Sunday, April 1, 2012

A visit to the de Young

A rainy week with guests to entertain found us at the deYoung Museum last week, the first time I had been to just visit the museum, not a special exhibit. The art museum is located in Golden Gate Park, and going during the week (or, I presume, early on a weekend) means four hours of free street parking, which was a nice bonus. The museum has a full range of free, docent-led tours, and we decided to take advantage of one - a great decision. Our guide, Suzanne, took us through several galleries, stopping at one or two key pieces in each. In a little over an hour we covered part of the American, African and Oceanic galleries. Suzanne was the perfect combination of knowledgeable while also be very accessible and friendly. After taking in about all my mind could process, we stopped for some lunch in the museum's very nice cafe, then headed up the de Young's tower for a view of San Francisco and area through the clouds. I noticed a family-oriented docent tour on the list, and we will no doubt be back on another rainy day to check it out. Your entry to the galleries also includes same day admission to the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum's other location, the Legion of Honor, which is in nearby Lincoln Park, so a well planned day could certainly include a stop at both.