Spending a day being Touristy couldn't have made me feel more like an actual local.

Today was a long day.
I started with a walking tour of Chinatown, followed by another walking tour of Telegraph Hill. Both of these were with San Francisco City Guides. They're a department of the SF Public Library and entirely volunteer guides. Both of them were REALLY fun! Though as we were about to start the Chinatown tour, there was a group starting a Foodie tour of Chinatown, which nearly sucked me in... another time. These tours were both about 1hr. 45 mins. and an easy pace. They had lots of history, but not obnoxiously detailed. All in all I enjoyed it and they're FREE! I'l definitely be doing more of these.
Here are a few highlights:







After the tours I stopped in a shop and got something required for all San Franciscans... scarves. Now I have scarves, don't get me wrong. You can't live in Minnesota without them either. But here it's less about fending off death than a bit of comfort and a flare of style. So I got my foot in that door making me feel abundantly more like a local.
Then, I like to think due to this purchase, I was asked for directions no less than 4 times in the next hour and a half. I went and continued my shopping, and not only was I asked for directions, but I could actually answer all but one! I have no idea where Hollister or Abercrombie is. Sorry I couldn't help lady (though not really I don't know where they are). Then to wrap it all up, I bought more San Franciscan-y clothes. Good Day.

Making the most of Summer!

OK folks, I've been a busy bee around here. The weather has been AMAZING so I've been out lots, doing some fun things on the weekends. Haight Street Fair was crazy CROWDED! Not bad, but a little to many people for my taste. Something I could definitely do some damage at with a good group of friends, but I just swung through on my way home, so I kept it quick and easy.

I did the good ol' touristy thing and walked the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty windy out there, but some great views of the city!




After the bridge I did some hiking through the Presidio and found some amazing trails and a nice quiet beach where I laid and read in the sand for a while and got some more sunburn.






This weekend however I heard about a potentially amazing event and it did NOT disappoint! Cardboard Tube Dueling Tournament! That's right. People came with their cardboard armor and were supplied cardboard tubes. Basic rules were that you could only hit your opponents tube, and the first tube to bend to 90 degrees lost. There were some incredible armor designs, a King and Queen, a cardboard Dragon, an adorable children's division, and even a knight on a cardboard steed!

Poopy Week Earns Me an Excellent Weekend

So work was exceedingly poopy this week. It was busy, and crazy awful projects to be done. Though all around successful, it was just plain stressful and not fun.

So to make up for it I gave myself an excellent Saturday. I started out at the Farmer's Market. Tasty samples of the produce and a quick perusal led to purchase of a giant bag of oranges for $2.50. Then I went to get some food. The hot food area is always interesting. I decided to pass on the amazing cookies I've written about before and instead sampled amazingly tasty afghani bread and spreads, as well as Fava Bean Humus, some regular old humus, and finally discovered a completely NEW food! There was a cart selling something called Pupusas.



I was immediately intrigued. Show me a new food of almost any variety and I'm good to go for a test drive. Though I thought before I spend the $3 on my own I should check out a finished product. I waited for an order to come out and it looked oddly like a thick Naan, along with some slaw and sauce. I thus assumed that the meat and cheese must be inside. I approached and ordered a chicken and cheese variety. I watched as the woman in the back assembled. She took a lump of pre-mixed dough, working in my selected filling until it was roughly a 6 inch diameter disc approximately 3/4 inch thick. This was put on the griddle and cooked. It came out a few minutes later piping hot and on the plate they added slaw and sauce. Now the Pupusa was basically a thick corn tortilla with a center filling of chicken and cheese. It was hot, and amazingly tasty. The sauce I noticed was a little thin and watery when they spooned it on. Now I need to disabuse you of the idea that thin and watery is a bad thing. That only describes the consistency, and anything thicker would have been harder to eat and much less tasty. The sauce was amazingly flavorful and soaked into the bread making an excellent dish. The slaw turned out to be something called curtido, a lightly fermented cabbage slaw. The hot/cold contrast of the pupusas and slaw was amazing.

OK, after that amazing food the rest of the day sounds kinda boring. So real quick:
I took the bus to the LEgion of Honor Museum to see the Cartier exhibit. It was beatiful, well displayed, interesting information and INCREDIBLE jewels. They had a very wide range and some of Elizabeth Taylor's, as well as Grace Kelly's pieces. There was also a strong collection of Art Deco clocks. All in all very nice. I popped downtown and stopped by the Comic Art Museum which had a very interesting look at Batman through the years. Then I stopped by my favorite reading spot in the city, the Yerba Buena Gardens. I listened to the end of a Jazz concert there and then read for a few hours.

Color me CONTENTED.

It's official!

I have had some time and made my evaluations and... I LOVE San Francisco!

Let's do a quick rundown:
Parks? HOLY CRAP! They're everywhere and beautiful.
People watching? GOOD LORD! So many... "colorful" folks in this city.
Weather? The locals start to bitch about the heat when it hits 70. It's perfect.
Food? Heavenly variety.

So what brought this on? I had an amazing weekend. Saturday I woke up and went down to the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market. I had tasty Felafel, oysters, and an orange. Yummy breakfast. I walked along the Embarcadero and down to AT&T Park for a camp fair. Saturday night, Wine with new friends on top of a tower downtown! Sunday, amazing breakfast of Eggs Florentine and fresh squeezed OJ then a few hours of reading in the beautiful sunny Yerba Buena Gardens and a wander through Union square for a little window shopping.

Such a calm relaxing weekend, leaves me very content. :)

My new favorite place in the city.

So I've gone to this single area in San Francisco SEVERAL times over the last month, and each time I discover more. I've had work meetings there, met people at a bar, gone to a dance performance and just stumbled upon it accidentaly.
But on one side of the street there is the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and it's AMAZING! It has great meeting space and has some pretty awesome art, as well as being a super cool building. The first time I saw it I was on the street and saw the plain, average, not terribly exciting facade.


There's a lovely plaza area next to the church to the left. (I love that there's a Catholic church RIGHT out front of the Jewseum).
But then when I was meeting someone for drinks nearby I discovered this hidden part of it.



Those crafty Jews HID it behind the Catholics! Well done! (Wouldn't be the first time the Catholics covered something up.)


So then across the street from al this wonderfulness is the Yerba Buena Center Gardens. So wonderful, especially in the spring when the cherry blossoms are flying.



And finally I found a super cool sculpture in the garden:

SPRING!

So catching up:
I went on my first excursion to the East Bay a couple weeks ago. We had a work event in Oakland. Now those of you outside the bay area probably have a similar concept of Oakland as I did... which is to say, not good. I'd heard bad things, everyone knows there's violence, gangs, etc.
BUT. I found the good part! There's a beautiful lake with a park and amazing wonderful areas there too! Concept: SHATTERED.






Then later that week I went to Golden Gate Park. I heard the gardens should be blooming so I wandered for a few hours through the park in areas I'd never been to. I saw the Queen Wilhelmina Windmill and Tulip Garden, went to Ocean Beach for a bit, wandered and got lost in the Botanical Gardens, and found the Rose Garden (let down, this was not in bloom).







Another let down was the lack of bison in the Bison Paddock. :(
BUT there was a pond for remote controlled boats, run by the San Francisco Model Yacht Club... That's right, it exists.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Nights.

OK, so first of all I have to say this:
I LOVE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!
Being able to easily bus to events, bars, friends, etc is incredible. Also I live within block of two major bus lines that get me either downtown/SOMA or to Castro/Haight/Cow Hollow. Awesomeness.

A friend suggested a particular bar event that I went to check out tonight. It was fine. But as I went alone, it was a little awkward. It would be a GREAT place with friends. I was fine with the go-go boys dancing on the bar. The little guy in the wretling singlet was super cute. But the Panda! There was a gentleman in Panda suit. Well, what I thought was a full panda suit turned out to be a panda head along with a black suit. He was on the dance floor dancing with people and then climbed up on a block and began stripping. That was about enough for me. So I took the bus home, but stopped in the Castro.

I just can't pass up an opportunity for some amazing people watching. And my friends, the Castro on a Saturday night is about as good as it gets. There were drunken Marina girls, bitchy gays, naked guy laying on his towel on the sidewalk, classy old queens, teeny-boppers, and all sorts of other factions of humanity. BUT what I have discovered about the Castro is this: It is an incredible ego boost every time! When I was done with my circuit of the area I leaned against a wall waiting for the bus so I could maximize my view for the watching of the peoples. Within a minute of my stopping there a nice gentleman passed by and commented that I was "too cute to be standing against the wall."
"Thank you sir," is what I say to that!
Then a couple walked by and I heard one of them commenting about "the cute guy right there" and got a neck arching check from both as they passed.
So in the end it just makes for a good boost of the old self-esteem.

Then the bus came and I rode with the usual assortment of interesting characters.