San Francisco

Hello there.
Hope everyone is doing well -still recovering from the holidays are we?
I am!

I spent 4 days up in Northern Cal last week. My sis moved there last month from NYC. She came down for Christmas and I decided at the last minute to accompany her back up north. We left the day after Christmas and, my goodness - it took 11 freaking hours to get there! It was well worth it though. I love Palo Alto (where she lives). It's about 25 miles from San Francisco.

I took the commuter train into the City one day. It was a very nice, pleasant trip - it took about an hour.
The train took me downtown to God knows where (well it dropped me off at Townsend Street! I took that as a good omen - spelled without the 'h' though). My goal was to get to Haight-Ashbury but I had no clue how to get there! I soon found help though - a very nice cleaning lady near a bus stop gave me info on which busses to take. I was very proud of myself for taking the busses and not a taxi! ( Oh Lord help me if I consider that to be an accomplishment. Spoilt girl I am!). I enjoyed it - checking out the locals - old Asian ladies with their bags stuffed to the brim with vegetables...young skater punk kids...hippy/boho chicks...
I took 2 busses to Haight Ashbury. I had never seen this area before (the last time I was in San Francisco was back in 1981).
Yeah it's a bit touristy - but not as bad as I expected. No wax museum full of Janis Joplins, Jimi Hendrixes or The Grateful Dead! I did see a map of all the houses of famous residents but I didn't go that far! Maybe next time...
Here are some pics for ya'll. I don't know why they came out on top of eachother like that. Oh well!
My favorite is this top one on the left - a mom and son sharing a quiet cafe moment while Inflatable Annie looks on from her windowseat!














How kitschy can ya get?



I LOVED the vintage shops...



and the GORGEOUS architecture, of course!










I bought a cd from this girl - she was giving away her band's cd for a donation. The name of her band is Ghandolff and the Hobbitz. Her cd is called "Circle of Protection." Aw...so sweet. I took her picture because she really looked the part! (I didn't check out her feet though). I know it's dark - click on it to see her better. She was such a sweetie.

I just listened to the cd the other day and, um, well, it DID conjure images of little furry-footed people dancing merrily in an enchanted forest somewhere deep within Middle-earth! It was unique.









My caption for the picture below: "Girlfriend, you WISH you were as pretty as me!" Click on it to see what I mean!!!!




A startling revelation spotted on a t-shirt in a shop window:




When I returned to my sister's apartment later that evening, I found her tangled in a maze of wires. Well, not quite...but she is quite the brainiac - she was hooking up her elaborate entertainment system. I helped as best I could...shoving wires through holes and whatnot. That's as far as I get with electronic equipment!
Here's the lil' geekazoid herself (not the best pic, she was sick at the time poor babe).



Ok so she's not QUITE a genius. She may have landed a job at i-Tunes (as a software engineer) but she couldn't get the audio to work, so we ended up watching her fave Star Trek episode from the original series (an xmas gift) on her laptop. Apparently I took this picture, but I barely remember taking it (uh oh)! I had a very nice, large glass of her expensive scotch...and didn't eat much that day, so I was a bit loopy. I just remember laughing hysterically.
(I love gay men to pieces so I hope I don't offend anyone here!!).