. The museum also has a nice aquarium, which since we won’t be able to visit the aquarium in Monterey, was a good substitute. On the way back to our apartment, we stopped off for dinner at an authentic Chinese restaurant. We got their hot pots. The center of the table was opened for a foot diameter boiling pot of broth. Actually, two broths, one chicken, which we loved, but the other spicy, which was too much for us. We ordered about half-a-dozen ingredients to throw into the boiling pot. Utensils included one solid ladle for the broth and two strainer ladles to scoop up the ordered ingredients. We also each got a small plate and a small bowl, about the size of a cabin ice cream bowl. When we asked for utensils, we got chopsticks. It was a long and, in the end, very Weight Watchers friendly dinner, but also very educational. We did end up walking back up the hill to the apartment.
