page 13 of 15 of Travel to San Francisco – Amateur Traveler Episode 159 Transcript

Richard: Oh, God! Well, I don’t think you ought to skip Golden Gate Park, no matter what time of year it is. It’s just such a beautiful place to walk through, remembering, or trying to remember that it was once nothing but sand dunes. It’s hard to picture, even if you know that’s the case, but it’s a completely artificial environment. One of the ironies about San Francisco being such a densely built city, is that there’s far more vegetation and animal life in San Francisco today than there was before humans arrived.

Chris: That’s very ironic. Ok. It never occurred to me, but that makes sense. Interesting. And actually with Golden Gate Park, we should mention the newly reopened California Academy of Sciences is actually trying to give the Exploratorium a run for it’s money as one of the most interesting museums in the City. So that’s brand new, that just reopened this summer, and it’s been major renovations there and it’s definitely receiving rave reviews. I have not been there yet.

Richard: Nor have I. They were building that crazy giant sphere in the middle of it, the last time I was down there.

Chris: Right, exactly.

Richard: I couldn’t quite picture what was going to happen, I just read that – I think this is right – in the de Young museum right across whatever that place is called, the music concourse, King Tut is coming to visit shortly. I’m actually wishing I was in San Francisco just to see that! I missed it back in the early 80’s or whenever the last time he came to our shores but that’s a good reason to visit right there.

Chris: And the other thing that’s a sort of a perennial favorite, and I think definitely in the guide books, but I think there’s still a lot of people like it both from tourists as well as in the City, is the Japanese Tea Gardens in the Golden Gate Park, as long as you’re in that area.

Richard: Mm hmm, yeah.

Chris: I remember really enjoying that as a kid especially, because it looked so different from what I was used to.

Richard: Exactly, and, of course, there’s a historical angle to this as well. That tea garden is actually the place where the fortune cookie was invented.

Chris: Now I understand you’ll have some debate from that from someone from L.A., which will claim the fortune cookie also, but…

Richard: Well, I should appeal to the San Francisco ‘Court of Historical Review’ that has already decided officially that the Martini was invented in San Francisco, and so on and so forth. I have to do my patriotic duty here.

Chris: And I believe the Irish coffee was also invented in San Francisco, as the…

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