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(Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006)

Explore Embarcadero Day. Starting from the Montgomery BART station (Montgomery and Market Streets) in San Francisco‘s Financial Center, I walked through Yerba Buena Gardens, down 3rd, along the Embarcadero to Green, then up Telegraph Hill via the Filbert Steps to Coit Tower, down Greenwich to Grant, and over to Geary. I covered approximately half of the Embarcadero — the half I’ve seen less of on previous visits.

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After dining at Millenium …

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… I walked back to the Montgomery BART station and caught a train back to Berkeley.

A grand total of 8+ miles (including Berkeley mileage for coffee, etc.).

Today’s weather started out cloudy, cold, and windy, same as last Thursday. Perhaps this is a regular Bay Area Thursday thing. Although I think my first Thursday here, the last Thursday in August, was nice. So perhaps it’s a regular September Thursday in the Bay Area thing.

(Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006)

My left foot still hurts after yesterday’s long trek (and the cumulative effects of previous 10-mile hikes). It’s threatening to have itself amputated, and it’s trying to convince the right foot to join it. In an attempt to placate the foot, I stayed close to home and didn’t walk much. And in an attempt to placate the blog-hosting server and my disk quota, I didn’t take any photos today.

(Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006)

First, a couple of bicycle and motorcycle shots for The Boyfriend:

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Today I walked from downtown San Francisco, up and over Powell Street, down to Fisherman’s Wharf, cruised through Ghirardelli Square, along Marina, through Presidio and Crissy Field, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and back across the bridge; about 10 miles total.

I intended to take a cable car over Powell to the Hyde Street Pier area. However, a long line of fellow tourists had formed at the downtown cable car turnaround, and the sun felt blazing hot (the temperature was probably 80 degrees). I noticed that one side of Powell was in the shade, so I decided to walk part of the way up the hill, until the right cable car came along. By the time that happened I was most of the way there, so I decided to save $3 and walk the rest of the way. The cable car reached the final destination about 5 minutes before I did. OK, more like 15 minutes, but it would have been only 5 if I hadn’t veered off course a few times to take pictures. (That is so like me.)

I had planned to walk all the way back to Fisherman’s Wharf, but my feet were very sore after coming back across the bridge. So I took a bus from the southeast side of the bridge (gift shop area) close to the wharf and transferred to another bus going downtown. Thinking back to my first San Francisco trip 9 years ago, I felt like I had wimped out. On that trip, I walked all the way from the wharf, across the bridge, and all the way back to the wharf. Then I realized: I was 9 years younger and at least 20 pounds lighter then, and I hadn’t done several other 10 mile walks on that trip. I think those other 10 mile walks contributed most to my fatigue today.

As always, I saw and photographed many interesting sights along the way. And yes, my tattoo was happy to return to the “mother tattoo.”
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(Monday, Sept. 11, 2006)

For today’s adventure, I took the bus into Alameda and walked through R. W. Crown Memorial State Beach/Crab Cove; part of the San Francisco Bay Trail runs through here. I also walked along Alameda Beach. At Crab Cove, I saw a bunch of what turned out to be squirrels. I don’t know exactly what kind of squirrel. They’re different from the brown squirrels I see in Berkeley and from the grey squirrels I see at home (Seattle). They look and move like some squirrel-chipmunk-ferret-prairie dog mutant rodent. (I’ve included one squirrel picture in this album.)
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Today’s bike and proof shots:

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And I had dinner at New World Vegetarian in Oakland.

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The weather today was spectacular — sunny and warm. The breeze coming off of the bay kept it from getting too warm during my beach walk.

(Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006)

After yesterday’s long walk, I decided to stick close to my temporary home in Berkeley, and not do too much walking.

Today’s bike shot:

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And today’s architecture:

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Dining: Brunch at Cafe Gratitude. Dinner: An Amy’s Kitchen frozen (purchased at Andronico’s).

Weather: Pleasantly warm and sunny.

That’s all, folks.

(Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006)

Another overcast, chilly day in Berkeley, with fog in San Francisco:

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Today I zig-zagged over the hills from 1st and Mission in downtown San Francisco, over to the Marina area, with the Palace of Fine Arts as my final destination.

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Some general San Francisco shots:

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And a couple of signs:

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(Friday, Sept. 8, 2006)

Drastic change in the weather today — cloudy, windy, and cold all day. Cold enough that my landlady called to explain how to turn on the heat in my room. A good day to stay indoors, edit photos, and try to catch up on my blogging … which I did for much of the day. Well, I didn’t get too far with the blogging. After editing a ton of photos (I post only a fraction on my blog), I selected “export pictures” — an important step in the editing and posting processes.

Nothing happened. So I tried it again.

And nothing happened. So I tried it one more time.

And a couple of hours later (literally), the export finished. Turns out, since I hit “export” 3 times, the photo editing program was trying to export the 100+ photos 3 times concurrently, which takes a long time. Apparently, my laptop and/or the program was a bit slow today, and I just didn’t wait long enough for the first export to start.

Some people think I’m impatient, but I don’t have time to address that right now.

Around 4:30 this afternoon, I got cabin fever and went for a walk, doing a couple of miles along the Berkeley Aquatic Park trail. As usual, I saw some cool buildings and flora along the way:

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My proof shot is included in the Aquatic Park album:

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I’ve seen this sign on a number of houses for sale in the area; I’m thinking of having this phrase tattooed on my forehead:

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Bummer, no bike shots for The Boyfriend today.

Dinner at Fellini.

(Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006)

Today, I made another trip into San Francisco. Here are the requisite bike and proof pictures (quite a few bike pictures; click “View the album” to see them all):

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Once in San Francisco, I started from the Transbay Terminal (around 1st & Mission) as usual; I’ve been traveling across the Bay via the “F” bus. In looking at my map, that part of town doesn’t seem to have its own identity — it’s in between the Financial Center and South Beach.

I then went over to Powell, walked up Washington, over to Mason and Jackson, then Jones and Vallejo, then Hyde and Chestnut, meandering through parts of Nob Hill and Russian Hill.

On my way back to the downtown area, I stopped at Grace Cathedral (at California and Taylor). I wasn’t going to; I’ve been there a few times before and have taken many, many pictures. But I just can’t resist religious architecture and art:
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Of course, I also took some more “general San Francisco” pictures …
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… some miscellaneous photos ….
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and snapped shots of a few signs …
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Eats: I picked up provisions at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. See my Bay Area Food page for more info.

(Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2006)

Today’s bike and proof shots:

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Today I took another long walk through San Francisco, beginning around 1st and Mission. In addition to the Financial Center (makes sense, given my starting point and the general direction I decided on), I strolled through the Japantown, Cathedral Hill, and Tenderloin neighborhoods, ending in Union Square.

Japantown:
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Cathedral Hill:
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Financial Center, Tenderloin, Union Square, etc.:
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My route: I went along Sutter; over to Fillmore; down to Post; and to Gough, Franklin, Geary, Starr King, O’Farrell (probably not in that exact order).

The day started out overcast and a bit chilly, warmed up and sunned up during the afternoon, and the temperature cooled down in the early evening, as a high fog embraced the hilltops. As usual.

(Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006)

First, today’s bike shot for The Boyfriend:

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Next, today’s proof shots:

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I had 2 goals for today’s “explore” (as Winnie the Pooh would say): 1) To walk all the way up San Francisco’s Filbert Steps; and 2) to get a closer look at the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. I accomplished both.

My route: I started around 1st and Mission, walked through the Financial Center, up (along Kearny) through Chinatown, to Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower, down and then back up the Filbert Steps, and then back down (along Grant) to the Financial Center.

General San Francisco pictures:

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Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower photos:

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Filbert Steps:

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Pictures of the birds (they’re actually cherry headed conures, not parrots) didn’t turn out very well. The birds roosted high up in a tree, beyond my camera’s zoom capabilities.
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Chinatown:
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I ate dinner at Medicine New-Shojin Eatstation in the Crocker Galleria:

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Miscellaneous:

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