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*

Walking with Dr. Haygood

While the good doctor was in town, there weren't as many whole walking adventures but we did cover streets all around the city. I'm combining all of those bits and pieces here.

First, I must present my new walking shoes! You know they're awesome and you know you're jealous! Your tennis shoes aren't this colorful.

The timing of their arrival couldn't have been better. Let's hear it for the Giants and the NLCS!! Hmmm Baby!

(See what I've done there? Successfully used your, you're, their, they're and now there, correctly. Learn the basics people, it really isn't that hard.)

On Thursday, after I finished work I went to meet up with Dr. Haygood at the Cable Car Museum. As a side note, I love having excuses to do these touristy things. The museum was totally cool. Anyway, I walked from Polk to Post to Mason. And I should really say UP Mason. Luckily at the top, while huffing and puffing I looked down and what should I see? A little gift just for me:

We all know this is my favorite game, but I feel like misspelling the state capital maybe a bit too far. I do however, like that I can see the "A" under the "R" and the street stamper man obviously thought the vowel was of lesser value.

From the Cable Car Museum, we went down

Washington left on Grant, and through Chinatown to North Beach to grab a slice. Not sure exactly what's happening here. It's got the "1" phenomenon certainly, but the last "C" is pretty sloppy. All I can see is: PAC1F10 . . .

After we sat for a bit we hopped a bus halfway and walked from Union to Ellis down Polk Street.

**Shameless self promotion for Project Open Hand's 25th Anniversary of serving Meals with Love in San Francisco.**

On Friday morning, the promise of sailors and fast, loud airplanes had us headed to the Marina. We walked

along Lyon Street to take in the picturesque Lyon Stairway. There were not as many blooms as the last time I was here, but it was still a stairrific sight. Dr. Haygood was quite the trooper (a little pun intended) and seems to be in good spirits here, halfway down the steps.

As it turns out, the neighbors here take care of all of the gardens. One woman spearheaded the effort and turned it into a service project for plethora of groups and organizations. Yay community! (Even when it seems uppity and bougy.) My favorite thing about these stairs is that it's a magnet for outdoor exercise enthusiasts. You're always in the middle of someones intensely sweaty workout while you're here. Hats off to them, going up those stairs more than once at a time is where I draw the line.

We detoured a bit into the Presidio (as the armed forces were really the theme of the day) and took a quick jaunt into Sports Basement (naturally). We walked down Marina Blvd, where this drove me crazy:

Did you misplace the capital 'L'? Sheesh. Needless to say, Stephanie could not have been less interested, while I fixated on the corners folks will cut to get their jobs done...

We continued on to the 'Dateway' for drinks and headed back to the green for a picnic with an air show.

I have officially decided there is nothing hotter than the Blue Angels. Sure sure, it's a military recruiting tool (and a genius tool at that) and it is a waste of precious fuel and tax dollars blah blah blah - At the same time, it might be the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I can barely walk down the street with a companion without bumping into them once or twice and these amazing pilots fly, in formation, at 450 MPH!!!! It was so incredible it took my breath away. And my ability to hear. I loved everything about it.

At the end of the show, we walked along Chestnut St, which is more of Dr. Haygood's scene than Haight St is, and caught the bus home.

On Sunday, I ventured out on my own for a bit before meeting Dr. Haygood for Sunday's A Drag. If you're interested in a Drag Queen Brunch, I highly recommend it. I kept the walk simple, all the way down Sutter from beginning to end. At Fillmore this made me happy, because I feel like the street stampers are now recognizing their errors and making an effort to correct them. It's not a great effort, but an effort none-the-less.

And after passing the 6th Academy of Art building I a) understood this article (and its vehement comments regarding the AofA buildings being everywhere you look) from the Chronicle so much better and b) wished I had photographed them all. Luckily, I captured this one. Yup, it still says First Concrecational Church.

Total Mileage

Friday: 5.32 Sunday: 5.55

And a parting gift from me to you. wooooosh!

Come On Get Happy!

Walk #21.1 and 21.2 (must be allowed to drink and walk now)

So I've been changing my route to and from work just a little bit at a time. Things usually don't get too exciting but yesterday, walking home along Grove, I felt the need to move in here. With a window like that, how could you not get happy? Or want to sing all day with your family. I love me some David Cassidy! (And secretly, I love Danny Bonaduce.)

Today, I walked home along Turk which was pretty uneventful until I got close to USF where there was a lot of hustle and bustle now that the semester is in full swing. Then much to my excitement I found a treasure on TamalpAis Terrace.

What is up with the 'i' /'1' phenomenon? It's turning up everywhere!! Is it too hard to carry around the 'i' stamper and the '1' stamper? Or is the 'i' lost in the truck and you're too lazy to look for it and figure no one will notice? I'm more and more surprised the 'E' / '3' situation doesn't show up more. Also, street stampin' man, don't think I didn't notice you missed the third 'A'. I've got my eyes on you . . .

(p.s. mini shout out to Jessamyn on this one!)

Finding Fun in the Monotony

Walk # 20

San Francisco is not all glamourous or ghetto. Turns out there are many average streets along the way. But fun really can be found around every corner.

For example, after a yummy lunch with Jessamyn I headed south on 3rd St. I didn't worry about any cross streets but did hit up all dead-end streets. Clementine, St. Francis, Perry and Kaplan where I found a secret motorcycle parking lot.

After making my way to the ball park, I tried to walk parallel to the Embarcadero. As San Franciscans may know, not an easy task. Embarcadero isn't exactly straight, while most of the streets around it are. So I tried to wiggle my way as much as possible - to the end of Townsend and back to go up Collin P. Kelly, over to Brannan till it ends, then back to Delancy and so on. It didn't work well for too long. I tried to hit up all the awkward scragglybits of streets but missed a few so back I'll go. It was a little depressing over

there and this sad site didn't help.

20 newspaper stands with 2 newspapers -2 free ad books - 16 empty stands!! Poor sad print journalism (she says as she blogs).

I eventually gave up on the wiggle and took a straight shot up Beale which

became Davis across Market. Is there any street that retains it's name when it crosses Market? Only more walking will tell . . . .

On Green Street I found California Historical Landmark #941. What ever

could have happened on detached, 3.5 block section of Green Street over by the Embarcadero you ask? The birth of TV, that's what! This is the lab where Philo Farnsworth invented the first TV in 1927! Apparently, he was called the genius of Green Street (yes, I was/am thinking of Katie every time I saw/typed it). See, proof that walking is educational. And all good things come from SF. (We invented ice cream, right?)

So maybe not all good things originate in SF, that doesn't mean that we don't have Harry Potter's Pier. Lightening bolt and all! 66 days . . .

Done wiggling, I turned right onto Bay which I followed for about 2 miles. The beauty of this decision was not only crossing Jones street [Are my college roommates stalking me throughout the city today or what? I guess it'll be more interesting when I end up at the corner of Jones and Green, but still. If I come across a Brereton street things will officially get weird, though I feel like there's a higher possibility of me finding a Park St :) It's the same right?] but that Bay is probably the lowest grade crossing the city westward. Lucky me!

As the end drew near, I had some time so I decided to cross off a 3-square block radius within Bay, Fillmore, Laguna and Marina. Holy Cannoli, it turned out to be over two miles on it's own! I even had a nice plan for minimizing the blocks that had to be repeated (only 4 sides) and yet, two miles! Crazy! But done and done! And while my feet may have hated me at North Point and Webster I FINALLY found this wee error. Really, you couldn't solve that 'N' 'O' situation any better? I guess no. Bahahahaha!

Anyway, ended on Beach Street for some much needed couch time. Dinner and a movie with the fabulous Monday night movie crew = good times!

Total mileage: 9.16 miles