Walking to Eat!

Walk #18

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to get my 'recreational' walk on. So I settled for yet another functional walk.

Today's function: Delicious food!

The best part of today's walk: Eva joined me! At one point she apologized for taking pictures and looking like a tourist. Haha, I take pictures all the time! Being a tourist in your home city is the best.

We started along Haight St to Buena Vista E where I had to apologize for the steep grade. But what goes up, must come down, and here we are on the steps down from Buena Vista E to Waller.

From Waller it was back UP Alpine Terrace, where we ran into one of my kitchen volunteers who lives up there! She is actually preparing a walking adventure for

herself, she's doing the 3-day breast cancer walk in Washington. Sadly, she wasn't able to join us, but

we wished her happy trials. But before we did she told us this house we were admiring belongs to one, Jim Hormel of SPAM fame. Mr. Hormel also happens to be a major donor to Project Open Hand! We didn't invite ourselves over for tea, though we should have.

Down 14th to Castro to 16th past the house with the most potted plants I've

ever seen down to the worst pedestrian intersection at Market, to Ike's Place. With eviction impending for my favorite tiny little sandwich shop, I felt like I had to get in there again sooner rather than later. I had a hard time deciding between the Ex-Boyfriend or the Al Bundy but ultimately went with the Tony Soprano - yum!

Sanchez to 18th to Guerrero

to 16th to Potrero to

Brannan and 8th for:

Now, the one thing I know for sure about the SF Underground Market, is that it is not very underground. Everyone and their mother was there on Saturday night. To be fair, I do know one more thing for sure. I heart Guiness Chocolate Ice Cream with Sea Salt.

Brannan to 10th to Market to Haight (with a detour for free wine and beer at a retail store where Eva's friend was) home.

Total mileage: 6.35

TGIF

Walk #17

It's been months and months since I have had a weekend without any plans. For the first time in forever I will not be setting an alarm tomorrow morning. I have a totally clear agenda and I could not be happier. I am hoping that it will lead to a weekend of Recreational Walks. Walking for the fun of it versus the Functional/Destinational walks which I normally do.

Today, however was a mini combo of both, though more functional than anything else. I had to make a return at Costco (where, naturally, I stayed for a late lunch of free samples), wanted to pick up some pizza dough fixin's, hit Walgreens and head home. (My to-do list is super exciting, right? Just think, I spared you from sharing yesterdays walk which was a straight shot on Haight Street to get my dry cleaning. Huh, guess I didn't spare you after all.) Polk to 9th with a detour down Jessie street in honor of my awesome cousin, to Harrison.

After all the free sampling, I opted for a longer way home and went all the way

around Costco, back to Harrison, down an alley named Norfolk (like in my 'hood

back home) to Folsom. Found this group of primates hanging around, not sure what they were up

to.

Then found this mural on a building called "The Ultimate Cookie" I bet I know exactly what they were up to, except they were closed so no snickerdoodles for me. Sad.

Stopped at Rainbow Grocery, a far cooler Cooperative

than Arizmendi, then made my way to S Van Ness, Market and Duboce.

Moving right along (ha ha, because I just returned the Muppet Movie at Costco, turns out I already own it!) Duboce was a ton of fun. There's a bicycle only/Hilary walking section of Duboce behind Safeway. The cool part is, the awesome mural with the Ferry Building, Bay Bridge, and of course, Muni.

There were a ton of folks waiting to hop on the N-Judah and I wanted to invite all of

them to join me as I walked up the hill and passed the dog park. (I, of course, did beat the N to the next stop).

I regretted this choice of route when I reached the intersection at Castro and found myself another staircase which had to be carved into the sidewalk because the street is to steep. But I figured if the man with his toddler son and their pooch could do it, so could I. So up I went.

The end result was pretty awesome.

From Duboce & Buena Vista E toward downtown From Buena Vista E toward the GG Bridge

Total Mileage: 4.24

From Poverty to Posh

Walk #16

Today's walk was the first in the series to really demonstrate the social stratification of SF. I basically walked down the same street, Eddy, for 2 miles. Staring in the Tenderloin, I encountered a several individuals strung out on drugs and two folks asked me for spare change. When I headed west, across Van Ness, I came across an Urban Share Community Garden Project at Eddy and Gough.

This is way more exciting to me then the one on Hayes where the freeway off ramp used to be. Last year, Eddy used to walk be my standard route and this used to be a vacant lot. Now look at it! They've produced over 1,000 lbs of produce! I gotta volunteer there.

As I continued on, I made an awkward loop at the end of Buchanan (a!) and Willow and found a group of folks pressure washing plates and cooking utensils in front of a dirt encrusted SUV with an airstream attached. Apparently they had a great time at Burning Man, but were extremely excited to get home to shower. :)

I passed through subsidized housing and crossed the "Divisadero divide", as it shall hence be known, into tree lined streets and overly expensive homes. What a difference a block makes, indeed.

I wish this photo conveyed how much up there was to the end of Eddy. At least it's a good visualization of today's walk. Sometimes the hills of San Francisco aren't all bad.

Total Mileage: 2.62

Some people mourn the Wicked . . .

Just the standard walk down Page to Market, nothing new was discoverated, but it was for the last time.

Thank goodness?

Not really, I'm a little devastrated and I'll miss our times in Oz.

Is there anything more American than Costco?

Walk #15

I'm going to go with no. Everything comes in outrageous sizes, it's one-stop shopping, there are free samples. Basically, I only venture there for toilet paper. Who can't use bulk amounts of TP?

It was a straight shot down Polk (turning into 10th). I took a detour down Sheridan where I found this mural.

Then I took a cab home, because no one could carry all that TP up Hayes Street (though I'm thinking of B2B costumes as I type ...)

Total mileage: 1.04

Took a late afternoon stroll to the de Young for the Birth of Impressionism (finally!)

and a "Red-Heads in the Mist" walk home. Ahh, summer in San Francisco.

Donna Martin Graduates!!

Walk #14.1, 14.2, 14.3 and 14.4

Happy 9.02.10 Day!

The playlist for today's walk includes Color Me Badd, Amy Grant, Ace of Base, Lisa Loeb, and The Heights. Ah, the 90's.

In honor of this historic day, I decided to make not one, but two roundtrips between home and work. Good times.

To work, I started out in the traditional way, including:

The second most photographed homes in America. I just never get tired of this view. Whatever did happen to predictability? Anyway, on from the show of my childhood back to the show of my tweens...

At the Painted Ladies, I turned down Steiner to follow Grove all the way into

work. As this is turning into a totally TV related post, these posters made me

pretty excited for the new seasons to start. My name is Hildoug, and I'm

a Gleek.

I'm also a geek for this:

I know this is a little bit of a stretch, but come on! We can all agree that the letter "I" in Octavia is totally a number "1"

Don't believe me? Well I walked back home along Ivy (which is basically an ally) and it proved that Octavia can indeed

be spelled correctly with an "I"

It also proved that Octavians like to keep things colorful.

After a brief stint at home, I took Page all the way to Market to get to the theater and Hayes back home.

Total Mileage: 9.21 (AWESOME!)

I leave you with the greatest moment in television history:

Progress?

One month in, I feel like I've walked a TON but it seems here like the map is mocking me. I've got a long way to go . . .