San Francisco – Painted Ladies part 5

If you like parks and greenery… do visit the Golden Gate Park. It is an urban park similar to the famous Central Park in New York. I didn’t cover the whole park but I did visit some of the major features of the park. One of the more popular areas in Golden Gate Park is Hagiwara Japanese Tea Garden. If you have been to Japan then give this a miss as it is a typical Japanese styled garden. The initial gardener of the place was also the guy that invented fortune cookies in USA.

I spent most of my day at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (one of the largest in the west coast) playing with squirrels! If you watched the Amazing Race -All Stars… you will recall that this was the venue of the finish line!

The squirrels here are very friendly and pretty much used to being fed. I had some nuts with me and I was easily surrounded by an entire family! The trick is to offer them and wait for them to approach you.

Don’t try to grab them as their teeth are very sharp. They are generally gentle creatures that will grab the food of your hands before consuming it.

While there were a few regular ones… I wanted to share the nuts with the shy ones as well… so I left the nut on my lap and pretended not to notice when they approach to jump on my lap to eat! LOL…

Next up is Stow Lake on Strawberry Hill. It is a man made lake with a mini waterfall. The lake is ordinary but at some points you may see many birds gathering.

All flower lovers should visit Conservatory of Flowers. I was in the grounds but didn’t have time to go in! I heard the inside is similar to Callaway Gardens that I visited last year. You may take a look at the pictures of Callaway Gardens in my old post.

Out of the parks… visit the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood for some 60s flower power flavor! Rock lovers can view the houses of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin. The Victorian houses there are very quaint and the famous row of houses known as the Painted Ladies are also in this area!

Another neighborhood to visit is Castro District… the gay village. You can see the rainbow flag which is the symbol of the Gays… flying proudly.