Last day San Francisco

Tuesday - back on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into SF - this time determined  to get on the cable car - have tried previously, but queues way too long. Mission accomplished today so,  tick. Lots of fun & maybe worth the 6 bucks, the gripman (driver) quite a character, the cable car toils it's way up the hill, I think I can, I think I can & then down the hill, fingers crossed that the brakes work. From the end of the line, F line street car & 2 buses to the Legion of Honour, Lincoln Park, for art exhibition  "Intimate Impressionists" which is on loan from the National Gallery Washington. Most of the works are a bequest from a Alisa Mellon & her brother in the 60's. She bought the bulk of her collection from Impressionist collection of Parisian couturier Edward Molyneuxin in 1955, for $950,000! Imagine what the collection is worth today. Anyway the usual suspects, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Gauguin, really what a bonus...for me that is.
The Legion also had a Thinker, turns out there are many & even the one in Rodin's garden in Paris is  a cast also.....where's the original, one wonders?

From there back on the buses, not as easy as it sounds, when you don't know whether you are going north, south, east or west, but finally got to the "Painted Ladies" a row of Victorian houses in pastel colours which are synonymous with SF, & seen in the TV show Full House. Well 2 of them had curtains up & all I can say is that the pictures I have seen must have been tinted, as I have seen other rows of houses more impressive. Anyway the Alamo Square they are on is a lovely park with great views to the city & the walk there took me through the Haight - Ashbury area, which was where all the "love, peace & happiness" was happening in the 60's - and the atmosphere of the neighbourhood still exists today - great place for absorbing the same.

You wouldn't think that would take all day, but yes it did, so back on the BART & home to Chris's

Last day of my holiday & flying to LAX to get my Qantas flight tomorrow........sigh.

A last word on the States

- Light switches are upside down
- Toilets have a large reservoir of water (not just a bit down the bottom) can be quite disconcerting til you get used to it - also a cyclonic flush action
- Petrol is 87, 89 & 91 Octane
- Every hotel we stayed at (bar 2), had disposable crockery & cutlery for breakfast
- $1 bills are b annoying, you think you have a lot of money in your wallet, but it's all ones.

The gripman turning the cable car around

The Castro Theatre San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge from Lincoln Park, a better view than when I went over it

ANOTHER Thinker

Rodin's The Kiss, Legion of Honour

Yet more lovely old Victorians

The so called Painted Ladies, Alamo Square

Now, this is what I call a painted lady

Even these ones

Bambi on the Rossmore Estate where cousin Chris lives