Had a delightful dinner tonight in the North Beach section of SF with my new friend, Malie. I met her through a friend in Atlanta via Facebook. So now back to my recount of the day...
After the Japanese Tea Garden, I had originally intended to hit some of the museums today as well, but with the temperature at 65 degrees and sunny, I just couldn't force myself inside. So I decided to go to the SF Botanical Gardens. I was lucky enough to join a docent led tour of the gardens. And learn some of the history of the area.
SF is at the same latitude as Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Italy - some of the major grape growing areas of the world - which is why California is such a great wine producing area. I learned that the gorgeous huge trees I've been seeing in parks around SF are Monterey Cypress and Monterey Pines. I got to see 2 different types of redwood trees. The Botanical Gardens were originally built on an area that was nothing but sand dunes. SF decided to build a park similar to Central Park in New York. So they flew out the guy who designed Central Park. He took one look at the sand dunes and said it couldn't be done, and flew back to NY. So they hired a 24 year old Army engineer who did the landscaping for the Presidio area. He used tons of horse manure collected from all around SF to enrich the sand and make dirt. He planted tall Monterey Pines and Cypress trees to form a natural wind break, and proceeded from there. Some of the original trees that were planted around the edge of the park still stand.
After the Japanese Tea Garden, I had originally intended to hit some of the museums today as well, but with the temperature at 65 degrees and sunny, I just couldn't force myself inside. So I decided to go to the SF Botanical Gardens. I was lucky enough to join a docent led tour of the gardens. And learn some of the history of the area.
SF is at the same latitude as Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Italy - some of the major grape growing areas of the world - which is why California is such a great wine producing area. I learned that the gorgeous huge trees I've been seeing in parks around SF are Monterey Cypress and Monterey Pines. I got to see 2 different types of redwood trees. The Botanical Gardens were originally built on an area that was nothing but sand dunes. SF decided to build a park similar to Central Park in New York. So they flew out the guy who designed Central Park. He took one look at the sand dunes and said it couldn't be done, and flew back to NY. So they hired a 24 year old Army engineer who did the landscaping for the Presidio area. He used tons of horse manure collected from all around SF to enrich the sand and make dirt. He planted tall Monterey Pines and Cypress trees to form a natural wind break, and proceeded from there. Some of the original trees that were planted around the edge of the park still stand.
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