Birthday and Golden Gate Park

To celebrate v's birthday, Friday, we drove up to San Francisco to visit the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, and to take in a show, War Horse.  

We don't always check out the view from the observation tower, but Friday we decided we would.  It has a 360 degree view of San Francisco.  The sun just peeked out briefly while we were up there.

We did get some sunshine Saturday morning on our way back through the park.  We were taking a drive I hadn't taken before so I was delighted to discover the  Conservatory.

The Conservatory was completed in 1879 and was patterned after the Conservatory Kew Gardens, in England.  The San Francisco Conservatory was a gift from "public minded citizens" to the city. I'd heard of this building, but had never seen it before.

Next to the Conservatory is the glorious dahlia garden.

We've, neither of us, ever seen so many dahlias. The colors are intoxicating.  Blood red to snow white. Tiny tight buds to magnificent giants with long spiky petals.

We'll leave you with these images for now.

In bocca al lupo. m & v