Saturday, July 9, 2016

Group 2

Ingrid Luk

Natalie Yeung

Sharon Lau

Doris Wong

Alicia Au

A San Francisco field trip was scheduled today. After a quick
breakfast, we rushed to the Memorial Church for a group photo
in the main quad before boarding the bus to take us to the exciting city of San Francisco.  After an hour long ride, we transferred to an open double decker tour bus.  Filled with anticipation and
brimming with excitement, it was hard to contain ourselves.   Under the warm California sun with the light gentle breeze brushing our faces, it felt heavenly. Our first stop was the
Golden Gate Bridge. To utter surprise, the temperatures suddenly dropped, the fog set and it became too windy and c hilly.  Much to our disappointment, we really couldn’t see the iconic red bridge and the sea beyond.  Nonetheless, we still took a lot of pictures at the vista
point and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  A tick on our bucket list!

Next destination was the
Golden Gate Park, built by John McLaren in
the 20th century.   The park is a favorite among locals for both
jogging and family outings. We drove past the Japanese tea garden where the
fortune cookie was first made. We also saw the DeYoung Museum of Art, whose façade was made of copper in hopes that it would rust to go well with the green colour around. We heard that previous SPCS students were lucky enough to go to the neighbouring California Academy of Sciences with a man-made  rainforest so realistic that
there is staff standing at the exit to pluck butterflies off people!
 Though it was a pity that we didn't get to spend time exploring the
park, we were still amazed by the interesting facts and wonderful
architecture of buildings around. Did you know that McLaren didn't
want his park to be full of statues, yet the government insisted on
placing them in the park. That's why he purposely placed trees around
the statues to hide them, and the last one was only discovered in the
mid 90s! Ironically, the government placed a statue of McLaren in the park in recognition of his
work and contribution. We would love to hear what the founder himself
would have said about this.

Moving on, we got a chance to ride through the city and learned about
its history. Much of this lovely city was demolished by an earthquake in
1906 and that is why the part of the city to the west of Van Ness Avenue
is newer than the east, since the east didn't survive the
earthquake and fire. The City Hall, the court, and Chinatown were all
visible and we have to say the streets in Hong Kong are quite
different from those in America. Here, the streets were sharply sloping and much wider.  On Haight St, a lot of vintage clothing, movie stores and cafes are found. There is even a building
with a pair of legs in leggings and red high heels sticking out! We
hoped that we would get an opportunity to roam through the
streets by ourselves but no such luck!  Much to our delight, the weather had by now improved, with warm sunshine and clear blue skies.  The sea was now glistening and people on the streets were waving to us.

Our bus tour concluded with a final stop at Pier 39, next to the Fisherman’s Wharf.  Being the second most popular tourist spot in California, it was bustling with tourists. This exciting place hosts a lot of cool shops, restaurants and even an aquarium with sharks, stingrays and
over 20000 fish!  There was also a farmers market selling juicy strawberries, mouthwatering peaches and apricots. The street performance of a magician, kids trampolining, and little children screaming in delight on the merry-go-ground added to the festive and charged atmosphere. We could also hear many different languages spoken around us.  Natalie and Ingrid even tried a shrimp and crab sandwich which they claimed was the best meal of their lives!
In a nutshell, although we were all tired after the trip yet, we had the time of our lives. Now its going to be the Monterey aquarium field trip tomorrow and we just can’t wait to go!