Today was our greenery day. It was a day filled with exotic leaves and trees, green grass and miles of walking. We started our day visiting the Twin Peaks which is actually 19 minutes from where we currently dwell in the heart of Noe Valley. We climbed up and up and up until we reach a hill literally overlooking the entire city of San Francisco. It was breathtaking truly-what was equally as breathtaking was watching a number of individuals run up and down the hills surrounding the grassy mound. 

After enjoying the views, we continued on our way to enjoy the sights of nature and art as we found ourselves at the top of the 16th avenue mosaic steps. If you want to talk about the definition of whimsy, mosaic steps probably can be found next to the definition (or at least should be added to it.) These steps were just a statement of beauty and nature and color and appreciation for life and the number of steps we take. We walked about ten more minutes to enjoy the Hidden Garden steps (also a mosaic step masterpiece.) The colors on this one were orange and pink and yellow and blue-truly a masterpiece and apparently a community effort to paint California with wonder and awe. 

We walked along the neighborhood known as inner-sunset and stopped at a very hip looking coffee shop and then indulged in a donut (glazed apple fritter goodness) as we continued to walk along admiring the new vibe of yet a new neighborhood, softer streets, much quieter. 

We continued to walk until we reached the Golden Gate Bridge State park which houses numerous gardens. We walked inside the San Francisco Botanical gardens (simply beautiful.) Truly, one of the most well done outside gardens I have ever seen and interesting in the sense that everywhere you walked you were surrounded by new and exotic plants from a different country-free to all San Francisco natives, there were many individuals enjoying picnics or catching up on some literature, writing and drawing underneath the foliage. After exploring this outside beauty we came upon the Japanese tea garden which I believe is the oldest Japanese Tea Garden in the United States. It was simply whimsical with bonsai trees and cascading waterfalls, ponds over glassy rocks and moss growing below the trees every so gently. After walking around to explore the grounds, we stopped and had some tea overlooking the pond of the Japanese Garden. Probably the most in touch I have felt with nature in quite some time. There is nothing like sipping tea and just watching the water fall gently. 

Shakespeare's Garden was our final garden adventure for the afternoon. The smallest park of them all, it has a very small, elegant feeling to it. We watched as a group of moms were having a book club and their children were frolicking in the grass as they talked. A safe space for both laughter and literature. 

We decided to walk all the way back towards the Haight-Ashbury district as we would be heading in that direction for the jazz show this evening. We walked through the Haight and explored some clever shops and got a slice of "Escape from New York" pizza (which was actually quite good though I do not think as good as NYC pizza.) We continued walking into lower Haight, pass the park and into many Victorian Style looking homes and landed ourselves at a park with a very interesting brass statue of a woman. The park was most likely a small dog park as we watched many individual bike home from work and then stop by the park to talk or walk around with their dog or just indulge in the afternoon sun. 

Finally, it was time to head to the SF Jazz Center-which is probably one of the neatest buildings I have seen to date. Made mostly of glass, it houses multiple soundproof jazz "labs" inside. We heard the Hristo Vitchev Quartet. Unbelievable music. Made up of a guitar player, unbelievable bass player, drummer and world-renowned Brazilian pianist, this was probably one of the best shows I have heard in quite some time. All the music was from their album light and shadows, and I have to say some of their style had a lot of repetitive motifs but also truly exotic chords. It was absolutely fantastic music. My favorite song for the night was a ballad the guitarist wrote for his wife that was just breathtaking. Even better, his wife was in the audience to hear him play. And I think what I loved most about this stage was just this idea of listening to amazing jazz inside the building but then being able to look out the glass windows and see all of SanFrancisco walking home, laughing and talking. It's almost as if the outside world was silenced so that all you could focus on was the groove of the performers. Truly, my favorite part of this trip was probably this single concert. Music is a world-changer what can I say. 

To top off this most whimsical, nature-invested art exploration day, we ended our day with dinner at a Mexican restaurant and both had probably the "best quesadilla we have ever had in our lives." according to my husband. Stopped by a pop-up ice cream stand for a toffee oatmeal cookie crunch scoop of ice cream (know for their actual churning of ice cream with a choice of a baked good) and we headed home. 

Stomach warmed from the vibes of our day, I drifed off to sleep knowing that today above all other days was certainly a day of complete whimsical spirit. It felt great.