Golden Gate Park and the Conservatory of Flowers

These photos are from way back in November. Devon and I finally got a day off together and enjoyed rambling around Golden Gate Park and checking out the Conservatory of Flowers - which neither of us had ever been to before! I haven't been in the springtime so I don't know how many things are normally in bloom, but there were a surprising amount of tropical plants blooming (mostly orchids) and all kinds of weird-o green plants too.

Here's an embarrassing picture Devon took of me - but I love the background and want to do some portraits there! Anyone up for it during the month of portrait craziness? :)



The beautiful Conservatory of Flowers:



I love the way the stained glass window's light flits over the tropical plants in this photo:



Careful Devon!



The exhibit's theme was "color" - can you tell my favorite was yellow?







I loved the odd framing of this plant:



Devon helping me envision using this little nook as an engagement shoot spot:



These flowers look like candy! Maybe I've seen one too many wedding cakes.









It was nice to be all warm and steamy in there... could've smelled a lot better though.





I hope Dev forgives me for posting this less than flattering photo of him peeking into this weird, slipper shaped carnivorous plant:



More pretty flowers:



Wandering through the park:



Oops, there's some trash! Very cleverly concealed.



Is anybody else getting excited for the reopening of the newly greened Academy of Sciences?! I was so bummed when they tore it down (having many wonderful childhood and field trip-ish memories of the place), but the more I hear about it, the cooler I think it will be!




Here's the amazing architecture of the new De Young museum, once again:








I love going up in the observation deck - and the secret is (shh!) that if you hit the museum at I think about 4:30 (a half hour or hour before closing), you can go up to the deck (always free), look around at the magic hour of the sun sinking over the city, and then go into the museum itself for free! You don't get a lot of time, but they open it up as free after they close the observation deck at 5 or so, and you still have maybe a half hour to take in the latest exhibits. I love it!





This is something that reminds me of how powerful photography can be - even though there's this amazing, panoramic view of SF and the bay (which photos CAN'T do justice to!), another huge attraction of the observation level is this huge satellite shot of the whole city that takes up one wall. I'm dying to get a print of it framed in my house! I've never been great at navigating, so more and more I am finding that I have an affinity for maps, since they help me to place myself in the world and put together my experiences in a way that connects to a larger picture.



Lovely date day!