San Francisco by the Cookies, Day 4

Our fourth and final day in San Francisco, we had pretty much exhausted our CityPasses. The only attraction left in them was the Aquarium of the Bay. We decided to see that as soon as it opened in the morning, see Coit Tower, and then go back to Golden Gate Park to see the Japanese Tea Garden and the Botanical Garden.

The Aquarium of the Bay proved quite interesting, although small. We walked through two enormous glass tunnels with fish and sharks floating on the other side. I had a blast petting the sharks, rays, skates, and sea cucumbers in the touch pools, but alas, it was over too soon!

A school of Sardines

We amused ourselves until lunchtime by buying one more giant cookie at Biscoff and strolling around the marina, where I saw the world's cutest seagull, played at being Rosie the Riveter in front of various historic sailing vessels, and took lots of pictures of pigeons.

Having been spoiled by free admissions with CityPass, we then spent the rest of the afternoon going to attractions but refusing to pay the fee required to actually get in. We saw Coit Tower from its base, the Japanese Tea Garden from its gate, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden from its ticket counter.

Coit Tower

 Fortunately, the rest of Golden Gate Park was free, so we got unspoiled views of the top of Butterfly Hill and what might have been an "abandoned observatory," although I didn't see any signs explaining what it was and this awesome turkey-duck!

Well, I don't know what it is, but it is undebatably awesome! Sadly, I was too cold and worn out to take pictures of anything I saw after the turkey-duck, and really, I didn't see much.

We were just trying to kill time until our flight at 11-something that night, so our last few hours in San Francisco basically consisted of walking around the mall and various shops downtown, acquiring snacks for later, one of which was my last Giant Cookie of the trip.

Since we've got some time, let's review some cookies! But let's do it really fast, since I have lost most of the pertinent information, they are not very interesting cookies anyway, and you'll probably never have the opportunity to try them yourself.

The white chocolate macadamia nut cookie I picked up at the De Young Museum was ok, but too crunchy, and I couldn't detect much flavor (though that's probably a fault of my nose rather than the cookie). The gigantic nut-covered cookie I got in Chinatown was OK, but too crunchy, and I actually could detect some flavor, and it was pretty good, though it was not nutty as I expected but rather what seemed to be a plain sugar cookie with nuts on top. [Correction: It was almond.]

The Bottom Line:

De Young Cookie - Taste:3 stars, Texture:2 stars, Price: I don't even know.
Chinese Cookie - Taste:4 stars, Texture: 2 stars, Price: I lost my receipt.