Let's Get To It: San Francisco, Part One

Seriously photo-heavy post. Seriously. And I don't even get all the way through the first day, so I breeze past a lot of photos; feel free to ask questions!

At the end of the yarn summary post, I showed you how Belmont welcomed my mother on the eve of our trip. The next morning, I got my packing started, with a break to go out for brunch, then to the library to print a few things, since my printer had declined to work the night before.

Side note: I figured out what happened: a few months ago, I renamed my wifi network to something I could pick out of a list, with a strong-but-less-impossible-to-remember password, and it somehow reverted to the old ones. Isn't that weird? It seems weird to me. Thank god I still had the old password! Why would it do that? Anyone know?

Finished packing and off to the airport, in plenty of time for a really nice lunch at Legal in the terminal before boarding time. Initially things were going smoothly, but then we hit a snag (not literally): we were on the plane, pushed back from the gate, when the pilot came on and said something about how this situation was a new one to HIM, which is not something you want to hear. It turned out that the long runway, the one we had to use because of the weight of all the fuel to get us to SF, had a plane with a flat tire on it, and we had to wait for them to get it out of the way. This seemed, although unfortunate, very reasonable to me, but when we started moving again, over an hour later, mind you, and I could see the plane out my window, all patience evaporated.

That? It took them more than an hour to move that? *I* could have moved that in less time! I mean, the flight is already six and a half hours long, we didn't need the extra time in those miserable little seats, is what I'm saying.

Still, other than a bump here and there, the rest of the flight was uneventful, so it could certainly have been worse. Although, humph.

My brother met us and shepherded us to the aforementioned guesthouse, and let me say, it was just lovely. You can do far worse if your travels take you to SF. It's two adjoining houses with the loveliest courtyard and garden between, full of places to sit and relax. I didn't get a ton of photos, but here are a few.

 

 

 

Obviously, I didn't take all those Thursday night! But over the course of the trip. Friday morning, my brother (I'll just call him CR from here on) joined us there for breakfast, and then brought us back to his place to meet his cats. His roommate has a cat (and a wee dog), and all three felines are black, so I'll say I think this is his roommate's cat, but no guarantee.

Not running away, has to be Mosh, really. And here's the dog:

Smaller than any of the cats. I don't see the appeal myself, not being a dog person, but hey, the roommate is nice, one makes do.

We did get to see CR's two cats, briefly (more later in the trip). Thing 1 was almost lured out by treats, but still very cautious.

"What the hell? Who are you? What are you? What is that?"

"Let me stay still very briefly, so you can get one clear photo before I flee. You're welcome."

I had to capture a few of their fridge magnets.

As well as the lovely wall'o'books.

And the not-quite-fifty-foot hallway.

And I got a glimpse of the very cautious Thing 2, from a careful distance.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the nearby area, I want to say just the Mission but I was all turned around, so who knows. (The following days we would be going somewhere and pass something I recognized from Friday and I'd think, is that where that was?) We saw many an interesting thing. Let me show you them.

Please, donot.

What is he thinking?

And, really, what is that above his head?

We stopped in at the wonderful Borderlands Cafe, next to the also-wonderful Borderlands Books. (Can't help noticing they need to update the events on their website, but that's neither here nor there.) 

Now this is a store worth entering:

Don't you agree? After this was our first yarn stop, and then more fun with signs and decoration.

This may only be funny to my family, since we were often reminded as children to "use your indoor voice."

Hockey! Like yarn, I can find it anywhere. Magnetism.

We saw this mural from across the street. Later, we went to that side and I got closer photos. it shows SF in sections by decade, from the past into the imagined future. The detail!

And onward. I did say this was photo-heavy!

ImagiKnit was in here. Not in this house! But chronologically between these photos.

Stewart, or Stuart, sure, but Steuart? Never seen that, have you?

Mine.

And finally, we are by the water.

We went into an amazing place on Pier 45, the ​Musée Mécanique, a space full of the most amazing old games and mechanical ... things ... it's really hard to describe. The contents, being motion-oriented, did not lend themselves to photography, but it's definitely something worth seeing, should you be in the area.

From there, it was time to head toward Alcatraz. We'll pick up there next time, shall we?

Whew!