San Francisco
I just got back from my second visit to San Francisco in two weeks. It’s an hour’s ride each way on the CalTrain, $10 total. That’s about the same cost as driving, but I can read on the train.
The first trip, last Saturday (20051029), I took my bike. I went to the farmers’ market at Market and Embarcadero and ate lunch there (French-style yogurt and an organic hamburger (thank you, cow)). Then I headed into the city and up Nob Hill. I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. “I have a mountain bike with lots of very low gears. The hill can’t be that tall.” Right. So several panting stops later I made it to the top and found Grace Cathedral. Amy, go there when you visit. They have two labyrinths. Then I headed north back down the hill. Took a detour to see Lombard street, the curviest street in the world. This time I left my bike at the bottom of the hill and just walked up. Then all the way down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area. Stopped in at Patagonia, seller of high-priced but ecological clothing. They’ll even take one of their fabrics back to be recycled when it’s worn out. Didn’t buy anything, but I might when I need a new jacket. Then locked up my bike to walk around. I walked over toward Ghirardelli Square. Just before I got there, I found two neat little art galleries on Beach St. One had some of Dr. Seuss’s paintings. Ghirardelli square was nice; sat for a while and listened to the live band. I couldn’t decide what to buy there, so didn’t buy any chocolate. I walked around a little more, and then had dinner at a little (overpriced) pub called Fiddler’s Green because, well, you have to go eat at characters from Sandman. Then biked back to the train and went home.
Today I left my bike at home, planning to just walk around South of Market. I was surprised by how much the class of neighborhoods can change in just a few blocks. Market street around 4th and 5th is extremely high-class, but Mission street, just the next major street south, is much more run down by 6th and 7th streets. I walked from the train stop to Market & 5th, and then looped back to Yerba Buena park and the Martin Luther King memorial there. It was amazing how different the park felt from the rest of the city. They have what seems to be a mall on one side, but they’ve managed to prevent that mall from having anything commercial really visible from the park. So effectively the mall just acts as a wall keeping the city out. So you walk in, and it gets really peaceful and green, except for the occasional siren going by. And they picked quotations from MLK that aren’t primarily about civil rights, but about peace and community and stuff. Anyway, after that I walked down Mission street to 12th, and then over to McRoskey, who sells beds, since I still need one of those. $3,500 for a queen: ouch. But they’re made by hand, and in San Francisco, which is nice because it provides better jobs than mattresses made in a big factory far away. They’re not made from organic materials though, so I’ll go look at the stores in Berkeley (link so I can remember which stores) before deciding. Then I walked back up Market street and then to the Apple store and Cody’s bookstore. Cody’s doesn’t compare to Powell’s in Portland, but it has a nice selection, and I bought Freakonomics and The Ecology of Commerce. (So Sunshine will be getting her copy back shortly. Thanks for making me read that!) They also had two authors speaking tonight, so I stayed for that, which was worthwhile. Then it was 7:00, so I had time to walk around Union Square, which is nice enough, but surrounded by really expensive, not-worth-it stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. There was an accordion player. Then back to the train. Along the way, I stopped at the Whole Foods, which is bigger than the tiny one in Palo Alto, but not so huge as the one in Austin. Noticed that they have reasonable queen sheet sets made of organic cotton, and picked up “natural” shampoo and deodorant. We’ll see if they work. Then home, and posting, and bed. Good night!
