Sunny New Year

As I write this, most of the world is already into what I'm sure we'll soon be calling the Roaring Twenties, whilst here on the West Coast we're still back in 2019. It's strange to watch the New Year creep round the world and eventually make its way to us.

Anyway, today we had an even more surreal experience as we explored Golden Gate Park on a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the low teens. It just didn't feel like New Year's Eve as we wandered through this highlight of San Francisco. The park is beautiful; bigger and quieter than Central Park in New York City, and boasting views out over the Pacific Ocean at the Western end. We walked the full length of the park as the sun shone.

We arrived at the park on the Muni, San Francisco's on-street light rail system (that's a tram to you, non-rail-fans). It's underground in places, and on the street in others:

Our first port of call was 2400 Fulton Street, where members of legendary SF psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane lived in the late 60s. We didn't see any white rabbits, but it's still a pretty cool house:

Yes, it's on a hill

Next stop was the Conservatory of Flowers, a pavilion modelled on Kew. Here was the somewhat bizarre experience of a field of wild poppies. In full bloom. On New Year's Eve.

A little further along is the De Young museum, one of the largest fine art galleries in the city, and home to an observation tower which gives views over the city and park. I thought it looked a bit like the giant computer Deep Thought in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It must have still been in the middle of that seven and a half million years of calculations, because it didn't have much to say.

"I think the problem, to be quite honest with you is that you've never actually known what the question was."

The Western half of the park is littered with a multitude of lakes of different shapes and sizes. One of these is Lloyd Lake, home to something which is now called Portals of the Past. In fact, this is the portico of a house owned by Alban Towne, a high-ranking official of the Southern Pacific railroad company. The house burned down in the fire which followed the 1906 earthquake, leaving just this portico, which was subsequently moved to the park.

Next up is Spreckels Lake, where you'll see a lot of model boats:

Before long, you're reaching the ocean, heralded by windmills. These windmills were used to pump groundwater back into the park to satisfy its irrigation needs.

... and across the road from here is the Pacific Ocean. It's New Year's Eve today; the lovely weather had brought out the crowds down by the sea.

San Francisco is a beautiful city, enriched by this fantastic and varied area of parkland. To see it in such amazing weather in the middle of winter was amazing.

So with this we herald the end of 2019, and the beginning of 2020. 2019 was an eventful year for us, full of unexpected opportunities - not least, moving out to the US. As you can no doubt tell from the blog, we're having a lot of fun and are looking forward to more adventures in 2020!