San Fran travels part 1
~Walking around a major city alone. This also falls into the category of new things I've done this year. I am definitely a small town, or at least suburban person. Going to big cities like New York stresses me out... all the people, all the cars, my awful sense of direction. As long as I'm with someone else, i feel somewhat comfortable. So I wasnt sure what I would do when I had to spend the entire day alone (while Matt was at work). But I sucked up my fears and headed out into the streets of San Fran anyway. And I must say, I had a blast. I picked up some brochures about the area and read through them throughout the day. Whenever I cam across something interesting, I'd go and check it out. And the best thing was that I never really got lost (thanks to the map I had). At times I'd just wander around until I felt I had wandered too far, then I'd break out my map (so touristy, but i didnt have many other options) and find the quickest way back to something familiar.
~So my day alone went something like this. I started out by going to the Mac store down the street. We had walked by it the night before, and in honor of my dad being the biggest Mac enthusiast that has ever existed, I decided I'd go inside and check it out. Basically it was like the store in Tysons, except 2 levels. And the staircase leading up to the 2nd level was all glass (ultra modern looking... i totally loved it!) But once on the 2nd floor, there was this little all glass bridge to cross over to different sections, and for whatever reason (like a fear of falling to my death) I just couldnt cross it. Oh well. After that I wandered around pretty aimlessly for a while. I actually ended up at the edge of Chinatown somehow, but didnt really spend much time there becuase it seemed pretty deserted. So then I made my way back to Union Square where I found a cute cafe and had some coffee (ultra strong) and read through a few brochures.
The first thing I decided to visit was a Frank Llyod Wright building located nearby. It's the only Wright building in the city, and since I had never actually seen one of his in person, I figured this was a good place to start. As I entered the street on which the building was located, I decided that rather than looking at building numbers, i was going to see if I could just pick it out on my own. So I walked up the street, and got the the end without having spotted it. But as soon as I turned around to try again, I foudn it immediately. I dont know how I could have missed it the first time through, it was so distinctive. I thought about going into the building, but it looked like an ultra high class gallery (called Xanadu Gallery... xanadu doo doo doo doo doo xanadu, now we are here, in xanadu, xanadu your neon lights will shine, for you xanadu-- my sister and matt know what I'm talking about, the rest of you will just have to be confused), so I just took some pictures from the outside.
After that I did some shopping. I eventually ended up at a bookstore called Cody's Books. This became one of my favorite places. As soon as I walked in, I figured it was something special and unique. They had flyers throughout the store advertising all of there upcoming events, which included a lecture from Amy Tan and Jimmy Carter (both taking place in the next 2 weeks) as well as some other authors I sort of recognized and a bunch I didnt. I spent a decent amount of time looking through theirhuge selection of art books and design books. Then I wandered through the rest of the store. It was pretty much laid out like any typical bookstore... fiction section, science fiction section, history, computers, etc, etc, etc.... oh and a section called "garden drugs." Which after closer inspection I realized contained half gardening books and half drug books. But from the sign, I expected books about carrots doing x or something. Anyway I eventually purchased a huge book on Loft designs for matt (because it's something we'd never find in bookstore out here) and made my way back to the hotel (because I didnt want to carry that book all over the place).
For the second half of my day I went in a new direction to the Yerba Buena Gardens, which were right across the street from my hotel. Thinking that San Fran had winters like I'm used to, I expected all the plants to be dead and brown. But once I entered the gardens I quickly realized how mild their winters were (if you can even call them winters, since at this point I'm walking around in January with no coat on). everything was still green and a lot of the flowers still had their blooms. The first half of the garden was mostly a big green area (with lots of people laying out and enjoying the sunny day) and a beautiful fountain dedicated to martin luther king.
The second half of the garden was a kid's paradise. It was like seeing a nice European plaza through the eyes of a child. What I mean by that is this: Try taking little kids to a nice palza with a fancy fountain and see what they do... they run all over the place, they turn every kind of curb or ledge into a balance beam, they place in the fountain, and basically do their best to make it a playground. While of course the parents try refrain them somewhat. But this place was designed for exactly that purpose. There were all kinds of different "balancing surfaces" fountains you could play with and even control the water flow, and a huge spongy area with a pack of kids running around with their shoes off. But the thing was that it still looked like a nice plaza area. I know if I were about 8 years old, I would have had a blast. My favorite thing about this part of the garden was a statue called Urge.
As you can see there is a man standing on top of the globe. What you cant see is that I'm taking the picture from a bench that is stratigically placed for a good viewing of the statue. The other thing you cant see is what makes this statue so unique... if you sit on the bench, the man on top of the globe sits with you. And when you stand up, he stands up. Of course the only way I knew this was beause I read about it before hand. Otherwise, there are no directions or indications that this sculpture is anything special. The first time I walked by it I wanted to take a picture, but there were a lot of people hanging around; a mom and her children were amazed by the fact that it was moving, and obviously had no clue as to what was triggering it because the bench was occupied by a bunch of skater kids who were constantly standing up and sitting down (it was pretty obvoius that their intent was to baffle the family in front of them). So i decided I continue to walk around and take a picture on my way back.
When I came back some time later, I was surprised to see that the same family was still staring at the statue with the mom poised to take a picture.... just waiting, and waiting, and waiting for it to move... and no one even close to sitting on the bench. So I walked over and asked if she was waiting for the sculpture to move and she said "yes, i think it moves every hour" still with her camera aimed at the guy on top of the globe. Internally I chuckled as i thought about her remaining in the pose for another hour, but decided to do the right thing and explain how it operated. So I told her it's triggered by sitting on the bench, and then I sat down to demonstrate it... and nothing happened. I didnt weigh enough. So she said "no i think it's time operated" and not wanting to give up (as I knew I was right) I convinced a few of the kids to sit with me... and slowly the guy started to sit (so slowly you could hardly tell it was moving). So now they believed me and more people sat down (which made it move a little faster). I figured that was my good deed for the day... but I still wonder how long that family would have been standing there, with a camera aimed at the sculpture, waiting for it to move had I not said something.
After that I headed to Macys. Macys? What's so special about Macys? Well nothing really, they have several in the area here... but I found out that inside Macys is a Wolfgang Puck Express. And being the big foodnetwork nerd I am, I wanted to try it out. So I went to Macys... which turned out to be by far the biggest store I've ever been in. There were 2 parts. The main part took up 3/4 of a block (a huge city block) and had 7 or 8 levels of shopping. The women's shoe department alone was bigger than any of the Macy's out here. The other part was the men's department which was across the street and took up 1/4 of that block. I didnt go in that part, but I figure all together that makes an ENTIRE block of one store. Crazy. There was a food court in the lowest level and once I figured that out (Macys was the only place I got lost during the day) I found Wolfgang Puck's place, which turned out to be right across from a Sourdough Bakery. In the end, the sourdough place won out. I mean I was in San Francisco, I had to eat as much sourdough as possible. So I got a salad with a small loaf of bread and had a nice, quick (very late) lunch. The bread was awesome, as were the sourdough croutons on the salad.
That was pretty much the extent of my day. I did a lot more walking after that before returning to the hotel to meet up with matt. But I had an awesome time. By the end of the day, i was crossing the street and getting around town with the best of them.
Comments