3/6 - Parks, Homesickness and Farewells

This was the last day of our entire overseas trip, with our flight home to oz leaving at 10:40pm that evening.

Unsure of what to do with the day we asked the hotel desk clerk Tony, and he suggested we head out to the cliff house (a bus ride along Geary - the street our hotel was on), "stroll" down the beach, then take in some of the attractions in Golden Gate Park, before continuing on Haight-Ashbury, and then busing back. It sounded a good plan, so thats what we started with.

Once again the day was sullen and windy, particularly as we neared the beach area. We found the Cliff House to have a fascinating history - just before the turn of the 19th century being the site of a grand bath-house (don't think 70s San Francisco bathhouses!), but now an up-market restaurant and bar/cafe. When Maria attempted to order a cappucino she was misunderstood and given a cup of clam chowder... Who says Australians and Americans speak the same language?

The beach was wind-swept, a "dirty" grey (it is permissible to light fires on the beach...) and barren of all but a few intrepid/stupid souls like ourselves. As soon as possible we turned inland to the Golden Gate Park and sought to find the Japanese Tea Garden. What we failed to recognise was that the map we were using (the standard tourist map of San Francisco) so grossly simplifies that end of the city that the representation of the park is wildly inaccurate - missing most roads, misplacing attractions and most importantly not showing the true longitudinal size of the (heavily wooded) park - over 40 city blocks. 30 minutes later after floundering our way across (rather than down the park) we learnt of our mistake and realised we had a long walk (no public transport comes into that coastal end of the park) to get up to the "populated" end of the park around the garden and museum.

By the time we arrived at the garden, footsore and particularly hungry we weren't in a great mood. That was not improved after paying the entry price when we found that they served only tea and snacks (can you believe that they gave you fortune cookies in a Japanese teahouse...or that the "gift shop" was filled with "Chinatown items"?) So it was to the museum next door for lunch; then back to enjoy the very well designed (clever usage of space) and beautiful garden.

Having had our fill of the expanse of Golden Gate Park and it being early afternoon we decided to head back closer to the city - to "Japantown" (Nihonmachi). This is a 7 block (? of course its very artificial saying exactly how large or small these things are) area of the city dedicated to Japanese businesses and products. We spent something approaching 2 hours wondering through the shops and feeling very homesick ... for Japan. We even bought a few "souvenirs" of Japan. lol.

With the time of departure approaching we travelled back into downtown, tried to find a travel-strap for one of the bags in a shop, took a last ride on the cable-car, and had a hurried dinner at our favourite (if such a thing can be said after 2 dining experiences) just up the road from the hotel. Then back to the hotel to get our bags out of storage and some quick shuffling of contents (from the day pack we had been carrying) and our car to take us to the airport was already waiting...