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.)

the library and summer reading, a knitting project, dinner and getting ready to leave

the librarians at the bernal heights branch of the san franacisco public library allowed me to open a visitor's account with which i was able to take out one book at a time (a very difficult task for me, and one which i don't think i've ever done, until now!). today i turned in my story guide showing i had completed twenty hours of reading, and received this lovely sf public library bag.

 it's a really nice branch and i've enjoyed picking out books to read these past few weeks. a few that i've read are:

the gnostic gospels by elaine pagels,

the evolution of calpurnia tate, by jacqueline kelly,

great dream of heaven, by sam shepard

the bohemians, by ben tarnoff (this last i have not finished, but i think i may purchase from a local bookstore as my nypl doesn't carry it, and i would really like to read it while inspired by being here in  san francisco. it's about mark twain and his time living in san francisco amongst other writers during the civil war.)

the penderwicks, by jeanne birdsall (this last one chanda and i have been listening to together with the audible app on my phone.)

it's time for the last of the library books to be returned as we are getting ready to leave on our return cross country trip home on saturday. 

these are my two shawls that i've managed to finish. i have not blocked them yet, as this house has all wood floors and for some reason i don't think laying out towels will work as well. at home i lay out a towel and then pin through everything to the rug. i should ask korrina, as she has all wood floors.

  i consider this my summer shawl . . i love the colors, and it's a very soft cottony feeling wool.

it feels great to have them done!

 the library book bag i'm looking forward to using in manhattan . . i have a wellfleet, cape cod, book bag also.

the river of doubt is also a book i finished here that i had started ages ago at home. it's about theodore roosevelt's south american journey along an uncharted river in the amazon in 1912. what an adventure! jason, my nephew, lent this copy to me as my library copy kept coming due (it's a popular book and i could only check it out for two weeks at a time . . and it has taken much longer than that for me to read). i just loved it and i highly recommend reading it.

we're trying to finish up our food, but it's not easy because people still need to eat well for classes and work! chanda's last day is friday and we leave on saturday. i originally had wanted to leave on sunday and have saturday as a packing and cleaning up day . . but we needed more time for traveling.

the ballet intensive

chanda hasn't taken many dance photos as the students aren't permitted to take pics in the studios, but she did take one on this day when she was stretching with only one other student around.

she has really been enjoying the classes and the time here. it is definitely "intense" as she has classes six days a week (she would prefer to have that sixth day off), but she has liked her teachers and her fellow students. she even likes her contemporary teacher, which is unusual as the contemporary teachers are typically very "mainstream" and she has a more eclectic and classical taste. during the first week he said, "there needs to be more movement in contemporary dance," referring to the latest style which is very robotic-like, and, thus, echoing her thoughts on the subject.

she has been having a little pain in her left foot, from tendons that are too tight and over-worked. in the evenings she's been icing the foot and then applying heat. she's also visited the physical therapist that the school offers to have it massaged and taped. some days she will sit out a pointe class or a pas de deux class, depending on the pain and on what they are working. it doesn't seem to have worsened so i think she's hopeful she'll be able to finish without missing anything that she feels is special or important.

the school has allowed the students to watch rehearsals that are in progress. this has been very exciting for her and she's been able to see two of her favorite ballerinas work on pieces for the coming winter season. yesterday she heard that one of her favorite choreographers is currently rehearsing, so she hopes to watch him work during her lunch breaks this week.