An Admirable April Adventure: Golden Gate

On Wednesday, 10 April, we headed up I 80 over Donner Pass for the golden hills of California. It happens that in April, those oak-studded hills are emerald green! Our destination was the de Young Museum in San Fancisco's Golden Gate Park. Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring is on display while its home in Holland is under renovation and expansion. The painting is, of course, all you would hope it would be, and the de Young is filled with great art and artifacts. The Japanese Garden is cheek to jowl with the museum and the refreshment carts are nearby.

Reno sunrise

California here we come!

The de Young Museum

I could have used a photo of this 

Philadelphia highboy before I retired

Mother and daughter with John Singer Sargent

A very fine Stickley

Carla Sue posing with a very nice Maynard Dixon

Golden Gate Park out the window

Not a taco truck, a samosa truck

Japanese Garden

Azaleas in full bloom

The troops admiring a Japanese lantern

Pagodas and gates

Marin County and the Golden Gate Bridge was our next stop. In all the times I have been to San Francisco, I have never crossed the bridge, so this was a treat.

GGB

The City beyond the bridge

Cargo ship passing through the Golden Gate

We went for a view

A late-afternoon visit to the Palace of Fine Arts was next on the agenda. It is great that this architectural treasure was rebuilt and preserved so we can enjoy it. It was originally built for the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915, but was only intended to last a year. The Beaux-Arts structure was transformed in the 1930s and 1960s from wood and plaster to steel and cement using the original molds designed by Bernard Maybeck.

Late-afternoon light

Posers

Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts

Our final stop before heading south to Palo Alto was Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill. The present Gothic structure replaced a 19th-century church that was destroyed by the great earthquake. It was started in 1928 and completed in 1964. The front doors are a copy of the Ghiberti doors on the baptistry in Florence, Italy.

 Episcopal Cathedral

 Anska Danska and the Ghiberti Doors

Two graces descending the steps of Grace Cathedral

There will be more to report, but that's all for now.

OXO

D.