A Day in One Place

Only drove about 20 miles today... whew! And we slept in! I didn't wake up til 9:50! At that point I thought we wouldn't be able to do both the aquarium at the Academy of Sciences and the free San Francisco Symphony concert in Dolores Park... but who knows, right? We went to Denny's for a big, late breakfast. Orange juice and create-your-own Grand Slams... pancakes, eggs, turkey bacon & chicken sausage... birds are much better than pigs!

The problem was, there isn't hardly any parking available at either venue. After some wandering about, we finally found the Academy and I dropped Mom off there so she wouldn't have to walk so much. The garages were full, so I had to find a street somewhere. Ended up going a mile away and then brought the two fold-out chairs with me as I walked back. I figured we'd go to the aquarium and then get a taxi to take us to the next place. Unfortunately, the coat check room at the Academy wouldn't take the chairs. But there was a stroller storage area downstairs at the aquarium, so it ended up working out.

The Academy had lots of other things besides their downstairs aquarium, including a planetarium and an enclosed rain forest, but I had really only come for the former, and we didn't have that kind of time. The place was crowded! You had to reserve a place in line for the planetarium, and by the time we got in (just after noon) they were only reserving for the 3 pm show. Yikes! So we went through the aquarium in about an hour (which was perfect timing). I was duly impressed, even though it was relatively small, because I saw things I've never seen before: an elephant fish? (from Africa - it has a really long snout) and what about fresh-water stingrays? Neat! They also had great exhibits of leafy and weedy sea dragons... some of my favorites!

So when we walked out the door at 1:25, a taxi suv was just pulling up. We got in right away and off we were to Dolores Park (letter C on the map). Couldn't believe it was working out! The driver let us off at 1:57, and the event started just as we sat down in our chairs! There were a few short speeches... (the Consul General of Mexico was there) this was a celebration of Mexico's 200 years of independence this year... and then it started. They played the Stars and Stripes Forever as an opener, and then four Mexican pieces: a dance, some native music, a famous waltz by a Mexican composer ("Sobre las Olas") and then a more traditional piece called "Huapango". There was a short, 15 minute intermission and then the New World Symphony No. 9 by Dvorak and then a final short piece that they let the audience choose by texting their favorite of two songs to a certain number. I have no idea how that works... :)


It was a two hour performance, and we were both very glad of it! Can't believe the wonderful timing! They said the last free concert they did was five years ago! It was also a comedy of errors though, because there were a lot of native San Franciscans all around us. There was a loud group with a guy wearing an Eastern European, blue, military officer's hat... and then there was the crazy lady who came during the intermission and sat next to me... and then the lesbian couple who took a nap right in front of us and were worried about their bottle of wine (they were quiet though!) and of course all the strange people who were going through the park (we sat on the other side of the main pathway). During the "New World" a lady who was collecting cans and bottles for money drug her bag along the concrete... lol! It wasn't quite like being in a symphony hall, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless! We could hear everything just fine and there was beautiful sunshine.

Immediately afterwords, we walked down Dolores St. to the cafe on the corner and had a very late lunch (4:30). And right across the street from that was the bus stop for the route that would take us back to our car. We had to wait 3 or 4 minutes and then it came. We needed a transfer, and when we got off back near the Golden Gate Park, we had to wait 2 more! So incredibly perfect! And this bus dropped us off outside the park about two blocks worth from our car! :)

And we got back here (in the same motel tonight) at an early 6pm for a slow evening. But now it's 10:45pm as I finish writing, and we have an early morning tomorrow as we set off east for Yosemite.

Jp

PS... this didn't get posted until Monday night because for some reason the Internet stopped working for me in the middle of this post. Had to copy to Notepad and paste back in (7/26).