End of the year catch up

Walk #41

Finding time to walk this month has been nuts! Between Shrek , the holidays, and getting on a boat I've had a hard time fitting in any walks. Which also means, I haven't had any time to inspect an gingerbread houses. Boo! So when I made plans to meet the McEnoys, I took a detour from the office and hiked California Street and did the drive-by. Obviously Grace Cathedral is not made of Ginger Bread, but the 2-story creation from the Fairmont is all candy and frosting - yumo!

I continued on California to the Embarcadero where I got to run a little with this cutie pie

Adorable, yes? He was even cute when he picked up poo.

Here's the view from the Embarcadero.

Not sure why I love it, but I always do. I turned onto Bryan(T)

"T" not always included.

When I hit Market I gave some tourists some restaurant tips. Mind you I suggested 2 places I've never eaten, but I've heard good things about. Hopefully, they had a good dinner. Man, I think I need to get out more.

Straight shot home up Sanchez to Steiner.

Total mileage 7.31

C is for Cookie

Walk #40

Todays walk had some very opposing purposes. 1) Use my coupon for See Jane Run in Noe Valley 2) try Anthony's Cookies 3) get to my favorite spinning class. I guess only the cookies don't make sense. But I earned them let me tell you . . .

I left work and went down Polk onto 10th. Now, I was only on 10th for one block and I've been down 10th before, BUT on the opposite side of the street. So I was excited to find this right at the start of my adventure:

So close, street stampers.

From 10th, I took Mission to 14th to Minna to Capp. A tip from my good friend Randy, led me to this:

The concept is there, and all the correct letters. It's just the wrong letter that got doubled.

I took Capp all the way to Cesar Chavez. Now, OG San Franciscans will know this street was not always called Cesar Chavez. And though they've done their best to change all of the signs and addresses, this still occurs:

I turned on Valencia for a quick stop at Anthony's Cookies. It's no Diddy Riese, but it smelled DIVINE in there! I bought two cookies (at $1.25 a piece) for myself. I was super excited about the white chocolate chip. All too often white chocolate chips go hand in hand with macadamia nuts which I veto. But just like Diddy, Anthony knows best and keeps those pesky nuts out. Unlike Diddy , this white chocolate chip cookie was just okay. BUT I also got a cookies and cream cookie and WHOA that was one good cookie!

And now I've got "C is for Cookie" stuck in my head . . .

The beauty of San Francisco is, once you've had your cookies, the city is going to make you work them off. I took 25th to Sanchez and stopped in to See Jane Run to get some extra running supplies. It's a way cute store with a great female empowerment story. Everyone was ridiculously friendly and helpful, without being pushy. I really liked it, but it's no Sports Basement.

Up Sanchez, I found a lot of irony in the photo to the left.

Not sure that you can tell, but that steep old street that climbing is about to cross Hill St. Awesome.

And that which goes up, must go down. . .

Sanchez Street is great because not only have we already seen it spelt Sanches, but it also joins the ranks of Anzavista with the backwards Z, not once but twice!

The best part is that these stamps are about 5 blocks from each other and one is on the west side of the street and the other is on the east side of the street. I'm so glad I crossed the street when I did so I could fully enjoy each of them.

A fun aspect of the walking game is that sometimes when you're walking along a street, you'll notice a steeper

street next to you or a cool staircase, or you might think "Hey, I bet the view is awesome from up there." But inevitably, you press on with your planned route as the crushing sensation of just how many streets you still have to go, hits you. This was how I felt a few weeks ago when I took 20th St all the way out to the bay and again how I felt when taking 19th. Luckily, every now and then, you find yourself ON those staircases and staring out at those views. As was the case today on Sanchez. Even more satisfying is walking down those staircases instead of up them!

Made it to the gym in plenty of time for spinning to kick my ass before dragging myself home.

Total mileage: 6.23

Bet you'll never guess where I went today . . .

Walk #39

I really need to start keeping track of how many of my adventures lead me to the Sports Basement. I'm pretty sure it's a lot. Without too much thought, I can think of 6 of these walks with the main purpose of getting me to SB (half to Crissy Field, half to Bryant). Crazy.

At least there was lots to look at today!

Starting with murals! This one is NOT from the Mission. I think it's called A Celebration of Love.

I love that the Golden Gate Bridge is golden. And that I assume those motorcyclists are Dykes on Bikes.

So from home, I wiggled my way to Castro, turned left and followed 19th east.

19th takes you straight through Dolores Park, which is not very exciting on a rainy day.

But on any other day it looks a lot like this Seurat-esque mural:

Hmm, I suddenly feel like stealing a Ferrari, going to a Cubs game and crashing a parade . . .

The next mural I saw was in the Mission and is not helping with the post-baseball depression. It's called

Vamos Gigantes!

Okay, you gotta check the close-ups because they're awesome:

Is it spring training yet?

And the last one. I was never one with the comic books, but I do love me some Ralph Garman, and he is all kinds of a comic book geek. So even though I wasn't listening to his HBO podcast with Kevin Smith, I still felt enough of a connection with my "friend" to snap the shot for him:

I did see more than murals today though.

I vote this to be the world's most awkward 3-point turn. Or 3,000 point turn.

I was stuck at this corner for almost 10 minutes watching this semi figure out how to get out of the precarious situation it found itself in. I was surprised when it was successful.

Nothing really exciting here, but this is a house you can see from the freeway and it stands out, obviously, cause it's colors are a little obnoxious. Anyway, fun to see the other side of it.

Total mileage: 5.51

Not technically a walk . . .

But since I found a couple erroneous street stamps, and I added half of the park, I'm including it.

I went on a training run for Disney Princess Half Marathon. It was a great run, perfect weather and I felt good. Even the curse of the park (it's all down hill to the ocean, which means it's all up hill on the return) didn't terribly bother me.

Plus I found this:

It should be singular - one chain of lakes not multiple chains of lakes.

Then I crossed the street and saw this.

Point for missing vowel. For some reason, I expected better of Golden Gate Park. It just goes to show you - no where is safe from the street stampers!

Total mileage: 8.1

Progress?

Easin' on down the roads . . .