Today's focus was a visit to the DeYoung museum to see an exhibition of Paul McCartney photographs taken during the Beatles' touring years. One would never think of Macca as an accomplished photographer, but many of his pictures stand the test of time. (Note: His brother, Mike, is an accomplished photographer. So, a visual talent must also be in the family bloodline.)
- - - - - - -
The day started out with us waiting at the California/Mason cable car stop for a car which never came. Who knows why this happened, but we made the mistake of not walking down hill to California/Powell to where we'd get the cable car to Union Square where we planned to have breakfast. So, we waited a bit and I realized that SF Muni's directions had us walk to the next stop on the line (all downhill) where we'd be able to save time and get to where we wanted quickly.
Once we figured things out, we made our way to Sears Fine Food (a San Francisco restaurant that's been there forever) and had breakfast. Even though breakfast was expensive by NYC diner standards, it was well worth the money - the food was top notch, and filling. (If you're staying in San Francisco and you're in the Union Square area, Go There! You won't be disappointed.) While eating lunch, we noticed that we made a BIG mistake - we ruined the one day we could visit the Swan Oyster Depot. So, that'll have to be on the docket for our next visit to "Fog City".
We then walked to Mission street where we caught the bus to Golden Gate Park (and the DeYoung Museum.) It was crowded due to young folks going to an outdoor music festival. Both RQS and I got a picture of the group wearing Giraffe shaped hats. And soon, we were walking into the park and into the museum.
Although this exhibition of Macca's photos was in Brooklyn last year, I didn't have the chance to trek into Brooklyn to see it. When I heard that the San Francisco exhibition was extended to October, I knew this would be a must see while in the city - and neither of us was disappointed. The pictures told the story of Beatlemania in a way which few writers could put it - in the eyes of a Beatle. Once done with the DeYoung, we walked to the Japanese Tea Garden and took a lot of photos. (RQS wanted to see what she could do with her camera.) And all too soon, our bodies were showing their age, and we decided to return back to the hotel with a couple of stops in between.
Our original plan was to take the bus back from the DeYoung, then catch another bus to California Street, where we'd take the cable car home. (We didn't want to walk up any hills.) We ended up at the end of Van Ness, and walked over to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner at a place called Cioppino's. I figured that this would be a good place to get seafood for dinner, and I was right. If I had known that their signature dish was big enough to feed two people, I'd have suggested ordering that for $53.
From there, we returned to our hotel via the Market street historic trolley, and then connected with the California street cable car to bring us back to the hotel. When I looked at how much we walked today, I was surprised. We walked 4.6 miles! Not bad for a whale who travels on land....
