Vac Day VII - Fort Point & Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, Alamo Square, Castro etc.

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

It was chilly today, we proceeded to Fort Point after breakfast at the inn. It was so foggy, we couldn't see past 1/2 mile, maybe even less. What difference weather from previous day!

Upon reaching Fort Point, we could hear the foghorn every few seconds interval which sounded pretty eerie considering how old the fort was and the fog surrounding the entire area. It felt as if I was in a horror movie of some sort.

Cute hoh?

For some reason, we (more like I) spent quite an amount of time at the fort. I climbed all the way up to get a better view of the bridge. On my climb up, I bumped into one of the rangers on duty, which was scary because it was dark and he appeared out of nowhere. He was kind enough to shed some info about the fog and that the best time to visit SF when not foggy is end of September and throughout October! In the fog, he mentioned the bridge looked like a bridge to nowhere...

Almost about two hours later when we were about to leave, the fog looked like it was clearing up just a tad. We had few more places on schedule so we will be back later if time permits to take better picture of the bridge.

Next stop, just a few minutes away - Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratorium

Well, we just hang outside the palace and absorbing the view and the sun rays. I believe there's a fee (isn't that always the case) to go inside.

With a view like this and well landscaped and maintained garden, what better time for...

Qi-Gong to fight travel stress right in front of the palace

Papa said very good 'chi'

Mom and her flowers before we headed for the next stop.

Temple Emanu-El is next:

For us, not much to see lah, but according to the guidebook ni hoh, it's a major landmark. It was inspired from the 6th century Santa Sophia in Istanbul. With its red-tiled dome, Emanu-El is a Californian architectural hybrid, combining the local Mission style with Byzantine ornament and Romanesque arcades. 

Right across the street from this temple lies St. John Presbyterian Church, guidebook has no entries on this church but thought the architecture was nice, so took a shot also, the stained glass was kind of cool also.

Here are more Victorian or interesting looking houses/buildings along the same block:

But the most famous Victorian houses of all and also open to the public for viewing is... Haas-Lilienthal.

According to guidebook - this exuberant Queen Anne style mansion was built in 1886 for the rich merchant William Haas. Alice Lilienthal, his daughter, lived there until 1972, when it was given to the Foundation for SF's Architectural Heritage. It is the only intact private home of the period that is now regularly open as a museum, and is complete with authentic furniture. A fine example of an upper-middle-class Victorian dwelling, the house has elaborate wooden gables, a circular corner tower and luxuriant ornamentation.

A display of photographs in the basement describes the history of the building and reveals that this grandiose house was modest in comparison with some of the dozens of mansions destroyed in the great fire of 1906 :(

Lafayette Park is next on our list. According to guidebook, one of SF's prettiest hilltop gardens, Lafayette Park is a leafy green haven of pine and eucalyptus trees, although its present tranquility belies its turbulent history. Along with Alta Plaza and Alamo Square, the land was set aside in 1855 as city-owned space, but squatters and others, including a former City Attorney, laid claim to the land and built houses on it. The largest of the houses stood at the center of the hilltop... Weird, I walked along the perimeter of the park, didn't notice it also...

And the final stop for the day, one that I've been patiently awaiting for... Alamo Square or better known for the Six Sisters. If you still don't know what I'm referring to, just look at the pictures :)

If you counted seven, you are not wrong, it's just that the last building on the left is not the same as the other six on the right :)

According to guidebook - SF's most photographed row of colorful Victorian houses lines the eastern side of this sloping green square, which is some 225ft above the Civic Center, giving grand views of City Hall backed by the Financial District skyscrapers. The square was laid out at the same time as the pair of Pacific Heights squares, but it developed later and much more quickly, with speculators building large numbers of nearly identical houses.

The "Six Sisters" Queen Anne-style houses built in 1895 at 710-20 Steiner Street are good examples. They appear on many San Francisco postcards. So many grand old Victorian houses line the streets around Alamo Square that the area has been declared a historic district.

And here are almost all the other Victorian houses around the square:

Enough of Victorian houses yet?

Alright, next on our list was Civic Center lies the City Hall, Veterans Building, War Memorial Opera House, SF Ar Commission Gallery, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Asian Art Museum, SF New Main Library, United Nations Plaza and The Federal Building.

See Mom wanted to touch Buddha's hand for good luck...

Next stop: Castro Street -- According to guidebook, the hilly neighborhood around Castro St between Twin Peaks and the Mission District is the heart of SF's high profile gay and lesbian community. Focused on the intersection of Castro St and 18th St, the self-proclaimed "Gayest Four Corners of the World" emerged as a homosexual nexus during the 1970s. Gays of the Flower Power generation moved into this predominantly working-class district and began restoring Victorian houses and setting up such businesses as the bookstore A Different Light, at 489 Castro St. They also opened such gay bars as the Twin Peaks on the corner of Castro St and 17th St. Unlike earlier bars, where lesbians and gays hid in dark corners out of public view, the Twin Peaks installed large windows. Though the many shops and restaurants attract all kinds of people, the Castro's open homosexual identity has made it a place of pilgrimage for gays and lesbians. It symbolizes for this minority group a freedom not generally found in cities elsewhere. 

After we left this town, Mom said like didn't see any gay or lesbian people. Me and PCC , harrr got lah! So we start pointing out this gay couple hugging and kissing on the road side hhehee then she said mostly ang moh, not so many Asian, once again we pointed out got one Asian gay holding hands with his partner and pointed another older gay couple holding hands by the light kekeke

Finally, our last stop before dinner - Haight Ashbury St.

According to guidebook - Stretching from Buena Vista Park to the flat expanses of Golden Gate Park, in the 1880s Haight Ashbury was a place to escape to from the city center. It developed into a residential area, but between the 1920s and '60s changed dramatically from middle-class suburb to center of the "Flower Power" world, with a free clinic to treat hippies. It is now one of the liveliest and most unconventional places in SF, with an eclectic mix of people, excellent book and record stores and good cafes.

To conclude this post, here's our very own Flower Girl hehe

Parking in SF seems like they only permit you for one hour and a quarter only goes for 10mins, so you do the math for one hour. So we parked at one corner and split into two groups to venture off on our own. We met an hour later starving and ended up back in good ol' Chinatown to have some steaming hot food at a HK restaurant consisting of roasted duck and chicken, yam, one vege dish and I ordered porridge with pork innards YUM!