San Francisco

I’ve been keeping a list! Here are some of my favorite places in San Francisco:





Chinatown walking tour:
http://www.chinatownwalk.com/page1/page1.html but sign-up at www.goldstar.com and you can get the tickets half off. My friends just went on this and said it was fascinating.

Restaurants:
The Tipsy Pig-the mac and cheese is to die for! (North Beach)
http://www.thetipsypigsf.com/

The Irish House (Union Square)-Guiness Beef stew! Stay for the entertainment-never know what you’ll see! It’s in Union Square where there is lots of shopping, bars, restaurants.
http://www.johnnyfoleys.com/aboutus.html

Rose’s Café-Great food, eat outside. Breakfast/Lunch-go in off hours Lot’s of locals. On Union St-great shopping in smaller shops, other bars and restaurants nearby.
http://www.rosescafesf.com/

Hotel Griffon (Financial District)
http://www.hotelgriffon.com/hotel.php

The Ferry Building is across the street. The Cable Car museum is a block away. Waterfront is right there. It would be a nice central place to stay. Easy to take public transportation to the ballpark from here.

The Ferry Building-brunch at restaurant outside, Market Bar http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/marketbar.php

Perry’s (Financial District) -We had a great lunch here. It’s right on the Embarcadero near the Bay Bridge and next to the Hotel Griffon which looked like a great place to stay
http://www.perryssf.com/directions_embarcadero.htm

Mark Hopkins Hotel-Great views, grand old hotel, but expensive, probably $250 and up. But it’s near everything. Close to Chinatown. Had friends that stayed there and they loved it. The views are phenomenal.
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/overview/sfoha


Tommy’s Tequila Bar-Hole in the wall. Been there for years. Any kind of tequila you can imagine. Did you know there was sipping tequila? Best Mexican food I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot! Or maybe it was the best tequila I’ve ever had. http://www.tommystequila.com/

Kuletos: Love this restaurant. Need reservations for dinner. We went there for lunch at an off hour and walked right in. Fantastic food and atmosphere.
http://www.kuletos.com/index.shtml

Villa Florence Hotel- Next to Kuletos Restaurant. Looked very elegant, very old and very San Francisco. Prices about $200+ a night.
http://larkspurhotels.com/collection/villa-florence

ATT Park-Giants Baseball- tacos, bring your lunch, garlic chicken sandwiches, hot fudge sundaes!, pastrami sandwiches

Lands End-hiking

Aquatic Park and Maritime Museum

SFMOMA- make sure to go all the way to the roof top café, the restaurant on the main floor is great for a snack or lunch too.

Teatro Zinzanni-expensive but worth it. Food ok, show is extraordinary, funny, and changes all the time

http://www.sfcablecar.com/Buy a pass for the day or weekend

http://lifeisagrainofsand.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-search-of-sea-glass-aquatic-park-san.html This is me!

Golden Gate Bridge-Fort Point underneath it. Very cool to walk through-free.
Great hot dogs at stand outside state park visitor center. Visitor center has a great collection of local tourist areas, walks, books, etc.

District-Wine bar with small plates. Excellent place to have dinner and a really good bottle of wine before yo go to the ballpark.

Dueling Grandmas

My boss and I are grandmas at the same time. Well my grandbaby is 8 months old and hers will be born in June. Close enough.

Today a car seat was delivered. My boss thought it was for her daughter and called her and told her it was here. Then she looked at the shipping label and realized it had my name on it. I accused her of trying to steal my car seat. I called us the "dueling grandmas." The office staff chuckled at our bantering. I'm sure there will be many future arguments about "my grandbaby is cuter than yours." Just to be clear the fused Photoshopped baby picture my boss put together does not count as a cute baby picture. The baby has to be born first in order that a photo count.

OMG I have a Ford Taurus with a car seat in it.

A bird in the shoe....

A bird in the shoe is worth two in the bush. Hmmm...or maybe it's worth a new pair of tennis shoes.

My husband went to Open Mic last night and I met him there after yoga. I had dinner and watched several performers and my husband play. We stayed for a couple more performances. My husband kept fiddling with his shoe all evening. He said it didn't feel right. He thought maybe he stepped in something but didn't see anything.

Anyways....we got home and he took off his shoes. He was horrified. There was a squished bird in his shoe. We were totally grossed out. The shoe was ruined. I was laughing and trying not to gag all at the same time. The thought that went through my head was thank God it wasn't in my shoe and how the hell do you go all evening and not realize there's a dead bird in your shoe? My husband really wasn't amused with my laughing. (Sorry honey!)

I routinely look in my shoes and shake them out before I put them on. It's my greatest fear that a live (or dead) animal will be hiding in my shoe waiting to clamp onto my big toe. Our cats are the great hunters and there is always a rodent or lizard in our house. Occasionally a bird will be brought in. But you just wouldn't expect a bird in your shoe. A lizard or rodent, yes, good hiding place. The bird must have been placed there by a kitty leaving gifts for daddy. Or maybe it was like the crows on the television commercial with the window cleaner. They wait for someone to run into the clean sliding glass door and laugh at them. Maybe the cat was hiding underneath bed laughing when Boyd slid his unknowing foot into the mayhem hiding in his shoe.

But now I know I am not being paranoid to shake my shoes out every morning. I have been vindicated.

Updates

I haven't posted to this blog in awhile. I've been busy over at my yoga blog "Doing Nothing." I will now attempt to post to both blogs at least weekly. But please don't hold me to that. LOL

I had to empty my studio out for awhile as my son, his wife and my granddaughter will be moving in with us this summer while they transition from Navy life to civilian life. I so look forward to bonding with my granddaughter. I'm sure I will have a million pictures of her before they find their next destination. How thrilling for them to have another path to take in their life. How grand for me to be able to be part of that path.

My creative process has shifted for the time being to learning yoga and Pilate's and baby proofing our house. But watch for more posts and photos here as I really need this creative outlet too.

Baby proofing our house has been cleansing for us. Of course all the extra has ended up in the garage. My husband will be happy when we have that huge garage sale in a couple of weeks and he can have his space back. I'm sure he can't wait to work out on that weight set we set up out there. :)

Serendipitous

I found a blog today Serendipitous. It was like finding a piece of poetry I connected with. It was snippets in words and photos, leaving you with an essence of the author's life. I felt an immediate kinship with someone I have never met.

Serendipitous (adjective)

1. Discovering something fortunate;
the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful

Sometimes I wander too far into a subject. Writing too much, giving too much away. Maybe my blogging should be more like poetry, leaving the reader with whatever viewpoint or essence they get from the images invoked.

Sometimes we need to leave a little more white space between the words.