Another Fine Day in SF

Today was a day without Macworld. And I had a task to perform. We began, as we have done up to now, with a breakfast in this fine hotel. They put out a continental breakfast, with fruit and muffins, coffee, and so on. It is more than adequate, and we have used it to avoid having to go somewhere else for this.
After breakfast, I went out to see an artist whom I had met the other day at Union Square. He is from South Africa, Capetown actually. He does multi-media work about his homeland, and I found it quite compelling when I saw it in Union Square. I had been thinking about whether I wanted to buy something from him or not, and in the end thought I should see it again. He had moved his outdoor show to Huntington Park, which is not far from here, but is up a serious hill.




But I made it up there, puffing a bit, and found him. I was still smitten with this work, and ended up buying this piece:




I felt good, and the walk back to Joel at the hotel was all downhill.
So the plan for the day was to take the bus out to the Golden Gate Park, and go to the California Academy of Sciences. We decided to take the Number 5 bus, which involved walking down to Market Street, near the Powell Street station. While we were waiting, we were approached by a street person (actually, many came up to us, but this one was different). He had a street paper, full of poetry from the street, and I bought one to read on the bus. However, I didn't get a chance to read much, since the scenery this bus route goes through is quite marvelous. And it got us to the Park, so we had only a little way to walk.
As we crossed over to the Park, there was a concrete pad where many people with rollerblades were practising/playing to music. We walked by here, then went another block to get to the Academy itself. This place builds itself as the greenest building in SF,so I was interested if only for that reason.
After going through the African and evolution exhibits at the Academy, we went to the planetarium, and watched a wonderful show about the evolution of life on the Earth. Then went up and saw what they call the living roof, where they have set up not only solar panels, but also green plants that are growing there to absorb rainfall and cool the place (in San Francisco, a lot of the energy consumed goes towards cooling buildings).
Then back to the hotel for another social hour event there. We passed the skating pad again, and people were dancing together there as a group while on their blades. And on the main street in the park, there were walkers, cyclists, people doing tricks on cycles, families with strollers: people just enjoying the relatively warm and dry day in January.
We are now back in the hotel, working before we go out for a Thai supper which should be light and cheap. Tomorrow is just the morning before we subject ourselves to the indignities if air travel once more.
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Location:San Francisco, Post Street

San Francisco 2

Today we slept in a bit, but still managed to get down to the lobby of the hotel in time for the breakfast. The room is great, even has a whirlpool bath! (not that either of us will use it, or the included bidet either, but nice to have it there.) the day broke sunny again, and a bit cooler than yesterday, but very pleasant.

We decided to travel down Jones Street to get to the Moscone Centre, which seemed more direct, but we discovered took us through a fairly rough part of town. Interesting that, even in a very nice American city, you get these fast transitions between trendy, rich areas, and the down-and-out rough parts of the town. And the people of the street, just a lot more street begging and praising Jesus, and stuff, going on, compared to Canada.

But we got to Moscone without trouble, for a quick trip through Macworld. I had some things I had decided to buy, and Joel also was interested in a few things. So we did that, then headed back to our hotel to drop them off. Stopped for lunch at a place called "Honey Honey", dropped off our things, and headed down by bus to the Embarcadero.

The weather cooperated, remaining sunny and pretty warm. We walked the length of the place, all the way to Fisherman's Wharf, stopping only for a snack at Pier 39.




And after that, we waited....and waited....for the cable car. There was a long line up, they seemed determined to go only every ten minutes even though there were lots of cars waiting in line, so we had to wait for over an hour to get on the car to go home.




And it was an exciting ride. As well as the known hills and up and down sections of the line, there were the cars with rather challenged drivers who thought it was okay to be in the way of the cable car as it was going down a steep hill. Unfortunately, i had sat in a place where the operator's elbow hit be when he pulled hard on the brake, so I got off the car at the end with three good elbow blows to my head, feeling a bit like a hockey player at half time.

It's now about eight PM, so we are about to go out for supper, across the street at an Indonesian restaurant called "Borobudur". Then home and soon to bed. A lot of walking today. And tomorrow is another day.


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Location:San Francisco, Post Street

Today I am in San Francisco

i came down here with my friend Joel, to visit San Francisco at the time of the Macworld conference. I at least have been here before, both with my wife and children, and with Joel - most recently three years ago. Since that time, the big exhibitors like Apple and Adobe no longer are here, so it is a much smaller affair. But still interesting, as a place for the display of all things Mac, from software to hardware.

There is something strange in going from a snowy day at about freezing, to a place where there is sun and temperatures of sixteen or more. Kind of throws off - in a good way - the body's rhythms.

Our flight down was delayed a bit, so we didn't get here until late in the evening by my body's time. Then the BART to get into Union Square, and a walk of about seven blocks to the Beresford Arms, where we are staying for the next four days.




As you can see, this is an older building, actually listed as a National Historic Site. They supply a continental breakfast, an afternoon wine and cheese, and our room has a kitchen with it, so we almost don't need to eat out!

Today was our day at the Conference. A much smaller event than before, but still good. On e walk back, we stopped at Union Square for an outdoor art show, enjoying one person in particular with art based on his experience in South Africa.



We saw some things at Macworld we thought we could use, and plan to go back tomorrow to spend some money. Then we will use the sunny warm weather to explore the city a bit.

For tonight, we are off to an Italian restaurant, called Fino, for a meal before bed.

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Location:Jones St,San Francisco,United States