home again home again jiggity jig

we rolled into town around four o'clock this afternoon and met our friend clyde at veselka's for dinner. 

i'm never sad to come home to new york, but i have to add this song to this post:

getting on the road again

 i'm not sure what time we finally had the car all packed and ready to go . . maybe around 11 am? i had told our hosts that we would be out by noon . . so perhaps it was noon on the dot. i did a last minute cleaning of the empty refrigerator and of the bathroom, and we all took a last walk around the space to make sure we had everything.

 another last check . . 

 good-bye house . .

and cul-de-sac . .

good-bye bernal heights (i think we were fortunate that our street wasn't steep).

 we made one last stop at a green market in the noe valley neighborhood as we wanted to see about getting extra strawberry jam for korrina and aunt kathy at home. we didn't find the jam, so we settled on homemade raspberry vinegar. the chef is pictured above.

 it was the sweetest market with a band and children's story hour.

there was also a group selling delicious indian food for a donation. we got several plates along with a hot cup of freshly made chai tea. it was so good!

 

 it was also fun seeing another san francisco neighborhood. the view was so beautiful.

 

chanda is trying to figure out the recycling . .

the tea was so good that chanda had to go back for another cup (we had been sharing one). greg and i waited in the car . .

as we were driving towards the golden gate bridge along divisadero street, morgana called and we spoke with her while stuck in traffic, and then while finally crossing the bridge to marin county. she had just gotten my postcard and was having tea in a cafe in paris, while doing her french homework:

 and then we were finally out of san francisco and heading north to our friends in ukiah.

last day of ballet class

 greg had work this morning, so i represented the two of us at the summer intensive's class presentation.

these two pics are from yesterday . . 

 i sneakily took two pics before class began . . 

warming up . . 

so i watched two classes today: one technique class and one variations class. i really enjoyed the latter, as the teacher, lola de avila, was very good and i felt that she had a large respect for the students' abilities. at the end she commented on how they were all ready to go out and audition and they should have confidence in themselves. she had them work on the dulcinea variation from don quixote.

lunch afterwards at the pizza shop around the corner, which also had our favorite kombucha on tap (revive, craft cola redux). we then walked to the whole foods on california street for some last minute travel food items, and then caught the bus along van ness avenue to market street . .

where we just happened to run into greg on his way home from work. he's hiding behind the chamomile flowers i bought for the woman whose house we rented. i left them in a vase by the front door. (they had the loveliest aroma.)

on market street looking west towards van ness.

everything was packed up at home so we ate at our favorite mexican restaurant on cortland street, taco las altos.

(i miss this delicious mexican food so much!)

tacos and rice and black beans.

walking home along ellsworth street . . 

good-bye cortland avenue . . until next time!

cable car ride

 yesterday (i'm writing this friday morning . . ) was an incredibly fun day. i don't have time to post all of it, but here's the highlight: the cable car ride! i loved it and even though these little videos don't do justice to the fun of it, i'm posting them anyway!

above is a pic of powell street where we began (at market).

chanda and i stood and hung onto the side!!! it was the best!!!

 we went up powell street, past union square, and then turned left onto washington . . 

you pass so close to the cars . . and to the apartments . . !

 and then turned right onto hyde street.

 we passed lombard street, the crookedest street . . 

 and ended at fisherman's wharf . . 

at ghiradelli square where we just had to have an ice cream sundae and a milk shake! 

there's a lot more to the day that i will have to post at a later date. we leave tomorrow and there's still so much to do in terms of packing and cleaning, but first we have observation day at the ballet school.

one of our last days in san francisco (posted weeks later)

thursday morning i rode downtown with chanda to her ballet school. we had big plans for the day. we would have lunch together and then go on a cable car ride down to ghirardelli square where we would meet greg for dinner. i managed to post about the cable car ride before we left san francisco, but this post is being made weeks later from home. these subway pics were taken in the civic center/un plaza bart station: her daily stop for the ballet school.

walking towards city hall . . 

on the other side of city hall is the ballet school and theatre.

passing the daily tai chi practitioners.

after saying good-bye to her in front of the school, i walked around the corner to sage cafe. the owner, stan, always has a cheerful greeting for everyone who visits. he also has his regulars who come in everyday.

i usually have a cup of green tea . .

i wrote out the last postcards that would be mailed from sf . . 

and then walked about four blocks to books, inc, (the west's oldest independent bookstore) established by anton roman in san francisco in 1857 (he made an appearance in the book the bohemians, as he carried early books by mark twain, bret harte, ina coolbrith and charles warren stoddard).

and of course they sell the bohemians here, which is the reason i came by today . . 

i also liked the music they played.

then back to meet chanda for lunch.

lunch at "the little gem."

we had a green salad and a red quinoa salad . .

and a custard pudding for dessert.

 after class we took a muni bus along market street to the cable car station.

 

there were two drummers playing and i couldn't stop bopping around to their beat. it made waiting in line a lot of fun.

 

i was impressed that he was playing an ipad!

 

 

with so much to watch while waiting in line, the time went quickly.

chanda and i figured that only in san francisco would they advertise sustainable denim!

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then it was time to board the cable car . . and the fun ride we had is posted in the first post of this day (10:49 PM) . . 

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the cable car ride let us off at ghirardelli square, where we planned to meet greg.

of course we had to check out the chocolate shop!

waving a menu in front of greg, we talked him into having ice cream with us.

chanda and i shared a raspberry hot fudge sundae . . 

and greg had a strawberry milk shake.

good-bye ghirardelli square!

next it was time to have dinner . . (!) we walked by the beach where we could have gone swimming,

except that each day was rather chilly!

 

the boats along our walk to dinner at boudin bakery . . 

at the boudin bakery . . 

greg had a clam chowder bowl, chanda an avocado sandwich . . 

and i had a shrimp salad sandwich.

we then walked over to fisherman's wharf and pier 41 to see the sea lions . .

and the seagulls . . 

a beautiful sunset . . 

the eagle cafe where greg and i had breakfast many years ago when we first visited together. it was a bit more casual in those days, now it's rather expensive!

here they are: the crazy sea lions.

i found the people watching the sea lions just as interesting and entertaining as the sea lions.

one of the the two sea lions at the end of the video, on the right, actually managed to knock the other one off the pier and into the water.

heading home on the f muni line . . 

and changing for the #24 bus in the castro district . . 

which was a beautiful ride home along castro street to cortland street. i'm going to miss the wild bus rides on the hilly san francisco streets! (along with the beautiful views and colorful city lights.)