I won't be too verbose, but here's one of the street cars from SF. According to Thane, this one came from Europe (don't remember the country). They were no longer in use in whatever country it came from, so the city bought them and refurbished them for the locals. Cool, eh...
Bus stop poster advertising SF Gay Pride weekend...
At the end of Powell and Hyde Street where this cable car does the turn around. We waited about 15 minutes in line for this...We took it up the hill and ended up near Lombard Street (the most crooked street in the world with 7 hairpin turns). Our photos don't even show the curves, so I won't bother posting them here...More about the cable cars here and Lombard Street here:
If you look closely, you can see one of the Art Hearts there...I want to say this is Union Square, but I'm not sure if it is.
It is so densely populated here. I would probably fk up driving here, especially if I drove stick shift. Love the bay windows...
After walking down Lombard Street, we headed up another hill to Coit Tower...It looks so close, yet felt so far away when we were walking in 80+ degree heat. More about the history here:
I can't believe how much we walked that day! That was my workout for the week, ha ha, lazy ass me.
Thane spotted this picutre of the "Black Canary" on a telephone pole. She's a DC comic character and known for her martial arts skills.
Forgot the name of this church but it was on the way to Coit Tower. Wait a minute, I just looked it up - It's Sts. Peter and Paul Church on Russian Hill.
Actually, we passed thru this area...North Beach, which is part of "Little Italy":
Ad on a side of a bus - Nice multicultural penises!
Naia Gelateria on Columbus Street in North Beach...We stopped by for a little refreshment before heading up to Coit Tower. Official website here and reviews on Yelp here. There are several locations in the Bay Area.
TC's gelato (actually, sorbet) - Strawberry and Mango...
TC's gelato (actually, sorbet) - Strawberry and Mango...
Bert and I shared a gelato - Dark Chocolate with Hazelnut:
Thane's drink -
Thane's arm:
I know, add whatever nasty jokes you want, but yeah...we have twisted senses of humor!
Almost there!
I like this upward angle shot taken by Thane...
Finally here!
One of the fantastic views at the top of the hill: 
Another look at one of SF's famous landmarks.
The murals in Coit Tower are a great example of the Public Works Art Project (PWAP) commissioned as part of the New Deal during the Depression. Rather than describe each and every mural, here's a link to an article that goes into the history of the murals in more detail here. It would have been awesome to have had Diego Rivera paint one of these murals, but they are certainly Diego Rivera inspired.
View of 
View of the TransAmerica Pyramid:
If you look closely, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge:
Cool photo taken by Thane. Although you can't see our eyes since they were so "expertly" spray painted by me, we are looking off to the side. It's so boring always looking into the camera, so we did a lot of looking away type of pix during this trip.
Me and Thane recreating 1/2 of the Queen II album cover:
Oh shit, this is kind of like the same photo (a few pix up)...
Inside the top of the tower:
This was probably the most touristy thing we did, going here but it was fun and worth it.
Christopher Columbus statue, me and the Tower...
Hearts and Brains in the Aria Antiques store window:
Harleys:
This was the Condor Club, a tittie bar located across the street from the Stinking Rose, where we planned to have dinner.
Hmmm...Big Al's "bookstore"...
The view of The Stinking Rose from across the street and below that, a freaky looking garlic bulb creature in their window display. If you're not aware of this restaurant, they are known for "seasoning their garlic with food". We'd eaten there a couple of times in the past with Thane, but TC wasn't born yet, so we wanted to go again. There was, amazingly enough, no wait to get in. But maybe that was because it was early dinner time and it wasn't a weekend. Or maybe it was the crappy economy that kept people at bay. Who knows, all I know is that we were seated right away. The thing that sucked was that the restaurant was dark inside which wasn't good for my food shots...
Freaky!
This is wierd - on my computer files, this is rotated and everytime I try to post this, it comes out sideways...oh well, just turn your head!
Menu:
Photos on the wall - can you spot the famous celebrities? And yes, that is a wine cork curtain...
Our appetizer was the bagna cauda, which was olive oil with roasted garlic cloves which you can spread on your bread:
Garlic relish which was really really strong! The garlic was raw, that's why. Raw garlic is pretty potent - it also makes one (notice I didn't say "me") gassy! Let's just leave it at that.
For TC, I ordered her the Garlic Steamed Manila Clams knowing that she wouldn't be able to finish and also knowing that I would "help" her finish these! Ha ha. But seriously, this was pretty good. The sauce was really light, with olive oil and white wine.
Bert's dish - the Vegetarian Lasagna which had eggplant and portobello mushroom. This didn't taste that great to me - I prefer my lasagna with meat...
This was Thane's entree -"Silence of the Lamb" Shank braised with Chianti, served with Fava beans, collard greens and garlic mashed potatoes. Yes, that's a pretty tacky and gimmicky name for a dish, huh. Not being a lamb fan, I declined a taste of the shank, but TC was game and tried it; she ended up liking it. Too gamey for me. 
My entree - Braised Beef Shortrib with Collard Greens and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Unfortunately, the mashed potatoes don't photograph too well. The shortrib was very tender and the portion was pretty large. I ended up eating one third, saving the rest for tomorrow. The garlic was kind of an afterthought since it was the only thing "garlic" about this dish. The sauce wasn't really infused with garlic. It was like the chef or whoever thought this up figured, "Well, I'll just put garlic on this so that it will justify being on our menu".
Graffitied door in North Beach:
Transamerica tower as seen from Columbia Street: 
Coming up - Santa Rosa and the Charles M. Schultz Museum & Research Center!
No comments:
Post a Comment