Tuesday, March 12th
2013
Slow morning (again). I tried to speed
J. up with very mixed results. We left probably around 8.40 and were
heading to Stanford to get J.'s parking pass. We had to enjoy some
traffic (worse than I thought). J. made some phone calls. Stanford –
bunch of hippies on bicycles, stop sign on every corner – normal
stuff. There was a chick on roller blades in bathing suit –
strange. Probably less than five minutes. Left the campus, took 280
and could not believe the weather. It was supposed to be nice and
warm (like the day before). However, we were looking on the fog that
was all over the place. Traffic was just fine on 280 and we got to
the city without the problems. This time we even turned into the
Golden Gate Park (we missed the turn couple of times). Good for us.
Again, we had to drive a circle and
came back to the beginning to park. Luckily not too far from the
places we wanted to visit. First, deYoung Museum. And actually, the
sky was pretty much blue. Another nice day. We spent over two hours
in the museum, it was more interesting than the modern art one. Some
things were strange again, but the collection of the modern art was
limited. One section was dedicated to the photography from Iraq in
2001-4. It was really sad part (how far are we from the Medieval
times and yet we behave sometimes like the world would not change).
The museum had as well very extensive collections from other parts of
the World. Actually it was surprising how much stuff was there. There
were as well many paintings from 18-19 centuries (quite ugly people).
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Among modern art exhibitions was one
piece that stood out, it was a church (or cathedral) built from
bullets, guns and some other stuff. From the distance it looked like
a cool structure built really well. Looking closer you started to see
different pieces from guns, all the bullets and few other interesting
details (human spine inside, tooth above the door).
At the end, we took the elevator to the
observation tower. 360 degrees views of the city. Great.
We left the building and discovered how
much time we had spent there (surprising). We walked to the Botanical
Garden (still in Golden Gate Park). There was no fee (many places in
the city have a free day, and it was today). The garden was nice,
there were some trees and flowers in bloom and the day was really
beautiful. Still, most of the flowers was just getting ready to grow,
so it was not as pretty as it will be in a month or so. Still, it was
really amazing place so close to the city. We walked a loop around
the garden and enjoyed it very much. As we wanted to leave the city
before the rush hour, we (ironically) had to rush a bit.
Back in car. Really warm. Sunny. Nice.
We drove about 3 miles to the Legion of Honor Museum. That area
(Presidio) was partly covered with fog. It was strange. Relatively
easy parking and impressive building of the museum. There was Rodin's
statue (The Thinker) and two dogs (real one) tied to one of the
columns. If I remember correctly, there was no modern art. There was
extensive collection of Rodin's sculptures. Mainly paintings from
15th through 19th centuries. Some of the famous
painters from that period (Monet and Cezanne for example). Some older
paintings (Italian, 14th century) were some strange
religious themes. Still, I think we were some what faster (as we were
really getting tired). Glad we did it.
We got out and the fog was still
rolling around on the golf course. We took a small sight seeing drive
(the second part of the Golden Gate Park). J. was surprised as there
were bison in the park. Got back on our roads to head home (1 –
280 – 380 – 101). We left the city on time (the traffic was
already picking up though) so we decided to stop in San Mateo to
return J.'s books from library. We made it. There is a gas station in
the town with (generally) the cheapest gas around. It was 3.85 and we
filled up (even it was a hell, as there are always cars waiting).
Drive home. Another nice day.
