San Francisco Day 2

We were left to our own devices Saturday morning, but breakfast at Cafe De La Presse right next door to the Triton was already a habit.  Linda and I walked down to Embarcadero and sampled the huge farmers market in and around the Port Ferry Building and then took in a capoeira street performance that Linda's daughter and her boyfriend were in.  We didn't do the zip line or the tai chi and the rest of the afternoon/evening was book related (see my other blog Cool Books)

Other things the group did, hit Chinatown for souvenirs, clothes-shopped in Union Square, had a Chinese painting lesson, caught a Giants game (they lost), visited Haight Ashbury, visited museums (the Picasso exhibit at the Stein) and MOMA to name a few.

A couple of things to note.  Downtown San Francisco is very pedestrian friendly.  From the Triton we found it an easy walk to most places (West Portal Books was a muni ride away)  Unless you are planning on using muni and cable cars a lot, a one-day visitors pass will probably do you - plus a lot of quarters.  BART we only used on one there-and-back journey but you can go from Montgomery BART station straight to the airport.  A useful app for anyone with an iphone is routsey (free) - you tell it which station you are at and it tells you the next bus/tram/cable car/bart arrival times.

San Francisco Day 1

Our base for this trip the Hotel Triton, right in the heart of down town San Francisco.  Our guide Eleanor Burke - former English teacher - took us down to the mission district.  There are so many stunning murals to see and Eleanor guided us around the best ones, a selection of which are posted above.  The most current is the 'Arab Spring' mural a tribute to the young Tunisian whose death sparked the peaceful protests that led to Mubarak stepping down as Egypt's PM.

We visited the pirate supply store that funds a local writing program on Valencia and Dog Eared Books - also on Valencia which I videoed because the owner surveyed his customers and painted their favourite books spine-out all over the exterior of the shop.  Lunch was at El Delfin, followed by a few more murals and then we rounded off the tour with ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe (thai chilli lime) then the group split up to do their own thing.  Linda and I walked up through ChinaTown to City Lights bookstore and back in time to meet the rest of the group for dinner.  We went two streets down from the hotel (maiden lane?) where there are French, Italian, Spanish and American eateries.  The group went Italian but all the restaurants looked fantastic.