San Francisco

I spent the day with friends Kathy and Victoria, playing tourist in San Francisco.  With the exception of a few terrifying, heart pounding minutes involving being at the wheel of a stick shift hanging motionless at the very top of quite possibly the steepest street in a CITY full of steepest streets, we had a fabulous time!




Another steep, and windy, street - a not very good photo of the famous crookedest block on Lombard Street.




I thought this looked like a three headed dragon or ... well, the possibilities are pretty endless if you use your imagination.




Driving over the Bay Bridge it was so foggy Victoria had to take our word for it that we were actually driving over a body of water, but fortunately the sun came out for us once we set foot in the city.


 

Our main destination was a tea tasting room (I don't have the name of it at the moment but I'll pop back in and add it later, I have a business card) in China Town.




Our .... well, he called himSELF a "tea nazi".  He was a very entertaining, enlightening, and gracious host.  We tried a lot of different teas and all three of us left with a bag of our favorite selections.




This painting hung in the back of the shop.  Very pretty.  I think they must be Tea Goddesses.  Or perhaps Tea Muses.




We all thought these little colored tins were pretty but Victoria was the only one who bought one.  Victoria and I each bought a bag of bundled teas called "fairy baskets", I can hardly wait to try one!




China Town was extra colorful as it's only weeks away from Chinese New Years' celebrations.




I loved the juxtaposition of old and new.




More wonderful color!




Since we were in China Town, of course stopped for lunch at.... a Vietnamese Restaurant. (I had a lemongrass shrimp that I suspect was delicious as I wolfed it down.  Victoria had.... are you sitting down.... Deep Fried Fairy.  Yes.  We didn't ask which part exactly was... well, best if we not dwell on it.   As we were leaving I spied this tiny altar in the corner near the front door.




Ignoring the passers by in the foreground, do you think this building is what McDonald's would look like if the Chinese had thought of it first?




The owners thought a subdued color palette was the best choice for this building.




Just outside China Town this incredibly upscale shop had the most delicious windows!




Why rent an entire apartment in San Francisco.  You can just rent a chair.




Victoria thought she was back in England there for a moment.  Oops, seeing double.




These are too adorable to eat!  Well, we might have bitten their heads off if we weren't still so full from lunch.  The shopkeeper was kind enough to allow us to photograph them instead.




Alcatraz.




We made it too the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.  The light was sinking quickly, the fog rolled in.  We might not have gotten details but the mystical mood more than made up for it.




The bridge played peekaboo between peaks of encroaching fog.




This isn't city lights, this is the last of the sunset reflecting in the windows.  In person it was as if the city was made of gold.




Victoria capturing the view to take home with her.




A city floating in the clouds.




Marin County vista point - from the other side of the bridge.




What .... in the sky.... over the magical city... why... why.... it's obviously AIRSHIP PIRATES!!!! 

 


The end of a lovely day.

More adventures await us......