The Tourist

Hey all,
I've been pretty gung ho to see the classic tourist spots since my arrival in San Francisco. Unfortunately, though, I'm the only one in our group who hasn't been to San Fran many, many times on tour. So I couldn't get anyone else to join in my enthusiasm for, say, the cable cars, or the Haight. While my tourmates went to the Apple store, or some restaurant or pub they really like, I hit the tourist trail solo.

First I went to a couple galleries near the hotel. Very cool stuff. One gallery had tons of great paintings and highly collectible, large prints of classic groups from the sixties. Another had crazy trippy paintings by a husband and wife team (Kate and Eric) that call themselves "Kate Eric." You can check their stuff out at http://www.kateeric.com/images/10.

On my way back to the Monaco, I stopped at Napa Valley Winery Exchange, a fantastic wine store: http://www.nvwe.com/. Owner Don Gillette had me tasting different pinot noirs from the various producing regions of California. I asked him a couple of questions about California approximations of some of my favorite French white wines, and suddenly we were back in the tasting room sampling whites. Don knows what he's talking about, and was beyond generous with his time. It's nice to run into people who are truly passionate about what they're selling. I left with a few choice bottles. I expect more pleasant bus trips as a result.

Alright, enough boring wine and gallery stuff. No one wants to hear about that! What was I thinking?

I finally found the RIGHT direction to walk from the Hotel Monaco to see the nicer side of Union Square. Holy shit, San Francisco is very, very cool. Easily the most interesting and creative architectural city I've ever seen. I took a million billion pictures.

The hotel concierge gave me directions to the cable cars. I took the Powell-Hyde line, past the famous Lombard "Crookedest" Street, to Fisherman's Wharf. I was riding on the outer step, hanging on for dear life. At times my feet were actually hitting lane dividers! The hills and twists are incredible. It's like a slow-motion rollercoaster, with no safety bar.

I arrived at Fisherman' Wharf (last stop on the cable cars) and window-shopped a bit. I had a bread-bowl of chowder, served in a hollowed-out loaf of the area's famous sourdough, while watching street musicians perform on the plaza under the big "Fisherman's Wharf" sign. I stopped and had a pint at a blues bar on the water. Mostly, though, I just took pictures for hours. When I'd had enough of the brisk wind, I took the cable cars back to Union Square.

I stepped off the cable car and hailed a cab to the famous Haight-Ashbury district. God....it's still the 60's there. It's, like, purple haze, feed your head, swirling kaleidoscopic madness, maaaan! I took many more pictures. I'm very glad I checked it out.

Let me say this about San Francisco: there are a LOT of fucked up, acid-casualty-type homeless people there. They're not the same as your typical NYC or LA down-and-out. They're CRAZY in San Francisco. And they're everywhere. It's interesting to be confronted by that fact while marveling at the unique, vivid character of the city streets they shuffle along, and sleep upon.

Also, people in general are kind of crazy here in San Fran. An awful lot of people look weathered, drained- like they've seen something really horrible that they can't put completely behind them. There's a hardened, almost yankee-style distance in their eyes. I can't quite put my finger on it yet. About one in four men could easily pass for Shaggy from Scooby Do. It's almost as though the entire population took too much acid in the 60's. Seriously.