Another Fine Day in SF

Today was a day without Macworld. And I had a task to perform. We began, as we have done up to now, with a breakfast in this fine hotel. They put out a continental breakfast, with fruit and muffins, coffee, and so on. It is more than adequate, and we have used it to avoid having to go somewhere else for this.
After breakfast, I went out to see an artist whom I had met the other day at Union Square. He is from South Africa, Capetown actually. He does multi-media work about his homeland, and I found it quite compelling when I saw it in Union Square. I had been thinking about whether I wanted to buy something from him or not, and in the end thought I should see it again. He had moved his outdoor show to Huntington Park, which is not far from here, but is up a serious hill.




But I made it up there, puffing a bit, and found him. I was still smitten with this work, and ended up buying this piece:




I felt good, and the walk back to Joel at the hotel was all downhill.
So the plan for the day was to take the bus out to the Golden Gate Park, and go to the California Academy of Sciences. We decided to take the Number 5 bus, which involved walking down to Market Street, near the Powell Street station. While we were waiting, we were approached by a street person (actually, many came up to us, but this one was different). He had a street paper, full of poetry from the street, and I bought one to read on the bus. However, I didn't get a chance to read much, since the scenery this bus route goes through is quite marvelous. And it got us to the Park, so we had only a little way to walk.
As we crossed over to the Park, there was a concrete pad where many people with rollerblades were practising/playing to music. We walked by here, then went another block to get to the Academy itself. This place builds itself as the greenest building in SF,so I was interested if only for that reason.
After going through the African and evolution exhibits at the Academy, we went to the planetarium, and watched a wonderful show about the evolution of life on the Earth. Then went up and saw what they call the living roof, where they have set up not only solar panels, but also green plants that are growing there to absorb rainfall and cool the place (in San Francisco, a lot of the energy consumed goes towards cooling buildings).
Then back to the hotel for another social hour event there. We passed the skating pad again, and people were dancing together there as a group while on their blades. And on the main street in the park, there were walkers, cyclists, people doing tricks on cycles, families with strollers: people just enjoying the relatively warm and dry day in January.
We are now back in the hotel, working before we go out for a Thai supper which should be light and cheap. Tomorrow is just the morning before we subject ourselves to the indignities if air travel once more.
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Location:San Francisco, Post Street