San Fran Day 4: Golden Gate Park

Saturday morning we got our usual early start and caught the Metro to 9th and Lincoln, just outside Golden Gate Park where there was a Lunar New Year Flower Market at the Arboretum. The market was particularly cool because it had scheduled performances throughout the morning including San Francisco's Red Panda Acrobats, Vietnamese traditional dancing, and the West Coast Lion Dance Troupe. Ned thought the acrobat guys were interesting enough from vantage point on Baba's shoulders, and the Vietnamese dancers were beautiful. But nothing compared to the Lion Dancers. We had moved down to the front row and sat on the floor to be right in the midst of the action. I knew the dancers were getting ready outside, so I escaped for a few minutes--camera ready, of course--to catch the start. Outside I saw the guys getting inside their huge two-man costumes as the drums began pounding at a near-deafening level. The lions began weaving their way inside and I followed. I was so excited to see the look on Ned's face when she caught sight of them. She's such a lover of adventure and takes such interest in everything that I thought for sure the lion dance would be tops on her list.

Yeah, either that or they would induce terror that I haven't seen in a year. Score one for complete terror.

As I rounded behind them as they took to the stage, my eyes met Ned's screaming, tear-streaked face and outstretched arms. "MAMAAAAAA! MAMAAAAA!" I scooped her up from Dan and she clung to me for dear life for the rest of the performance. Occasionally she'd pick up her head to see what the lions were up to, but only for a second or two before burying her head again. I kept whispering in her ear, "There are Babas inside of there. I saw them when I went outside. There are two men inside each costume. Those are just costumes, like how Big Bird is a person in a costume." She wasn't buying it.

This performance was fantastic. Like, 'hairs on your arms standing up' kind of fantastic. After the show, the lion dancers were outside with their costumes allowing the kids to touch the huge lion heads. After a few moments of hesitation, Ned decided these lions were pretty cool and she pet them, looked inside their mouths and even pointed out to me that the men standing by the lion heads were just "Babas wear costumes. Ohhhhhh-kay! Yike Big Bird!" Yep, Ned, just like Big Bird.

Afterward, we roamed around the amazing San Francisco Botanical Gardens. These gardens are free (they are part of Golden Gate Park) and are absolutely huge and gorgeously maintained, mostly by volunteer effort as I understand it. It is so cool to see how much Nedy enjoys being outside and checking out plants and such.

We headed over to the de Young Museum sculpture gardens where this hilarious man showed Nedy this trick he does with his reflection in the corner of the building. She thought this was amazing and stood watching him for a couple of minutes before looking up at us with this huge smile.

The Japanese Tea Garden in the park is phenomenal. We roamed around for a couple hours here. Nedy enjoyed crossing all the small, irregular stone bridges ("Mama, be cau-ful! Danger, danger!") and even climbed up to the top of the steep Taiko-Bashi Drum Bridge. After all of our adventures around the tea garden, Nedy announced it was time for tea in the little tea house. Let me tell you, this kid loves tea. She drank a half pot of green tea by herself, being careful (or 'cau-ful', as it would be) to "not drink yeaves". She also enjoyed the fishy rice crackers and gelatinous dessert.

Our day was winding down, so we headed on foot from Golden Gate Park to the Alamo Historic District where the painted ladies surround a park. When we got there, Nedy woke up from her nap in her stroller and announced, "Ummmm...pee-pees. All wet. Happy no." Apparently, that half pot of tea went straight on through...through her diaper, through her pants, through her shirt, through her jacket and through her stroller pad...yep. Good times. So we changed her in the park--fresh diaper, pink "China suit", Mama's sweatshirt and Mama's raincoat still riding in the sopping stroller, only on top of her waterproof changing pad. At this point we headed back to the hotel to address the great leak. So we started walking. And we walked. And we walked some more. It's amazing how things don't look so far on a map. Ultimately, we walked from Golden Gate Park to our hotel at the top of Nob Hill. Keep in mind the train ride from the bottom of Nob Hill is about 20 minutes... But we got to see so much of the city--including the "not-so-rosy" parts that the guidebooks don't talk about. Ned is now very familiar with the ways of the indigent.

Eventually we made it back to the hotel. By now it was 6:00pm and we just didn't have it in us to make the 2 block hike to the laundromat and then sit there for a couple hours. (Two blocks here can be a hike, given the crazy steep hills.) So we did things "China-style"--which seemed so appropriate, given our upcoming one year familyversary--and washed everything by hand in the bathtub and hung it on Dan's ironing board and hanger drying rack invention in front of the heat vent.

And then we ate leftovers, watched Big Bird in China and went to bed.

Ned woke up this morning ready to go. "Airport! Home!" We're ready to hop our last cable car down to the train. Pictures when we get home. :)

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updated with photos!