Today was much cooler than it has been in SF. We went on the green line hop on hop off tour & although it was a single decker bus, it was still predominantly roofless. It was pretty chilly in the open as there was no sun. The tour took us through the Theatre District, the Civic District, into Golden Gate Park, the Haight/Ashbury District (hippie area), Japantown & Alamo Square. The driver/guide did not stop talking, ever. I'm sure he had plenty of interesting things to say but he didn't give us anytime to absorb his information. I do remember that a huge area of San Francisco is built on landfill, including just about all of Golden Gate Park. The trees & plants in the park were brought in from all around the world. We passed the other side of the park last night & could see and smell the eucalypts. The designer & original curator of the park was a grouchy Scotsman who had a flair & passion for plants. But he hated statues & whenever a statue was erected in the park he planted trees around it so it would be obscured. They believe there are currently up to 100 undiscovered statues in the park.
The Haight/Ashbury district was once the home of the hippies. It had many reincarnations over time but today is an area full of unusual people, vintage stores & trendy boutiques. Most of the stores were closed when we passed through here on the bus.
Alamo Square is famous for being home to the 7 Painted Ladies. These are the beautiful Victorian homes painted in at least 3 different colours to highlight their features. They are an iconic San Francisco sight. But, the driver told us that 3 weeks ago, tour buses were stopped from going into the area. You can understand the resident's frustration with 150 tour buses going up there a day & tourists peering at their houses. But, our bus on the night tour this evening went up there.
Because we didn't get off the bus anywhere, we were back at Union Square just after 11am. We decided to get the car out & do our own sightseeing.
Our first stop was the Walt Disney Family Museum. There was an unbelievable amount of memorabilia in there. The life of Walt & the Disney family was chronicled in letters, videos and photos dating back to the 1800s. I thought it was amazing that so many of the personal letters between family members had been preserved. We spent 2.5hrs in there but could have spent much longer. There was also the story of Walt's artist talent & his desire to be an artist but having to work at so many other jobs prior to finally making a living as an artist. He started his company with his brother Roy as the Disney Bros Company. Roy was the business brains while Walt was the creative genius. His first character was Oswald the Rabbit. Oswald was successfully turned into a cartoon & it became very popular. After being undercut by his middle man, Walt lost Oswald & the staff who used to draw him to another company. Walt had already been through bankruptcy so he let Oswald go. On a train trip with his wife, Walt thought about using a mouse as be thought they were cute & could do anything. He did a few sketches which became the first ever drawings of Mickey Mouse. Those original drawings were on display.
Mickey went through a few changes to look as he does today but his character never changed as he was virtually Walt Disney. Walt's wife Lilly once said you couldn't separate the man from the mouse. They were the same person.
Walt Disney was a pioneer of technological innovation in animation & movies. He worked very hard to develop sound & music for cartoons. Snow White was a huge project but was very successful.
Walt had a few hobbies - trains being one of them. He built a miniature railway all round the grounds of his home so he could ferry guests across the property. He used the same concept for Disneyland - people had to be able to get around comfortably.
The concept for Disneyland was conceived by Walt's desire to spend quality time with his children. He was involved in every aspect of the design & construction of the park.
Walt Disney won and was awarded a huge amount of awards & honours. Many of them are on display at the museum including an Oscar for Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs which has 7 small Oscars on it representing the dwarfs.
It was a very interesting museum & celebrated the brilliance of Walt Disney.
On the way back to the city we drove to Lombard St - the crookedest street in the world. It has one block that contains 8 hairpin turns. It was originally built like that to counteract the steep 27% grade. We parked at the top & walked down to the bottom of the bends. Then we walked back up & drove the bends.
We headed back over to the Haight/Ashbury district but it was difficult to park so we only had a short wander around.
We also drove ourselves to Alamo Square & saw the Painted Ladies. We should have looked up the address of the Mrs Doubtfire house too. It was nearby.
Tonight we did the night tour on the hop on hop off bus. It took us through some of the same neighbourhoods but also covered Nob Hill, the Embarcadero & Bay Bridge. This bridge is 5 times longer than the Golden Gate but doesn't get the same attention. To help give it some recognition, the city has covered it with the world's largest light installation. Over 200 000 lights adorn the bridge. There is a pattern passing though it which they say will never repeat itself for 10yrs.
It was cold on the bus tonight. It was also open air so we were back in thermals, snow boots, gloves & hats. Tomorrow is forecast to be cool again but sunny. Tomorrow is our last day in SF.