Japanese Tea Garden, De Young

January 2014

Golden Gate park has a small Japanese Tea Garden and the weather was so perfect it was nice to be outside.

Even though it is not a large space, the garden has everything.

 flowers in bloom

This specially commissioned bridge which is almost impossible to climb over.  I'd kind of like to know more about why that is.

 All of the trees are carefully trimmed and sculpted-from the info placed around the garden I think some of the trees are ~150 yrs old.  I love that there are people dedicated to the beauty of trees.

then rocks in the Zen garden are perfectly in place

The flower paintings are on the ceiling of one of the pagoda arches.

A good time was had by all!

We ate at The Moss Room-fantastic atmosphere, great food and service.

with goat cheese, apples and beets-yeah salad!

 Ginger cake

chocolate and peanut butter

The reason we went to the city was to see the David Hockney exhibit at the De Young.  It has had a big splash because he is showing a lot of his recent art, some of which is made with 'new media', meaning iPad and video.  I would have preferred a slightly different presentation.  There were rooms with just the paintings, and then just the videos, and then just the charcoal drawings.  He had a focus on a specific spot in England, done in all the different media, which I would have like to see next to each other.  I liked the look that he got out of the iPad, so much so that I would like to see IKEA turn them into prints.

Of course no photography of the exhibit, so the only photos are from the 9th floor observation room. On a clear day this is a fantastic place to see the city and beyond.

The living roof on the Cal Academy of Sciences

Coit Tower and the bay.

The bridge and the headlands

and the ocean.

Thanks to Kahn and their relations who instigated the trip!