Happy Independence Day America!!!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Another day busy exploring a busy San Francisco. We went through the ‘hippy’ area, the birthplace of the movement in the ‘60’s and home to many of the famous musicians of the time. It still has the hippy vibe.
m
We passed Golden Gate Park, a large forest filled area with trees from all over the world. Then it was back to Golden Gate Bridge for pictures.
We then explored the quaint and busy Chinatown, filled with shops selling everything from traditional herbs to giant size statues and to our delight pandas, pandas and more pandas. We had lunch in one of the Chinese restaurants.
We then ambled down to the waterfront, passing protesters outside the Department of Immigration – the big news since we have been in the States is the outrage of Trump’s immigrant policy.
The market at Pier 1 was amazing, with restaurants and shops with fresh produce. From there we caught a harbor taxi around San Francisco bay, taking in sights of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges, Alcatraz, fisherman’s wharf and docking at Pier 39. Here we wandered around the shops, being Independence Day, it was very busy with a festive vibe.
In the late afternoon the traffic was hectic, so we took a long, slow stroll back to our hotel, exploring as we went along. The good; murals, architecture and art work and the bad; again the desperate plight of the homeless around the Tenderloin District, who live on the cold streets. The Big Bus company, while I can appreciate that this is holiday time, the queues to hop on and off were seriously frustrating – they need to provide more busses or restrict ticket sales.
We celebrated Independence Day at the Waterfront Restaurant, overlooking the harbor, with views of the beautifully lit up Bay Bridge and we saw some of the fireworks over the bay.
Pandas in Africa 