Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair

Although I didn't wear flowers in my hair as the song suggested, I did visit on this day the most famous of San Francisco's neighbourhoods, Haight-Ashbury. San Francisco was the at the founding city of the hippie movement and on the corners of Haight (HATE) and Ashbury Sts. was where it all started. Ever since, the area has been a bastion of progressive thinking and counter-culture. Even though there's a Ben & Jerry's on the corner, the area has retained its hippie roots. Everyone who goes to San Francisco must visit the area both for its colour and its history.

Following my excursion through Haight-Ashbury, which amounted to a stroll down Ashbury St., I entered Golden Gate Park; a vast area of green space in the west end of the city stretching to the Pacific. I wandered through the large recreational area which included lakes, musea, gardens, a racecourse and many pathways. I searched in vain for the place which served as the landing site for the Klingon Bird of Prey in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. It is entirely possible that the grounds have changed in the intervening years, but if it's there I couldn't find it.

I feel as though I must have done more that day but I can't remember. I do remember that Golden Gate Park took up a great deal of time but it was a pleasureable experience. I must have gone to sleep that night contemplating the next day's adventures. One thing I will always remember was an exchange between a street car operator and a man while riding on a street car along the Embarcadero towards Fisherman's Wharf. The man, obviously a tourist, boarded with his family and even though the sign on the street car clearly said "Fisherman's Wharf", the man asked the driver, "Do you go to Fisherman's Wharf?", to which the driver replied, "No. We just have that sign to fool people." Everyone had a good chuckle.