Nerding out in the kitchen

On Sunday we decided to go into the city and have a look around.  After of course our usual morning stint of nerding out.

The first destination was a hat shop near Union Square where Mike once saw a lime green hat that he thought would be perfect to go with his Sounders kilt.  Of course since it was several years ago that he saw the hat there, it was a mission doomed to failure.

Go Sounders!

However, Mike did find some shoes in Sounders colors.  They are mottled blue and yellow/green.  Just the thing to wear with a Sounders kilt!

We then decided to take a walking tour.  Of course since walking is a form of exercise, we first had to fortify ourselves with food and beer.  We discovered an interesting little area with several shops, etc. (including our lunch stop) all housed in old shipping containers.  There was even one clothing store that had several levels housed in three shipping containers stacked on top of each other.  Fun to see innovative thinking like that.

Nothing quite like SF houses

In the course of our walk we saw lots of wonderful old San Francisco architecture.  I really have never seen another city that looks like SF.  We enjoyed our time here back in our college days, and I never get tired of looking at the old buildings.  However, the downside we discovered when we lived here is that with the houses all building right up against each other and out to the street, was that it also feels incredibly crowded, which got to us in the end.

I saw an incredibly stupid column in the paper while I was here in which the writer seemed to be lamenting that SF is not a “world city”, whatever that means.  She seemed to believe that the cure was for SF to increase its density by a factor of 4 or so.  She felt that it would then be able to solve its various social problems (like overcrowding ever solved problems instead of creating them), not to mention it would finally have a good nightlife.  She referred to Seattle and Portland as “barely urban”.

MT apartment

We also went by our first apartment in SF.  THAT was a few years ago!  We stayed there for about 6 months until the overcrowding in SF got to us and we moved out to Oakland.  Right outside our apartment window is the stoop that was inhabited by a homeless drunk for many months.  We paid him to disappear for a while when we where showing the apartment to some new prospective tenants so we could get out of our year lease.

Carving for Keenan

Another thing we saw on our walk was a carving in a door post that we thought Keenan would enjoy.  He’s been doing some carving of his own the last year, including some medieval figures, so we thought this might provide some inspiration. I really like the style of this carving, simple and stylized.

Keenan has been very helpfully house and dog sitting for us while we are gone on this trip.  In another few years he may be off somewhere else studying/working and that won’t be an option anymore, so we enjoy the help while it is still available.  Thanks Keenan!

On the Haight

We wandered a bit through the Haight Ashbury area.  It seems to be still living on its history from the hippie era, with tie-dye shops, head shops, lots of wild colors, etc.  I even spotted some glass work next to a door that included a picture of Cheech and Chong.  There also seemed to be lot of young street people, still grooving on the fumes of yesteryear.

Hey barkeep!

Back at Melinda and Kevin’s house, Melinda played bartender, making up some great Manhattans with a smoky whiskey we found at a store on the Haight.