Day 20 - Civic Center/Golden Gate Park

Made my way via public transport to the Civic Center which is where the San Francisco City Hall, Public Library and Courts are. I took a free guided walk tour where the guide told us some of the history of the area including the design of the buildings and what happened to them in the big earthquake.

One building in the distance he told us was built on top of a church by the church. They want to use it as a hotel to make more money this did not work however. The church sold the hotel to the Empire which then wanted to build a cocktail bar but there were laws against a bar being within a certain distance from a church. To get around this they ended up building one of the city's first sky top bars. These days the building is the dormitory for law students and the cocktail bar is now a study hall.

He discussed how the old city hall took a long time to build through various governments so the carpet would change between areas and there wasn't much consistency between areas so when it was destroyed they decided to redesign and rebuild it in a different spot.

We made our way into the City Hall building itself and it is a pretty awesome building inside and out. The gold leaf on the outside is reasonably new because its green copper roof was destroyed in a fire and the copper takes years and years to oxidize to green so the painted it with gold leaf to give it a shine immediately. The building hosts weddings/wedding photos on a daily basis. While we were there we saw one couple getting their photos and then I'm pretty sure there was a couple having their ceremony at the bottom of the staircase inside the building. Apparently there have been two murders in the building when one of the council got fired and had depression he snuck into the building and shot the mayor and one other person. He went to prison for 5 years on good behavior (he got of on the Twinkie defense, the sugar made him crazy or something) when he got out he moved back to San Francisco and ended up committing suicide.

After the end of the City Hall tour I made my way to Golden Gate Park where I had booked myself in a 2.5hour guided Segway tour around the park. We started off

with a training session, as this was my first time on a Segway I was a bit nervous and was a bit shaky to start with. Not long into the tour I did have to hop off my Segway as I lost my balance on a tight corner turning on to a path that had a slight camber. Other than that minor hiccup I did enjoy the Segway. As a side note they all had names and mine happened to be called 'Chuck Norris'.

We went around some of the different areas of the park and our guide explained some of the history and how some of the areas came to be. The only native plant that is in the garden is actually on top of the roof of the Academy of Sciences. We went past the Shakespeare Garden which is name after him as all the plants in it are mentioned in his sonnets or plays. Apparently it is quite a popular spot to get married. It costs $300USD to book and then $100USD per hour with a minimum booking of two hours.

They have an area dedicated to Arizona and have created a miniature grand can yon which was kind of cool but obviously not as grand as the real thing.

The superintendent of the park for 53 years disliked statues and animals in his park and would often plant trees etc around statues so they could not be seen. He was given a statue of himself for one of his birthdays much to his disgust. He actually hid it away behind his garage. It was discovered three years after his death and now stands in a space in the park.

Golden Gate park is bigger than Central Park in New York City in size but receives less visitors over a year. It is also the location of Hippie Hill which has a small tree named after Janis Joplin. It is said that the tree was planted for her and she would climb the tree and play her guitar and sing.

We had tea at Boudin Bakery on Fisherman's Wharf which is known for its sourdough bread. I had Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. Then we went to Ghirardelli Chocolate Company and had a hot fudge sundae. Ghirardelli was founded in San Francisco but is now owned by Lindt.

Looks like an early morning tomorrow so check-in later.