What's all the hype?

Walk #unlucky 13

It's been over a week since I've made any walking progress! I worked every night last week and spent my long weekend in Tahoe, but still. I feel behind!

In all of my working two-jobs, running, traveling and family-time whirlwinds I have almost missed the Birth Of Impressionism at the de Young. So I decided to bolt out of work, and see if I could make it there today.

I chose to take Fulton the whole way as it seemed the fastest.

I passed some cool stuff along the way. The African American Art and Culture

Complex was visually stimulating and it seems like they have a ton of cool stuff happening. I've made a note to check out some of their upcoming exhibits. (I would've stopped but I was already pushing the clock to make it to the de Young!)

Thankfully, Fulton proved to be relatively flat (for San Francisco, that is). And even though I was mostly focused on my destination, the Impressionist exhibit was sold out for the afternoon. Not to fret, I got tickets for Friday night which will be more fun any way.

To turn the afternoon around, I decided to finally see what all of the fuss is about. In the last few months, all of

my roommates, several volunteers, multiple co-workers, and riders on Muni have sung the praises of Arizmendi. Located on 9th between Irving and Judah, today seemed like the perfect opportunity for me cross the park to test out everyone's favorite bakery. Recognizing that when the bar is set overly high by everyone you know, it makes it especially hard for that thing to meet your expectations, Arizmendi - not my favorite. I really dislike places where you have to be "in the know" to order. It's not exactly friendly for new customers. And I'm not just referring to the fact that there is no menu, or guide to tell you you have to grab the items you want then get in line, no one, customers or 'owners', of the crowded bakery offered any assistance. Dude, just tell me how it works, instead of rolling your eyes at me for not knowing. Grrrr. In the end I had focaccia (because I had no idea there was pizza or how to get it), a mediocre hot chocolate and a hard, dry chocolate mint cookie. I'll give them credit for "Make Loaves , Not War" and for beeing a co-op, but overall, it was a disappointing experience.

On my walk home, (9th to Lincoln, Lincoln turns into Frederick, Frederick to Belvedere to Haight and Clayton)

I grew sad that I had not come across any interesting cement street stamps. I was on quite the roll for my last few walks. But as they say "Ask, and ye shall receive."

Thank you, San Francisco Street Cement Stampers, thank you very much.

Total mileage: 5.31

Sunburnt Feet

Walk #12

After leading a morning seminar at USF (for fellow Commuity Partners on how to host Advocates for

Community Engagement and Service-Learnering students) and a yummy lunch at Jannah with my own ACE, the fabulous ushers of the Orpheum Theater had their annual BBQ today in Marx Meadow, Golden Gate Park. With the tops of my poor feet badly sunburt from the previous days family funtime in Santa Cruz, I hit the pavement on a route I usually run.

I tried to hide in the shade of the Pan Handle but ran out of shade once I hit JFK Dr. in the park. Luckily it was a mere 2-mile walk. I really couldn't believe how far it actually was. It never seems that long when I run it, and let's face it I'm not exactly setting any speeding records when I'm "running." And yet walking seemed to take forever. Then again it may have seemed longer because I was worried about my feet.

I was so excited when I finally hit Crossover Drive and could hide in the shade under the bridge even for a moment. (What a wimp, right?) Luckily it wasn't much farther and once I reached the picnic, everyone was huddled in the shade so I got to spare my feet for a bit.

I had a great time hanging out with everyone, eating, playing Apples to Apples and listening to music. Something about the day made me really miss R-Siz and Jason, but I'm not sure what it was . . . .

Made a bee-line home (because I HAD to do laundry): Fulton to Stanyon to Oak.

Total mileage: 4.57

A Special Trek to Trader Joe's

It was a beautiful day when I left work. Luckily, I had some free time this evening so I decided to walk to Trader Joe's for baking supplies (and their phenomenal organic chocolate milk).

I took Ellis to Van Ness and up Geary. There was a small one-block side street between Fillmore and Steiner called Avery that I decided to stroll down and back just to keep things interesting.

As I came to Geary and Broderick, I discovered this. Apparently they ran out of E's with the old cement stamper.

Hit Trader Joe's on Masonic for bananas and preserves (hooray for banana bread!) and headed down Masonic to home.

Total mileage: 2.87

What a difference a block makes. . . .

Walk # 10 (ish)

I started the morning by alternating my walk to work by one block. It seemed relatively harmless to make a minor change so I did it yesterday (talking Page to Scott to Hayes) and today it proved to be highly lucrative as I took Page to Pierce to Hayes. As I was crossing Pierce and Oak I found this gem:

Please note the the street is A) stamped twice B) facing two different directions and C) (get it C? haha, that's for Kfo!) is now PIERGE. Seriously, who is in charge around here?!? Pierce/Pierge St might be my new favorite mistake. Mistake is perhaps the wrong word. I need to come up with a term to define the street imprinting error phenomenon. I'm open to suggestions . . . .

Same same, but different . . .

Walk #9

It's Tuesday night, and I have the night off from the theater so that can only mean one thing: $2 Tuesday at City Tavern! Tonight I was good and didn't over indulge (on fries or beer - hooray) and I even stuck to my guns about walking home. Much to MJ's dismay . . .

The City Tavern is located at Greenwich and Fillmore which is EXACTLY where I started from yesterday so I shifted over

one block and took Steiner all the way to Haight. Along the way, I passed the Mrs. Doubtfire house ("it was a run-by fruiting!") I only knew it was here because once I was on the 22 bus (again coming home from the Tavern) with some tourists who got super stoked about it. Turns out, in the movie, they give the houses EXACT address. Crazy. Anyway here it is. Can you picture the scene where it's the kids birthday and there's a whole petting zoo out front? Maybe it's just me. Anyway, it was a fun point of interest on an otherwise uneventful hike up hill. That is until Randy joined me! Technically he cheated and MJ gave him a ride to the top of the hill (something about buying a specific brand of yogurt at the only store that sells it) but he saw me before the bus came so he officially gets a gold star for being the first one to accompany me on part of my journey. Yay Randy! It may be easy enough to get him to join me again, though we should probably go for beers AFTER we walk . . .

Did a bit of a wiggle once I hit Haight to cover some side streets before heading home.

Total mileage: 3.36

Up Hill, Both Ways . . .

Walk # 8

Whoever first claimed to have walked uphill to school, both ways must've been a San Franciscan (or a Bruin!). The thing is that it's not just up hill both ways, it's seriously up hill. Streets are so steep it gets to a point where they (the same folks who stamp the names into streets? perhaps . . . ) have to carve 'stairs' into the sidewalk. This particular occurrence happens to be on Fillmore Street, though I'm certain I will encounter many more. This hike up was more than I bargained for first thing on a Monday morning, tea in hand, but I made it! Then I went down hill, up again, turned on (and up) Geary, then down (and up) Broderick to Page.

Total mileage: 2.76

Everybody Loves Sports Basement

Walk #7

It was a beautiful day for a Sunday stroll! Page to Masonic to Persidio (which, as it turns out, has no sidewalks. I was not necessarily prepared for a nature hike.) to Lincoln. My favorite part: the trail down to the Sports Basement parking lot was under construction and after seriously considering tramping through the foliage, I found a semi-hidden staircase. Unfortunately, it led me to a construction zone and I had to find a hole in the fence to get out. Too bad no one had a video camera, the whole thing was pretty funny.

Total mileage: 3.1

A Short Jaunt to an Awkward Stamp

Walk #6

Took a short round about walk to the Haight Street Farmer's Market. There is a booth there where they sell like 20 different kinds of peaches. You can taste test each one and they're all yummy. I also buy blueberries and empanadas. It's a delicious afternoon outing and mostly uneventful. With the added beauty of awkward S's at Shrader and Waller.

Planes, Trains and Tennis Shoes

Walk #5

After the blistering heat of Lubbock, Texas (Congratulations Dr. Haygood!) it feels good to be back to summer in San Francisco. I love the cool air and the fog, this is totally where I belong. And after a week without walking anywhere it was nice to hit the pavement again. Down Haight St then onto 12th. Though not quite as exciting as the mispellings, these make me happy and curious as well:

These two corners are one block away. Why on earth is one "12th St" while the other is "Twelve"? Who is in charge? The inconsistency boggles the mind. . .

Halfway down 12th I discovered the San Francisco Chocolate Factory. Who knew such yummy chocolate was made in SF? Fortunately for me, it was on sale! Hooray! I got dark chocolate and milk chocolate and pride chocolate (only in SF. . . )

From 12th to Harrison, Division, and Townsend to the Caltrain Station and out of the city I go . . .

Total mileage: 3.4

The Standard Walk

Walk #4

In keeping with the new rule (only rule?) I went for my tried and true route to work this morning. Clayton, Page, Divis, Hayes, Franklin, Golden Gate, Van Ness, Eddy. I only share it as it's the first time I've done it as part of the Walking Adventure, and it's an excellent opportunity to share spelling error #2. At the corner of Hayes and Buchanan I give you:

This was really my first pavement stamp misspelling. It took me forever to determine if it was just me, but no. It says Buchnana not Buchanan. Love.

Total Mileage: 2.4

New Rules & Street Error #1

Walk #2

It took Mr. Graham 7 years to walk all the streets of SF. I feel like I can do it in less. My advantage is living IN San Francisco and not really enjoying taking Muni. I already walk 2.5

miles to work and back everyday so just altering my daily course should help me bust through a certain number of streets relatively quickly.

I decided to try a new way to work this morning and headed up Clayton to Oak, all the way to Gough. Around Oak and Laguna I passed an old freeway off-ramp which has been converted into a community farm. It's not much to look at here, but there's a lot of cool stuff happening. I didn't check it out for too long because it looked like bee keeping is their latest venture, but there were lots of trees, plants and compost. Hooray for turning something unsightly into community bonding via greening the city! Unfortunately, I was short on time, which seems to be a running theme, so I had to get a move on. Gough to Golden Gate to Van Ness (for morning tea from Pete's) to Eddy to Polk to POH.

New rule: There is no time in the morning for variations. There is no time for discovery, finding new cafes or shops, and there is no time for attention to detail. From here forward, my walk to work, will be the same old tried and true route with the sole focus of (crazy as it sounds) getting to work. Adventures will only happen on the way home.

Total mileage: 2.44

Walk #3

After work I had errands to run so I took a stroll through the Tenderloin to Union Square for a little shoe shopping (ironically, I did NOT buy walking shoes) I kept it pretty basic on the walk back. I went down Market and as I walked to work down Oak, I naturally decided to take Fell home. It seemed like my walk was going pretty uneventful until I found my first hidden gem.

The city of San Francisco is an awesome walking city. On almost every street corner, the street names are

stamped into the cement. But if you pay enough attention, you will find tiny misspellings and errors in the names. The street name will be stamped on all 4 corners of each intersection for miles and miles and on one corner of Steiner St, at Fell, you may notice this:

What happened to the 'i'? It was on the other 3 corners. And it is probably correct on every other corner for the length of Steiner St, but somehow this one is wrong. I am CONSUMED by this. Is a city worker bored and trying to entertain him/herself while stamping fresh pavement? Is it actually an accident? It seems unlikely. I'm on a mission to find ALL of these. I love them. If you know of any, please share!

From Steiner or "Stener" and Fell it was a straight shot home.

Total mileage: 4.55

The Journey Begins

Here it is: A clean slate. The city of San Francisco just waiting to be conquered!

Dad & Terri came into town for the Giants-Dodgers game and we decided to meet at Pier 39 for lunch. Naturally, there was only one way to get there, so away I go!

Walk #1

I didn't have a ton of time so I went with a pretty basic route. From home I headed up Clayton to Grove, took a detour up Broderick (to by pass a street fair - no time for distractions today, but I will be back!) to Fulton. Up Divisadero to Sacramento (which seemed appropriate given that I was on my way to meet Dad & T who had

just come from there). A time crunch led me to turn on Van Ness. If time really got away from me, I could hop on a bus. Luckily, Dad & T were stuck in traffic, and I got to finish my walk. I turned on North Point, then Stockton and finally hit Pier 39.

Total miles: 4.92. Not a bad start.

p.s. The Giants beat the Dodgers 2-0 for the sweep. Hmmm baby!