No Dogs Allowed

Yesterday we had our carpets cleaned in the morning which left us with a very wet house that we couldn't really be in. Sean decided that this would probably be a good day to take off from his studies and do some sight seeing. Since the floors were wet we wanted to do something with Bella to get her out of the house so she didn't get dirty paw prints on our nice clean carpet. Why not go see the Red Woods at Muir Woods and do some hiking! Great idea right? Well, maybe not. As we got stuck in traffic on the way there we quickly learned that the long weekend may not be the best time to go to see the hot tourist destinations. Still we drove there to see what all the fuss was about. After not being able to find parking within a few miles of the park's entrance we also learned that there were no dogs allowed! Who knew!? With all the crowds and having to leave Bella in the car we decided that we would save this adventure for another day. Besides, without as much traffic as we faced yesterday, we are only half an hour away. We did get to see some great views of the bay though.

The day was still young so we decided to go to our back up plan which was to go to Golden Gate Park. We didn't really know what Golden Gate Park was but I have heard it on the radio quite a bit so I thought it might be a fun place to check out. It was also very appropriate that we got to see and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time on our way to the Golden Gate Park.

Once we got to the park we were amazed that had not heard more about it! It is huge! I just looked it up on line and it is 1017 acres! It is like Central Park but, get this, it is 20% LARGER! There were tons of gardens, tennis courts, soccer fields, hand ball courts, a museum, a concert hall, 3 lakes, a Bison paddock and tons more. Like I said, it is HUGE! Once we found a parking spot the first things Sean saw a sign for were the Japanese Gardens and this is what he was set on seeing while we were there. It was quite a walk but we were able to do some exploring on the way and we eventually found them. As we went to enter the gate, what did we see... A big old NO DOGS ALLOWED sign. Of course. Well, we'll add that one to our list of places that we need to come back to. So we decided that maybe just the plain old botanical gardens would be dog friendly. Nope. Again: NO DOGS ALLOWED. Even the Shakespeare Gardens did not allow dogs!
I don't think Shakespeare would approve of all this discrimination. Bella was sure not impressed. Oh well, at least we got to see some of the area and make a list of places that we definitely want to come back to. Since we were in San Francisco we decided that we may as well get some dinner in China Town. This time we just left Bella in the car. There are tons of restaurants in China Town but we learned last night that not all of them are good. I guess we need to do a bit more research the next time we decide we want to do some sight seeing. Even though we did not get to see everything we set out to see we really did still have a great day. It is always fun when Sean decides to take a break from his studies and I get him all to myself! It is funny how we can turn situations that could be disappointing into still having fun just because we are together. I sure do love my man... and my dog :)