Sierras, Baltimore
Ah, veering even farther from the initial intention of this blog. Oh well.
The Sierra National Park - for 2 nights, 2 days - super hot in the Sacramento valley (over 100) but beautiful in the park, and a chance to sleep outside in near warmth all night. That's super fun to do but for some reason everyone thinks it borders on insanity. You get to see the stars above you in all their glory! Wildlife: mule deer buck, with full rack of antlers with the fuzz still on them, a pretty tame bluejay, and lot sof sparrows, robins and such. No black bears, thank god.
Flew into Baltimore for a week stay- it's ridiculously hot and humid. Once in a while you see something like someone jogging, or guys working near a 500 degree grill in a tiny bbq shack and realize your life is better (and you're not insane to do that). I'm appreciating the joy of ice in and iced coffee, a soy ice cream treat, A/C, swimming, and lounging hard core. Sign of the times: I am upto date on all the magazines show in any given magazine rack. I dare you to quiz me! Baltimore, where there is a very low body standard, fashion standard, intelligence standard, and... very high lounge and funk standards. On the way to the grocery store we drive by 2 famous black universities. i've had the best bbq chicken I think I've ever tasted. There are more potholes between us and the grocery store than probably all of the city of San Francisco (well, Newsom is making it a 'priority').
I sat next to a high schooler who is a competitive paint ball participant. He was with his "team" which consisted of seven boys of all different physiques. He had a pierced eyebrow. They are sponsored, and fly all around the states in summer. It's "like capture the flag". I was at a loss as to what to talk about with paintball guy, but realized later on that I want to play competitive capture the flag, god damn it.
Union Square
I did some major damage in Union Square two days ago. It's a little too close for comfort, or, at least the comfort of my wallet. Some positive job hunting news came down the line and thus that opened the penned up flood of consumerism. Oh, how I want to mix up a few more metaphors to express the feeling of denying oneself little baubles.
I now identify with the people of Union Square, Ladies Who Lunch, Foriegners who have the exchanges on their side, and local joes working at the mall. I tempted fate that first day (Tues?) by having a hot dog, madly eating it for a block, then suffering for hours afterward, from who knows what, probably eating fast and walking. My feet were super sore from all the slow walking, and loopey routes from one store to the next. Summer and shopping are kind of at odds since all the stores want to sell you stuff, but you are wearing only tshirts and jeans. Luckily it's almost back to school so sweaters and jeans are happening, and that's my outfit.
I should talk more about the beauty of the buildings, how this is a pretty city, how on my walk I met lots of cute characters, but in reality it was all about me, and my apartment, and getting a new wardrobe. There were funny decisions you make, like "no i'm not going to buy this 300$ Puma sports jacket" and yet drop $350 (gulp) on a sheet set.
Found a great cafe downtown, on a research project that started when a friend showed me
Ritual Coffee Roasters and dared me to find a better one. Ritual has free wireless and big library desks (as well as teeming with dot-com scenesters). So this is
Golden Gate Perk, not related to Friends, or to Golden Gate Park or the Bridge, both of which are about 2 miles away. Good location: on Bush at Kearny (tick), free wireless (tick), very nice ambiance (tick), including fresh little flowers on the table (awwwww). I had lined up two friends dates that afternoon and evening but after sitting in a cafe drinking soy latte... a soy bomb and puts you to sleep, contrary to the espresso... and had aching feet, I had no energy for a beer. That's right, no energy to sit in a bar and have a beer. Amazing.
I went back to the scene of the crime today. Got on the 30 Stockton, rode it (so dangerous and quick!) through Chinatown and through the Stockton Bridge, right to Union Square. I ascended one of those "houses of pain"- old buildings that have all therapists and dentists, and was obliged out of a meeting because of some insurance brou-haha. Then, random meandering to gym. The day was glorious, sunny, and with no rush or places to be everyone seemed on summer vacation. Walked up Market street to Yerba Buena park, where Swiss musicians were playing these very long instruments, and yodelling, oh, and playing the chromatic accordian, what a super amazing instrument.(finaly found it, the
alphorn, the national instrument of Switzerland! Thanks Jamie for the help researching.) The ride home was uneventful except for that similar kind of relief walkign home around 5pm, down Columbus. I thought of getting dim sum in Chinatown but didn't think of this until after I left the good neighborhood (on Stockton right after the tunnel). Then, thought of a cafe at
Cafe Roma but realized I was dithering on what to order, so passed it up. Bought some amazing lychees, though, in Chinatown and they are in perfect condition right now. cost: 30 cents for 4! So the good news, SF can be done under 20$ (as in Rachel Ray):
breakfast: at home
lunch: "small" pad thai at rincon court and diet coke, $5.15. I say small because it was huge.
snack: grapefruit soda, 1$
movie: 8$
snack: 30cents
dinner: home.
OK, if you rule out the evening costs (ahem) then it's always cheap. But there's a point somewhere, that I lost... right, $14.45, and if I had splurged on dim sum that would have gone up a whole two dollars!
Angel Island
The "walks to work" intention of this blog is expanding slightly. So I walked to work, via ferry to an island in the bay yesterday. Logistically a little challenging as my parents drove 2 1/2 hours to get here, and we missed the earliest ferry because of random traffic in Cupertino (damn that town!) and Embarcadero. The Fisherman's Wharf area was no end to annoying with crowds of tourists, despite it being Wednesday. Luckily they all gather around random street performers and clear the sidewalks. The ride over was beautiful, and choppy with whitecaps so you really got some feeling that you were on a boat and not a large floating bus.
We picnicked at the Ayala cove, view being Sausalito. Then, hiking up to the top of a pretty steep bluff, surrounding hillsides were chaparral. Then, dipping down into China Cove, North Garrison, and the Immigration history tour. Unfortunately the main barracks were closed for weekend tours, and also I think because of restoration. It's a site that's a proof that citizens can make a difference- elderly children and relatives of immigrants lobbied to set this aside as a national, state, and local historical landmark and did an amazing job as a coalition (all from my Mom who is currently trying to do this in
Fort Ord down in Monterey area). I'm glad they preserved it- it's one of those artifacts of the really long period of time that California seriously limited
Chinese immigration.
Dipped our feet in the water- so calm! so cool!- then hiked back up over the bluff and down to Ayala cove where we got some great Gordon Biersch Pilsner and commented on how we were all on vacation. The ride back via ferry was horrible because LANDOR, curse the wenches, was having some work party and knocking my mom about with backpacks and drunken revelry. I ranted at them something along the lines of "of course, you're
LANDOR" and "I'll remember this, curse you wenches", "respect our space", and maybe, when they retaliated some tourist slight, i countered with "we're locals, and I'll remember this LANDOR." etc. Pretty sun/vaca-drunk so doubt anything was coherent. I may have bated my mom somewhat by telling her I would back her up if she threw the first punch.
Sat on roof with potstickers and MORE beer, chatting in that aimless vacation way about the scenery. The little houses on top of buildings was fodder for countless ruminations. Tops of staircases, or just random little rooms on roofs? Should be
rooves. And, then, dinner up in the Village at
Iluna Basque, more ruminations on being a Basque, and general history of Basqueness (credit here goes to Dad- who is not Basque.)
Playing host, having an awkward sunburn, plus figuring out dinner proved too stressful to me and I ended up sitting in the dark for 5 hours wondering at where this random world war 2 song came from.
where or when
Hyde Street Cuteness
There are a few corners of Hyde Street up on Russian Hill that have that "feel good" feeling about them. Maybe it's something to do with feng shui, not sure, or spiritual vortices or something, not sure. The "nook" corner of leavenworth and hyde (I think that's the cross). Nook cafe has nice furniture, varied menu, beer, wine, and a great corner spot with trees and funny tourists making a turn right on your corner in a cable car. Supposedly one of my friends ran up on a stalled car and asked if they ran out of gas. The tourists took him seriously (oh pity them for they do not know).
The cable car museum on Mason & some street is also awesome. It's got the maximum "good feeling" corner up there. The huge sheaves (pron. shivs) spinning and whirling must do something with chi (ok waxing into eastern spirituality is too Californian, must desist.) Big brick building, the MUNI employees park their cars on the blocks around it. Cafe across the corner has sunken pit for the baristas, so you're essentially loooking down on them while they take your order. The seats outside are the most score, though: under trees, nice coffee and pastries, residential neighborhood, the passing scenery of tourists hanging off the cable car, and being part of some Iowan's home movie.
I may start a tally for how many times I appear on some poor person's home video. The other day on the cable car, standing in the back, a woman next to me kept on doing panaramas, and I don't think she was stoppign her camera when she passed my face (2 inches from her lens). Imagine the viewing party after that. Here is Alcatraz, here is some girl's face (woah, closeup on pores), here is Coit Tower...
most important townie experience thus far: getting on the Powell-Mason cable car after dinner down in Union Square, I sit down inside and the conductor comes up to me and I hand him 3 $ and he goes, "You're a local, right?" God, did it take like 10 years living here to get to this point? I remember my sister Amy saying, as we drove across the Bay Bridge and had our constant discussion/argument about whether the Embarcaderos light up their building lights (makes them look like presents) all year round or just during Xmas, "Do you feel like a San Franciscan now?". This comment changes in my head each time I remember it. At the time I was like, "oh no, I imagine them as this kind of junky, thrifty townie stereotype." Now, it seems that she was really more in touch with the SF style because she had worked in a Chinese-Catholic school in Chinatown for her teaching degree. A year of that is about 10 years worth living in SF in the Mission (which is more like San Jose and Portland combined).
Another block on the Hyde Street neighborhood: the little kids park on Clay street, which is a mock city street and super fun to walk around. Guests on this tour were suprised that such prime real estate had been turned over to a "mini-park".
Also of note is "U-Lee" which has been recommended twice. It's a Chinese restaurant to the other side of Nook, and has good pan fried pot stickers (according to coney island girl, blog at right).
Just saw Rachel Ray's 40$ a day that Swan's Depot a few blocks away is the best seafood in the city too. OK this post is way too long. O'er and out.
Job-Free Day #3
Free as the wind blows....
Took some time this morning to check out the tai chi ladies in Washington Park. I did some fake little arm swirling but I'm still too shy to march in their midst and do the moves. A hilarious tableau of three or four middle-aged women in another corner of the park dancing ina kind of box-step to a really fuzzy ghettoblaster.
Cafe roundup: Divine opens far too late. Roma: baked items are not superb. Francisco St: slow service, chairs are uncomfortable. Sapore: subpar food and coffee. Winner? Brioche, on Columbus way down the strip. Amazing french pastries (suffering from an overly rich tummy ache now) and espresso to spec. I was impressed with the crowd that tromped through, 4 or 5 sets were actually French and asked immediately, "parlez francais?" Another just started rattling off stuff in French without asking. Not that I like the French, but they do have amazing pastries and cafes.
Telhi neighborhood- Telegraph Hill Neighborhood- something I didn't know until now was that it had a cute name. Walked from Broadway up Kearny, which, in my book, is the steepest street in San Francisco. There are about 2 blocks worth of serious steps. I'm not sure cars ever go up it, despite the fact that they are allowed to by law. Little "no parking" signs are on either side of the street, almost like it's a joke by the City that you want, or could, even park there. At the top, there is a crowd control gate permemently fixed in cement. There is one little turnoff street, "Fresno" and a motorcycle was parked there. It had an outlet on Grant though so it's not proof that cars can drive up the Macchini Steps (the official name, in essence it's Kearny). I'm really wondering. Can cars go up this hill? The Green Tortoise Guesthouse, in all it's skanky VD-ness, is on the street, and otherwise it's just totally amazing and adorable. I think I remember reading in either the Baghdad by the Bay book or the Stairwalks of SF that this was where the Latina prostitutes hung out in the late 1800s. The East side of Tel-hi. Hmmm.
Walked on the slope of Telegraph Hill down Grant to Chestnut, where there is a cliff dropoff. I was wondering, when I'm at the base, I look up to Chestnut (my street) and just see a sheer wall of rock. Guess what, from the end of Chestnut you also look down... with no barrier (unless you count some fennel plants). More crazy urban planning. Another scene that is just out of a weird anxiety dream. You're running down a street, and it ends, and it's a sheer cliff! You're driving down a one way street, and it get steep, and your car starts to roll backwards!
Big Princess cruise ship in the dock, which may be why there were so many frogs at the cafe.
