My City By The Bay

During the Summer of Love era in San Francisco there were many fantastic bands performing all over the city to include, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and the Papas, Janis Joplin and Scott McKenzie just to name a few.  There were also many songs recorded about San Francisco.  One of my favorites is If You’re Going To San Francisco by Scott McKenzie.  I found this YouTube video which captures him singing this song along with many local bands in the audience like Janis and Mama Cass etc…  Now mind you I was only a baby not really - I was about 11 during the Summer of Love when this video was taken.  I have to admit that had I been a little older during that era I’m sure I would have been one of the hippies around during that time.  Enjoy!

As promised, here is the short video I took of the California Street line Cable Car.  It was on that cold, rainy day after the jazz concert so there were not many tourists on board. Enjoy!

The Conservatory of Flowers located on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park boasts over 1700 species of plants native to dozens of countries.  There are potted plants, lowland tropics, highland tropics and aquatic plants.  The lowland gallery features economic plants we use daily such as vanilla and cacao.  The highland tropics hosts plants which are typically found in the 3,000 to 7,000 foot elevations.  This conservatory is one of only four in the US which features highland tropics.  The aquatic plants gallery features “Victoria Amazonica” which is the giant among water lilies. The potted plants are chosen for seasonal displays.  The gallery also features containers from all over the world.  

The conservatory is Eco friendly in that 2/3 of the redwood elements used in the original construction were reused.  The rest came from old buckskin redwood logs.  The building has 17,000 window panes made of redwood and douglas fir.  The structure is whitewashed to reduce heat load and light intensity.  It is the oldest wooden and glass conservatory in North America.  As a part of their pest management system, the conservatory uses geckos to help control pests.

The main entrance as you can see in the above photo is decked out for the holidays with a wreath and also Christmas trees.  As stated in earlier posts  the Golden Gate Railway Express Exhibit will be displayed at the conservatory through April 19, 2009. There is also a small gift shop on site which sells t-shirts and gifts.

I will have more posts over the next few days which will include information with video and photos on various plant species. Visit the website at http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org