Snapshots of San Francisco // The DeYoung & Japanese Tea Garden

Happy Wednesday friends! I hope August is treating you well so far!

Back in April, KC and I went to San Francisco for business and also vacation. During our days off we visited many cool places, some really neat ones being in Golden Gate Park. On this day we visited The DeYoung, an art museum, and The Japanese Tea Garden. Stay tuned for more, we did a lot! :)

*this post is a little grumbly, we encountered sub-par customer service that just really got under my skin* - but the pictures are pretty!

*I don't think that fur has any relevant place in modern fashion. Technology has made it where we don't need fur to keep warm. I don't agree with the fur industry whatsoever. I'm only showing photos of some of these outfits related to the exhibit for their design, and not their construction or materials.*

Eat: We were on a very strange eating schedule this day, so we had an "It's It" and a pretzel(?) in the park. The "It's It" is an ice cream cookie sandwich. The cookies are oatmeal and then the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. It was unique to us and so we decided to try it. It was really pretty good! We then went to Boudin and grabbed clam chowder and a sandwich. It was pretty good. Lots of people recommended Boudin to us. My chowder had a piece of plastic in it though... so... not great. We took a long nap and then had a late dinner. We wanted Mexican, because the food the night before had been so overpriced and not what we were hoping for.... so we went to Tropisueno. It was also nearish to where we were staying and the food, atmosphere, and margaritas were AMAZING! I loved it there. The margaritas were still $11 (yikes) but, they were at least a tall glass. :) So, so good. It's very near the Modern Art Museum (which was not open while we were there - but I would recommend over The DeYoung just based on our experience with customer service at the DY) and The Jewish Museum.

See: The Japanese Tea Garden, The DeYoung (if you think it's worth the price and rude (to us) employees - Maybe go to the Modern Art Museum now that it's open!). Also near that part of the park is The California Academy of the Sciences - which is supposed to be very cool. The park is absolutely GIGANTIC! So if you go, map out how far the things are you want to go to. We also visited The Conservatory of Flowers on another day - I'll share that soon, and we loved it. It was not at all close to these two things!

Shop: We visited the shop at The Japanese Tea Garden, and also at the DeYoung. The DeYoung was oddly unimpressive... and the cashiers ignored us for quite a while. Maybe we were having an off day... but we weren't very impressed with the folks at the DeYoung! :( The Japanese Tea Garden shop had some neat Japanese goods, tea sets, waving cats, origami inspired things, etc. It was fun to look at and pick up souvenirs there!

Do: See the gardens and museums in Golden Gate park. Specifically here we visited the Japanese Tea Garden and The DeYoung Museum.

Favorites: The Japanese Tea Garden (it was so lovely and bigger than the one we saw in Seattle), The painting Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf, The Mexican food and atmosphere at Tropisueno.

New Experiences: Seeing a fashion exhibit in an art museum, trying an "It's It!", wishing I hadn't shelled out the cash to visit a "cooler than you" museum (with sadly at least one very rude employee :( ), trying clam chowder, climbing a rounded bridge.

Random Tip: We did The MUNI passes in SF. We purchased them at a Walgreens near our hotel. They were $40 each with unlimited (bus, cable car, trolley, etc.) rides for 7 days. (does not include BART or anything that reaches outside the city) No one ever checked them, but it was cheaper than paying each time. After all the cable car is $6 each way!

Does anyone else get really tripped up by super rude customer service? :( 

Have you ever been to a Japanese Tea Garden?

Margaritas anyone?! :P

Other California Posts: Piers & Sea Lions, Japan Town & The Beats, Conservatory of Flowers & Mission, Stanford & Google, and Pacific Coast Highway! 

Happy Travels!

Alexandra