by day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference-orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. but the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. the distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond colour, last freed itself from blue. -e.m. forster (a passage to india)
greg and i walked to chinatown this evening to meet friends for dinner at hop kee restaurant.
we walked along sixth avenue to church street and then turned onto franklin, walked through collect pond park to centre street and then along hogan place to columbus park, which we walked through to mosco street which took us to mott street. the photo above is looking across columbus park playground to the old five points neighborhood.
mosco and mulberry streets . .
hop kee restaurant is on the right and down the stairs . . we had spring rolls, chicken with cashews and chinese broccoli in oyster sauce . . and tea. it was all very good.
walking home . .
through little italy . .
my neighbor said she walked 20,000 steps today . . !
after chanda left for her 9 am ballet class, greg and i went out to the green market and had a mexican breakfast of chile rellanos, tacos and mexican coffee (sweet with lots of sugar).
coming home along alemany blvd to drop off the delicious sage honey i found (so amazing!)
back out again and on our way to the bus stop . .
to catch the bus over bernal heights to mission and 24th streets where we transferred for the bus downtown (civic center/city hall).
riding the san francisco buses up and down the hills is a lot of fun! they always start up by saying "hold on!"
waiting on mission street . .
the opera house on van ness avenue . .
and the ballet school on franklin avenue . .
waiting in sage cafe since we were early in meeting her.
when she got out of class, we walked along van ness (past the post office) to ellis street and through the tenderloin neighborhood to union square, and then along stockton street . .
to the chinatown arches . .
we explored lots of stores together . . (including my favorite: peking bazaar where we went in and became instantly discombobulated amidst all the beautiful porcelain dishes . .
there were so many that it was impossible for me to choose between black cats, goldfish, luminous gold and pink flowers and bucolic garden scenes . . ).
we did manage to choose two cute little totoros today; one for her and one for korrina.
we walked along the alley by city lights and walked through the store together. i picked up two books for jason, along with a pirandello for myself . .
and then we visited an art store northeast of the bookstore. i think greg was looking for a notebook and chanda was looking for colored pencils . . or maybe it was the airplane glue she uses for her ballet slippers, but they didn't have any.
by the time we were passing through chinatown again, it was evening (around 8 pm) and the stores were closing and chanda was grumbling about being hungry.
both she and greg are terrible bears when they're hungry.
of course she found a place on her iphone . . but not until she and her father took a few jabs at each other over the kind of food they should have (he prefers diner food and she prefers japanese food).
as you can see, the japanese food won.
he was really okay . . because he'll really eat anything.
sanraku . . it was very good.
as you can see! (i had my favorite: shrimp tempura).
we made a stop at trader joe's on our way to the bus stop on van ness avenue, on our way home (it was a bit of a long ride home as we got stuck in traffic just past the ballet school).
we were up early to visit the local green market just a few blocks away before taking chanda to ballet class.
the alemany green market has been around since 1947.
we bought a bowl of avocadoes for $2,
and two baskets of strawberries for $5 (and a bowl of lemons for $2).
we were very pleased with our purchases! everything was much better priced than in the supermarkets.
after dropping the produce off at the house, we drove chanda to her ballet class. here we're passing a chair placed just so, in case someone may need a rest while walking.
i took this picture because of the succulent plant in the bin.
just a random pretty window . .
at sage cafe where greg had a coffee and i a green tea . .
i keep hearing what i call "california music," which is music i first heard in southern california in the san fernando valley when i was 8 in 1969, when i was 12 in 1973 and when i was 16 in 1977 (which is also when the first star wars movie came out and which i remember seeing so very clearly!). there are probably other years in there since my family made quite a number of cross country trips to see my mom's sister:
easy, the commodores (1977) sweet caroline, neil diamond (1969)
(and any neil diamond song . . i think only california played neil diamond! i don't ever remember hearing him played on my local rock radio station on long island!)
drift away, written by mentor williams (1970), recorded by john henry kurtz (1972) dancin' in the moonlight, king harvest (1973) midnight at the oasis, maria muldaur (1973) smoke from a distant fire, sanford townsend band (1977) do you know the way to san jose, dionne warwick (1967) proud mary, creedance clearwater revival (1969) ma cherie amour, stevie wonder (1969) you've made me so very happy, blood, sweat and tears (1969) groovin', the young rascals (1967) up, up and away, the fifth dimension (1967)
and then we were off for our morning walk . .
union square . . the monument above was erected in 1898 to commorate the victory of the american navy over the spanish during the spanish american war.
the heart is by anthony k. hall, jr, winter sunset, and is part of san francisco's annual fundraiser for their general hospital.
a hotel greg once stayed at when in san francisco on business . .
chinatown . .
there were so many lovely window displays. later i asked chanda if nyc's chinatown has as many pretty things for sale . . she wasn't sure. i guess we just don't pay attention when walking through our chinatown.
statues like this always make us think of jack . .
such cute perfume bottles!
stuffed totoro toys . .
korrina says these are dried shrimp . .
sponges and seaweed, i think (some of the sponges look like butter cookies in this photo).
we walked through chinatown to get to jack kerouac way, which leads to . .
(the last time we were in this alley together was thirty two years ago . . )
. . city lights bookstore.
we walked out with two books: carson mcculler's ballad of the sad cafe and the member of the wedding, and luigi pirandello's the late mattia pascal, and then walked to an italian cafe greg had eaten at when on a prior work trip.
(beautiful church we passed on the way to the cafe.)
puccini cafe . .
where they played . . puccini, of course.
afterwards, we walked along the border of nob hill and russian hill to pacific heights and then walked along franklin street to the ballet school to meet chanda.
the street that leads to the office building where greg has been working.
beautiful indian laurel fig trees along van ness avenue.
they are so large that i think they must be quite old . .
an olive tree . .
the first unitarian church of san francisco which began meeting in 1850 and is the oldest unitarian congregation west of st. louis. this is their third church building which was dedicated in 1889, restored after the earthquake of 1906 and renovated with seismic, accessibility and aesthetic improvements in 1968.
a pepper tree . .
waiting for the bus to take us to golden gate park and the japanese tea garden.
inside the wonderfully green and wild golden gate park which also has an art museum and a science museum.
eucalyptus trees in the park . .
the japanese tea garden . .
where chanda and i had tea while greg read his book on a bench and waited for us . . (he had a snack which was going to be a pretzel but which turned out to be . . i think . . a vegetable pancake . . )
the pancake on the right is filled with red bean paste.
i'm not sure what trees these are in the last two pics . .
the entrance to a pagoda.
in the zen garden . .
i think these are young redwood trees . .
japanese maple trees . .
cute cat pitchers in the gift shop . .
dinner at a thai restaurant before the evening's performance . .
shrimp pad thai?
chanda was given two free tickets to see the ethnic dance festival.
i picked up an extra one so we could all go.
inside san francisco's opera house . .
so "san francisco!" they make sure to have their recycling and compost containers even in their fancy performance venue.
the outdoor patio . .
which overlooks van ness avenue and city hall.
it was truly an amazing and inspiring concert. when leaving our seats i overheard a man say to his wife, "we're so lucky to live here." i think san franciscans are very dedicated to their city!
