Tuesday, November 30, 2010

This Walk Sponsored by the Letter 'F' (and not 'E')

Walk #38 +
Before getting to todays adventure, I need to share a brief snippet from yesterday. I walked to the gym and found this along 16th:
It was pretty awesome. With the exception of Buster (who looked wonky), it seemed to really capture the team. Even Lou Seal is hangin' in the corner. But the best part is the asterisk at the bottom:
*current world series doesn't include the following countries: afghanistan, albania, algeria . . .
:)

Anyway, for todays walk I had to go, again, to Sports Basement, but in the Presidio. So I took Ellis or Eiiis:
Okay, I recognize that IF street stamps used lower cases this could be acceptable. But as we know, streets are stamped in capital letters and clearly the stampers couldn't find the 'L'. So I took Eiiis to Franklin all the way to the Marina. I crossed Geary, or Gary, if you've lost a vowel.
Once I hit Chestnut, I had to do a little creative zigging and zagging to hit some random blocks I've missed. But the long haul of the trek was Franklin to Filbert.

Along Filbert, I crossed Webster . . . .
Okay. Seriously. What happened to the 'E'? Not a lot of vowel love today...

From Filbert I again zagged and zigged to make my way down to Marina/Crissy Field. The shopping trip was totally unsuccessful, but it turned out to be a great evening for a walk so I guess it wasn't a total wasted trip.


Total mileage: 5.84

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Sidewalk Speaks . . .

Walk #37

Holy cannoli, today involved a lot of physical activity! After my morning run, Eva and I headed over to Sports Basement where she was teaching a free yoga class. (Yay free!) The class was awesome. It was one of those classes where you feel all relaxed and zen afterwards but the next day you wake up hurting in places you didn't know existed.

After yoga, we were feeling a bit ambitious and decided to do a bit of walking. Nothing too exciting, just a bit of a basket weave between 16th and 24th. Potrero, Hampshire, York, Bryant, Florida, Alabama. As always in the Mission, beautiful murals pop up here and there...

And so do the terrifying space monkeys (11:15):

















The trouble with going north/south over streets I've walked east/west is a repeat in mispelled street stamps. So while I came across 17ht and Flori'd'a, again, it was a little disappointing to not find anything new. Alas.

Near the end of my adventure, I got this message from the street. I thought it was pretty sweet.

Indeed, I do.

Total mileage: 8.67

Sunday, November 21, 2010

This Walk brought to you by BBQ!

Walk #36

Seeing as how it was supposed to bucket rain all day, I didn't really plan on getting much of a walk in. But the rain never really came so I improvised todays walk. There's not much photographic proof because Section A was a basket weave through the Tenderloin: up Hyde, down Leavenworth, Jones, Taylor, Cyril Magnin, Powell, Stockton. All between Market and O'Farrell. There were tons of social services, lines for free food and a couple of drug deals. Wasn't really comfortable busting out the camera. Section B was Market to Embarcadero which was super boring because it was Sunday and EVERYTHING was closed. Then Section C was all along Folsom to 101. It was a little boring. With one major exception.

I was pretty hungry and in search of somewhere yummy to eat. I passed a ton of places that were closed, a couple of fast food chains and a ton of leather bars. As the situation grew dire, I looked up and saw this:

Yes, the infamous Big Nate's BBQ. I can't tell you the number of times I heard Mr. K go on about Big Nate's and how one can order plates and plates of meat. I think he *might* have even brought Dirt Boy and I here during our senior year, so even if I have been here before, it's been 13 years. Anyway, I was SUPER excited to stumble upon it and I went right in. The guy at the register was totally awesome and totally listened to the story of my high school band director. I ended up ordering the pulled pork with mac & cheese and sweet tea.
And all I have to say is YUM - MY!! Mr. K is just the best.

Back at the ranch . . .
I finished up Duboce, to Hermann, and then in and out of the blocks around Duboce Park, before hitting Pierce to Page and home.


Total Mileage: 10.29

Monday, November 15, 2010

Same Old Thing I Did Last Week

Walk # 35

Another gorgeous day in San Francisco, another walk through the streets. There was lots of excitement on today's adventure which started from work on Hyde, not to be confused with:
Steven Hyde That '70s Show


Of course, there was this:
I think I need to start keeping a tally of: Incorrect Spelling vs. Missing Letters vs. Correct Letters, Wrong Order vs. Correct Letters, Wrong Direction vs. Numbers as Letters (not including ones as I's because those are far too rampant). 1 point for Correct Letters, Wrong Order. All those consonants in the middle sort of freak me out.

Before heading down to the water, I got this awesome view (opposite from yesterday's Bay Bridge view.)

Descending Hyde Street, I witnessed one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Minding my own business waiting to cross the street, I heard honking and turned to see one car sideswipe another and I watched as the car
bounced off and FLIPPED OVER landing UPSIDE DOWN!! I stood there like an idiot for a second before I
realized I needed to be calling 911. (Shout out to the 911 operators who were super nice and the first responders who were there in less than 90 seconds. Phenomenal.) Luckily, several other citizens whose brains work faster (and apparently weren't afraid of the potential mess that could have been in the car) rushed over to help the driver who managed to get out of the car and was stumbling around. I've seen overturned cars before, but never seen one actually over turn, and I've never seen an overturned car on a residential city street! How fast was he going to flip that car over?!?! CRAZY! I tried to help the police as much as I could but they wanted details I didn't have so I left it to the driver of a third car who saw it all. (I know, I know - SUPER low class to snap the photo and even lower class to post it. BUT in my defense, there was no blood and there was no immediate danger. And you can see everyone talking to the police about what happened trying to be helpful. And the car is upside down! On Bay Street!! I know, I know, I'm a horrible person . . . )

Needless to say, the whole experience was a little jarring and certainly changed the tone of my walk. I took Hyde to Jefferson, crossed through Maritime Park, to Polk, up a wee bit to Lombard which I followed all the way to the Presidio. I wanted to bust out some side streets or more of the Marina but I lost a lot of time and it was getting dark.

I turned from Lombard to Lyon until Bay and this stunning San Francisco landmark.
I ended my adventure my wiggling my way to MJ's house for dinner.

Total mileage: 5.79

Sunday, November 14, 2010

This walk brought to you by the number 20

Walk #34

It was a BEAUTIFUL day in San Francisco. It was a little warm for my taste but it was super easy to
keep in the shade, which always makes the walk more pleasant. And I knew it was going to be a good walk when no more than 1o minutes in, I found my first street stamp. Backwards letters are turning out to be more fun than misspellings...


I took Haight to Buena Vista East , down Park Hill to Roosevelt (which I've already done, darn it!) down Levant
to the Vulcan Street Stairs.

I'm so fascinated by these streets that are actually staircases. How on earth do people move into these houses?
At the same time, how fun would it be to live along a staircase! No cars going going by, sort of quiet and secluded. Very un-city like living, right in the middle of the city.


Much to my surprise the Vulcan Stairs were not the last of today's journey. From the bottom of the stairs I continued down Ord to 17th over to Douglass where I went up and down. I followed Douglas across Market, took a trip down Carson which is a dead end and turned on to 20th which I essentially followed all the way to the bay.

The best part of making a straight shot along one street is that you get to see all the creativity of the street
stampers. A phenomenon which will hence be known as the 'So Van Ness'. (See previous post, Murals in the Mission.)

For example: 20TH ST appeared quite a bit and it seems that it would be the most accurate. I get "20TH" as well. I doubt any San Franciscans would confuse the Streets and Avenues. But what about 20ST? I get that it's supposed to be 20 STREET, but
to me, this is awfully close to "2TH AVE" which I came across way back in August. And then there's the fun of spelling out "TWENTIETH" which just seems like so much work for our already lazy street stampers. So sometimes, as you can see, you get "TWENTYTH" similar to the TWELVTH from back in October. It's totally the same guy doing it, I'm sure. "Just throw on a TH, it'll be fine."


There were two pseudo interruptions to my 'straight shot' along "Twentyth St."
Up some stairs, down some stairs. On the second set (right) I came across a dad and his two sons running up and down the stairs trying to get in a bit of a work out. It was a nice idea, family exercise time, but the dad was a little intense and the younger son was crying for water. 'A' is for Awkward.

I also came a cross a woman from the neighborhood who gave me a tip about climbing over a fence and crawling under some bushes so I could get this photo of where I was headed:








I passed by Dolores park which was in full force, hula hoopers and all.
























And, only in the Mission, an advert for a yoga studio.

The second interruption came in the form of Highway 101. I had to go down to 18th to cut across then come up San Bruno. After crossing the freeway, I had this awesome view of where I had come from:









I passed two community gardens along the way, turns out, there is no shortage of them in the city.



















From 20th I turned onto Illinois ...
Sure sure, not misspelled, but I'm sure we can agree - that 'N' is actually a 'Z' . . .


Illinois to 16th to Bryant to 14th to Hartford, back to 20th for a photo I had missed, Eureka to 17th to Ashbury, home. Whew, I'm EXHAUSTED!


Total mileage: 11.15

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Curse the end of Daylight Saving Time!

I had big plans to walk after work this week, but when it's dark by 5:30, it's hard to motivate oneself to walk, let alone stroll through the TL. So I only walked home. BUT, I walked home along McAllister because there were a few sections of it I hadn't hit. And there was this:

poor, sad, missing 'T'.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Everyone Loves A Parade

Walk #33

Today was the victory parade for our World Series Champion Giants!

I took Haight to Broderick to Waller to Buchanan to Fell to Market (to hit some random blocks I had missed) and met up with Jess at her office downtown. We had a bird's eye view of the parade:













It was hard to see a lot of the guys but it was a pretty spectacular place to watch the festivities without being over crowded. And we probably saw way more than the folks on the street. (Though all the people that climbed ON TOP OF THE BUS probably had the best views.)



After lunch I took a stroll on 2nd St down from Market. And it looks like the San Francisco Street Stampers have struck again!

On first glance, it looks as though the 'S' is backwards.
But on closer inspection, I think it's an '8' that they creatively altered. Good effort if they were missing the 'S' stamp, but backwards execution.

And speaking of backwards....
Jessamyn tipped me off to this and I have NO idea what the hell is happening here.
Even reversing it doesn't really help with its awkwardness.
Seriously, what is THAT? At least the letters are in the correct order . . . .


I stopped by AT&T Park to soak up some more orange and black ambiance and made my way along King to 5th then Berry, 7th to Hopper, Wisconsin to 16th to Carolina, where I found the home of the "Cable Cars" that had been featured in the parade!

From there, I took 15th St as far home as I could and I found a lot of awesomeness along the way.
Had to take a brief detour from Potrero to 16th and it was super fun that I did.

First, I passed by the site of the Giants original playing field, Seals Stadium.

They played here for the first couple of seasons after they arrived from New York while they waited for Candlestick to be built. Fun fact: the Giants first game in San Francisco was against none other then the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Giants won 8-0. :)

Shortly after the move to Candlestick, Seals Stadium was demolished. Now there's a mini mall here. Which in and of itself is not exciting, but Sports Basement is across the street. Very exciting. I resisted the urge to go in. I can never get out of that place without spending crazy amounts of money.

Anyway . . . .
Secondly, before making my way back onto 15th from Harrison I found this. So close . . . .
Last one for today. When I reached Van Ness (or So Van Ness) I came across this. It's a little faded, but we definitely have some backwardsness happening again. N's and S's are hard.
And finally, I passed an Episcopalian Church. The back side of which was along an alley. In the Mission, you know what that means: mural time!
The lighting sucked but you can still see the general concept.




















San Francisco is so awesome.

I continued on until 15th ended. I circled around Buena Vista Park and ended where I began.

Total mileage: 9.42


And, because I can't resist, a final treasure from the San Francisco Giants 2010 post season. *love*