San Francisco Day Four

Woke up and slightly rainy and cold this morning but the weather was amazing by the time I got to Alcatraz.  Plus no fog!

This is the view pulling up, the building in the foreground is the residences, the background on the top of the hill is the jail.  The whole thing was actually pretty small.

 Some amazing views of the city from the Island.  They said in the "award winning" audio tour that this was part of the punishment, was that every day you could look at what you can't have.  They said on New Years' Eve you could hear voices of people from across the water.
Btw, how is an audio tour "award winning".  Who is the selection committee?  Who were the losers?

 I didn't know this but in 1969 groups of Indians occupied Alcatraz. According to a 1868 treaty, all surplus land could be reclaimed and after Alcatraz closed in 1963 the government declared the land surplus in 1964.

 The inside of a cell.  All the items had to be kept in these positions.

 This is a cellblock, on the bottom right were the cells used as "the hole" where guards could put prisoners and shut off the lights.

 Prisoners could paint in their cells and in the foreground on the left, you can see crochet work.  One of the prisoners was taught to crochet by his grandmother and taught others.

 This office I thought was made up very well in the style of the era.

 This is at the cable car museum.  I had no idea but there are actual cables running the cars.  I don't know why I didn't know this.
The car grabs hold of the cable to move forward and lets go to stop, it doesn't have an engine of it's own.  Although I don't know how it can change speeds or brake on a hill, but I gather that's the gist of it.

 This is the oldest surviving cable car in the world from the 1800's. 
There was a lot of information in here on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  Btw, there was an earthquake here yesterday morning, 5.3, I felt nothing.
Anyway, the 1906 earthquake was a big deal, that and the subsequent fires destroyed a section of the city 6 times the area destroyed by the London fire in 1666, over 80% of the city.
The gift shop had a good looking book with eye witness accounts from the time called Three Fearful Days: San Francisco Memoirs of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire by Malcolm E. Baker.

 Here's a diagram of how the cable car works, click to enlarge.

 This was sad, robbers poisoned three dogs who worked or guarded the cable cars in 1891.

 This is underneath the sidewalk, the huge cogs turning.

 This is the Grace Cathedral which I saw in the dark when I went to see Wanda Sykes.  I came back but it wasn't open for visitors.

 There was a park across from the cathedral with this cool turtle statue.
I sat in the park and read my book while it started to rain and I hid under a tree with my book and was quite cozy, I loved it.  As it was raining, there were few people in the park, and I was only bothered once when a homeless guy shouted at me "If you look at my dick while I'm peeing I'm going to sue you", startling me and causing me to look up and see him peeing.  Lawsuit papers are in the mail I suppose.
I'm reading "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon, an 800 page book that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I heard it has gay content and finally at 50%, over 400 pages, I finally got some.  It was a beautiful tale of two men watching a thunder storm and the electricity between them and in the sky leading to a first forbidden kiss.  Beautiful.
Reviews on Goodreads called it too gay, which pisses me off, and as soon as I finish it I plan to go back and write them scathing comments, but first I have to verify that it is, in fact, not "too gay".  Not so far, anyway.  This is what homophobia looks like in 2012.  I suppose it's better than what we've had in the past.

 Hills everywhere, hills in both directions.

 

The hotel has a regular menagerie going here, this is Leo the parrot.  He talks, today he said "hello" and yesterday he said two words together I forget. He'll also whistle like the sound a guy makes when a pretty lady walks by, which can get the man in the office with him into trouble.

 The daily shot of Pip.

I had a nap when I got back and then cold and rainy tonight.  Hopefully better weather tomorrow for SFMOMA.

San Francisco Day Three

Woke up and met my friend Jeremy from high school who lives in nearby San Jose.  We hoped in his convertible Mercedes Benz and drove over the Golden Gate bridge with the top down.  That was fun, I can tell you.

 

 Here he is driving.

 It was so nice to see a familiar face and I haven't seen him in over 10 years so it was also nice to get re-acquainted.  As you get older it's nice to know people who knew you when you were younger.  We went shopping, had lunch, a great time.
Amazing weather for photos too.

Alcatraz is the island on the left in the distance.

Love the houses on the hills.

We went over to the Muir Woods.  It was crazy busy, it started to rain as we got there and parking lot after parking lot was full.  It would have been a 20 or 30 minute walk from where we parked back to the start of the trails and we hadn't had lunch yet and it was raining so I suggested we skip it.
Some nice views on the way down and back though from the car.

This is the car in question.

Another one of Jeremy.

Kitty.  I asked and they said Pip is a Manx and was born without a tail.

This is Jeremy's amazing panoramic shot with his new Iphone 5.  He works for Apple.  I saved this one for last as I thought when I saw this I may as well just throw my shots in the garbage.  As always you can click to enlarge the photos.

A quiet night in watching the Beekman Boys on the Amazing Race.  Have to get up early tomorrow for Alcatraz.

San Francisco Day Two

Day started off quite well.  I've been sleeping in a bit which has been nice.  I had placed two books on hold yesterday at the SF library and so I went over about 10:30 to pick them up.  The cool thing is you could scan them for free.  The bad part is I had to switch scanners half way through and it looks like someone came on the second scanner.  Check out the difference in the photos:

 

 

Although the book looks trashy, I don't think it is.  Apparently it's the story of a detective trying to solve an anti-gay crime in Toronto.  It's funny as the back of the book goes on about "the Bay Area" but on page one you see the word Toronto so it's no wonder no one seems to know what it's about.  I think the library has a copy as they thought it was about San Francisco and the CLGA may not have a copy as they thought it was American.

Anyway, you can't buy a copy now, they're too rare.  One library in the USA has this book, and this is the copy.

I was glad to be able to see this book and get a copy for future reading, will post here when I'm done.  

San Francisco though has a HUGE homeless problem.  Massive.  Homeless everywhere.  Most streets smell of piss. The guy at the front desk of my hotel put an X through a part of my map and said "Don't go there" and the library was in the centre of that.

While the library itself was quite nice and helpful, I was nearly jumped by a gang outside and had to run away and inside, don't use the bathroom.  I've been many places in my life and this was the worst bathroom I've ever seen.  There were people living in the stalls.  The few vacant stalls that no one lived in were a disaster, I've never seen anything worse.  So in a way I was glad to leave.  

On my way out I stopped at the 6th floor gallery where they had an exhibition on children's book artwork that was quite cool.  I liked this drawing from 1910 of a crooked man with his crooked cat:

 

 From there off to Chinatown.  The man at the hotel desk advised not to get on the trolley cars at the first stop, where there is usually over 100 people and a one hour wait.  This despite the fact that is costs $6 a ride!  So walk to the second stop and there's usually room for one or two people after everyone has settled in from stop one.  This has mostly served me well.  Here I am holding on:

Chinatown was okay, I like Toronto's better.

I ordered my BBQ pork and it came fancier than in Toronto but also with way more bones.  I'm not sure if this is some Chinese philosophy where everyone gets equal parts bad and good cuts to share, or if it's "give the white guy the crappy parts".

Also they gave me a fortune cookie when I left.  I was kind of offended. I come to eat their food and they give me something written in English?  But when I looked outside I saw locals taking pictures of the food through the windows while holding a pizza box so I guess that's what they have to deal with.

This is the top of Lombard Street which is the crookedest street in the world.

And this is me.  You can see Hoit Tower and the ocean in the distance so I know I'm somewhere nearby.  Even when I went down to the pier you can't really get close to the water that I could find.  I'm also trying to give a sense of the hills, they're crazy.  I have to walk down them sideways sometimes, I don't know how everyone doesn't just fall into a heap at the bottom.

I loved this house on the right with the tree.

Me trying to give a sense of the hills again, it doesn't really work in photos.  This hill goes straight up.  At the top you can kind of make out the Lombard St curving but there was smog or something.

 This is the fancy part of Chinatown which is right near my hotel.  I bought a lot of practical things like a lucky money cat and a huge fan.

 This is the outside of my hotel.

 You can see in the enlargement the "junk" is next door.

Someone's yawning.

 Trying to get the sense of hills again.  This one nearly cost me my life.  I'm going to be able to crack walnuts with my thighs by the time I leave.

 And finally, Wanda Sykes. A lot of political humour which I didn't like.  Americans are TOO focused on politics.  It did lead to a funny bit about why the trickle down economy doesn't work.
Nothing good ever "trickles".
If you're in the bathroom and see something running down the wall, you walk over and touch it, smell your fingers.
"What's that trickling down my wall?
Is that money?"
* sniffs fingers *
"No that's shit!"

I was crying laughing in some parts.  I love her black humour jokes, about Michelle Obama going to fuck somebody up.  This big guy in the front row, she was joking he was thinking he wished the woman beside him would move her arm.  "A brother could have a good time if he could move his arms."  I love it when she talks about the brothers.

San Francisco Day One

 This is BESIDE my hotel.  One of the reasons I picked the place.  The other is below.  I went in, there was a bachelor party with women. It's funny how I never go to places like this in Toronto.

 A cable car.  Have yet to ride one but I have a 3 day pass so tomorrow looks good.

 

 The Castro.  Movie theatre at the start, this week showing "Sing along Little Mermaid" which isn't great for me.  Check out the houses in the background, very San Francisco.
A closer view below.

 The Castro.  Movie theatre at the start, this week showing "Sing along Little Mermaid" which isn't great for me.  Check out the houses in the background, very San Francisco.
A closer view below.

 The LGBT Historical Society/Museum.  This is it, kind of small but well rounded.

 I don't know who this chick is but she has my vote.

 No to orange juice.  Also the Gay Colouring Book on the right is very rare.  I've been looking for a copy, you can't buy one at any price.

 Personal collections from Harvey Milk.

 Harvey Milk tribute near the Castro station.

 National AIDS memorial in Golden Gate Park.

 

 Very cool.

 My hotel is at the top of this hill. 

 This hill.

 This is the cat that lives here, Pip.  Expect pictures of him every day.  He has no tail.