Botanical Garden, Chinatown, Bus Tour

May 09, 2022

I took an Uber to the San Francisco Botanical Garden since it was over 5 miles away. It takes up 55 acres of the Golden Gate Park. It was the best weather day and I wanted to take advantage of it. There are several areas within, each showcasing different countries or types of trees and flowers. If you were to go once a month, you would see totally different things in bloom. I had bought some lunch items at a store by the motel and had a little pick-a-nik.

These trees were the most fascinating I have ever seen. They're a native of New Zealand and have these dangling aerial roots hanging from them. I tried to lift one and it was super heavy. I would tell you what I thought they looked like, but I'm sure you get it :)

I was as equally impressed with the succulent garden; everything is so huge. I had taken some of Mom's ashes and figured this was a good place to put them (last pic). She would have loved it there.

I got back to my room about 1:00 and had lots of time before the bus tour started and thought, heck I can walk to Chinatown and back in a short amount of time (one mile). I had seen something on TV awhile back about the Golden Gate Chinese Cookie Factory and wanted to see it. It's a tiny little shop located in an alley where they've been making the cookies by hand since 1962.

The walk wasn't bad at all but as soon as I hit Chinatown, I felt very out of place. I've never been to any Chinatown and the markets and stores selling all this strange stuff was unreal. I didn't go in to any because I didn't even know what I was looking at! OK I did go into one souvenir shop and bought a jacket.

Now to get back to the motel. I figured it would be easiest to just head to Pier 23 and then head to 39 and could figure it out from there. Part way in I realized that was stupid and more out of the way so I changed directions. I walked and walked some more and it was getting cold. I found myself in the financial district among the giant buildings like the Transamerica Pyramid. The foot traffic was more sparse and I was getting more confused and a little nervous. Finally I could tell I was close to Pier 39 and decided to eat there again because it was 4:30 and I wouldn't have time to go back to the motel.

I wanted to get to the bus by six but they had moved the stop and I barely made it. Oh man, I was so tired. This was a double decker bus tour that went down the Embarcadero, through Chinatown and the financial district. It made me laugh because I had just seen it all. The history was interesting though and then we crossed the Bay Bridge and stopped at Treasure Island to look back at the city. Although I wanted to ride on the top it was just too cold so the views were not that interesting. The sweet bus driver took my picture since I was alone but it was too cloudy and not dark enough to see any city lights.