My ipad travel blog: San Francisco Day Three-part one

The day began with a bit of a walk to a recommended diner that was closed for some reason so that we made a change of plans and ate at Lori's ( having seen two there may be a change. It was a busy place!

In a bit of a hurry we were off to meet Jay who runs Victorian Houses Walking tours. We spent the next couple of hours with him and twelve others interested in architecture.

The tour began with a short bus ride to the Japan Town area (now being called Lower Pacific Heights.)

Almost immediately we spotted our first example of Queen Anne architecture, the Queen Anne Hotel.

Once a school for upper class girls, it is now a bed and breakfast type hotel.

We enjoyed a short wander around and learned many interesting facts. For instance the ground floor was originally a gymnasium and is done in the cheaper redwood while what is now the second floor would have been the main floor and is done in oak. I hope I got that right!

When the hotel was going to be sold there had to be a sprinkler system and this was done prior to the renovation as a hotel so those pipes are a bit ugly.

Rather nice guest rooms-fireplaces now are gas

We moved along. As we walked up into Pacific Heights, Jay gave us so much interesting information I should have recorded him.

The origin of the Painted Ladies is a result of the 60's when "hippies" painted old run down Victorians bright colours and people decided they liked them. Originally houses very subdued.

Often they were "masked" and the original features covered over, but now they are being carefully usually restored.

Garages on the bottom floor came after the automobile. Prior to that each corner had barns for horses!

Not much native vegetation due to poor soil so much has been imported from Australia and New Zealand!

Below you can see a house with a garage and without. No basements here. these houses are carved into rock!

I just liked this lion.

This is a synagogue as this was once a Jewish district.

As we head into the real Pacific Heights you see incredible views!

There were many homes up here of celebrities and houses we met in Mrs. Doubtfire and in the TV show, Party of Five. Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, and Don Johnson all have lived there.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed these windows but not the house!

We got to see a bit of a hidden garden!

The builder of this house wanted brick but since that was hard to get the redwood is carved to look like brick.

There are many more pictures but our tour with Jay ended here and he gave us explicit directions on how to get home or explore more.This two hour tour was well worth $25. Apparently Jay took a buyout from IBM and bought and restored his own Victorian and of course began these wonderful tours.