Celebrated Dawn's birthday Saturday. Left home around 10:00 a.m. Stopped for to-go coffee, scone, and morning bun at Companion Bakeshop Westside Santa Cruz. Weather: sunny, blue skies, comfortably warm. Dressed in light sweaters and tee shirt and pants. Drove up Highway 1. Cut across at Half Moon Bay to 280 North--was distracted a bit by music and had a few hiccups getting to the northbound onramp.
Saw the Flintstone House. Reconnected with Highway 1 near Daly City. Waze directed us away from congested traffic, so we tracked Highway 1 in parallel on 15th/16th/17th for a stretch, passing Stern Grove. Reconnected to 19th/Highway 1 at some point and entered Golden Gate Park. Dropped off the car at the Music Concourse Parking Garage (Underground).
Emerged by the de Young Museum. Walked short distance to the Japanese Tea Garden. Purchased tickets via the mobile app. Waited in line with others. At the ticketing window, the attendant looked up our tickets digitally using our name and waved us through.
We've visited once before. The pagoda was enclosed in a white, opaque protective plastic barrier. Originally "constructed for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 and brought to the Garden at the fair’s conclusion. Built as an indoor structure, it has not fared well outdoors."
Koi fish kept to the shadows of bridges and overhanging grasses. The atmosphere was relatively calm but touristy. At the tea house, we ordered matcha with a wagashi (traditional Japanese confection) of mochi and red bean paste, as well as an order of dango which came with two types: 1) Goma (black sesame); and 2) Anko (red bean). The tea house also sells mitarashi dango (sweet soy sauce syrup). We also bought warabimochi, another wagashi confection, "made from warabiko (bracken starch) and covered or dipped in kinako (sweet toasted soybean flour). It differs from true mochi made from glutinous rice."
Mochinut SF location was next--"a donut that originated from Hawaii which is a combination of American doughnuts and Japanese mochi." We ordered five types of donuts--one of every type they had available in the display case: 1) Churro; 2) Smore (with graham cracker and marshmallow on top); 3) Strawberry Cheesecake (with three popped popcorn kernels on top); 4) Strawberry Funnel; and 5) Ube. We also ordered a Potato Half & Half hot dog (half mozzarella stick, half hot dog, with French fry bits on the outside), and a mango Izzy drink. The Mochinut location looked a bit tired. Food was decent. Donuts were the best; don't think we'd order the hot dog again.
Across the street, we noticed a block-long wait to get into Pineapple King Bakery.
We spent the rest of our afternoon walking back across Golden Gate Park. Decided to skip the San Francisco Botanical Garden due to time. Other sights: 6th Avenue Skate Park, Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park Tennis Courts (playing pickle ball, looked like), San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, Sharon Art Studio, Koret Playground, Carousel, Big Rec baseball fields--where we watched drunk teams playing kickball with red cups in hand, and a small dog chase crows. We stopped at the SkyStar Wheel and got a frozen fruit bar and strawberry mint tea while Dawn's knee took a rest.
That was it--12,000 steps roughly. Uneventful drive home--did note driving over the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).
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