Smurf Blue City Hall

On our way home last night after a wonderful Chanticleer concert we were surprised to see City Hall lit up in blue. How unusual, so I googled and found that Sony had paid for the Smurf blue lighting for the weekend to advertise their new movie. 

Full Circle

Opera In The Park visual 'distraction'

We've come full circle this year by attending two of the same events as at the beginning of our adventure last year - Opera In The Park and the SFSymphony outdoor concert, both kicking off their seasons. I'll probably post from time to time for my memories, but this year is complete.

Symphony at Civic Center

Opera In The Park was yesterday - 9/11 - a serious and inspiration concert, the orchestra performed Mozart's Requiem, and other pieces by American composers such as Bernstein's 'Make Your Garden Grow'. We did have a little visual distraction, however!


Enjoyed the Symphony at Civic Center during the week as well.

Moving's a Cinch?

Moving out from the 16th floor!

My stomach was doing flips just watching this crane move the contents from a condo next door (the video is graphic). Looks like we won't be moving our piano up to San Francisco any time soon if this is what it takes to get it in our apartment! 

Team Oracle

Team Oracle

Glanced out the window and caught Team Oracle racing. They came upwind, turned, and then flew downwind. See the video below. What sights we'll have in 2013 when America's Cup comes to San Francisco. The field will include Hobie (Wild) Cats (which we saw today) and yachts whose masts hardly fit under the Golden Gate bridge. 

First tour a success

What a rush! My first Billionaire's Row tour went very well, all were engaged and stayed from beginning to end, and eyes wide open at some of the stories. Because the tour was well received, I volunteered that this was my first – their surprised looks and comments gave me great confidence. Here's one mansion / story:

This 1899 four-story mansion (the two stories we don't see cascade down the hill at the rear) has arched dormer windows punctuating the roof line, cornice moldings with dentil detail outlining each side, and windows aligned in perfect symmetry - all characteristics of classic Georgian architecture. It was once owned by Richard and Ann Russell Miller, Richard the son of the founder of what became Pacific Gas & Electric, Ann the daughter of the Chairman of Southern Pacific Railroad. Ann was a socialite and tireless fund raiser, having served on 22 boards. She was also an extravagant spender - on a whim she would invite friends to ski in Austria. After Richard died in 1990, with 10 children and 18 grandchildren (now 30) traded all to join a Carmelite monastery, the strictest and most cloistered order of all. She told her five girls and five boys in separate lunches at Trader Vic's, and threw a going-away bash at the Hilton where she told 800 friends, “The first two-thirds of my life were devoted to the world, the last third will be devoted to my soul.” She held the party on her 60th birthday, October 30, 1989. The next day, she knocked on the door of the Carmelite Monastery (Des Plaines, Illinois) and said, “Here I am. Trick or Treat.” After 21 years, she’s still there.

Ah, the City!

Leopold's on Polk/Union

What a fun evening; we decided to walk over to Polk Street to a new recommended Austrian restaurant, Leopold's. We had been warned that it might be noisy, and what a din it was! But what fun (and delicious food); we saw a fellow Historic Market Street City Guide Steve and his wife Chris, and joined their table with other lovely and interesting people - Chris's father was a conductor in Europe, Gretchen, a stage manager at the SF Opera, Albert, a string player, and Pam and Mike, all of them volunteers in a non-profit tree foresting of SF organization. We may have found Bill's next volunteer opportunity! Not only is city living exciting and never-ending surprising, our table was the ONLY one in the restaurant OF our generation! To heck with the rest of the young rebel-rousers - we don't care!

Pulp Fashion and Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant

So glad we went to The Legion of Honor to see the Pulp Fashion exhibit before it closes next week. The artist de Borchgrave makes elaborate historical gowns out of paper; and all were incredibly detailed and so beautiful. At the museum we ran into four friends from Los Altos who had been talking about us on their way to SF wondering how we were enjoying the City - we filled them in on our busy lives.

The Medici's - dressed in paper gowns

I checked UrbanSpoon for a nearby restaurant and found the 'hole in a wall' Shanghai (not quite a) DUMPling on Balboa and 34th. We ordered their specialty - dumplings - which were delicious as were the noodles and pea-leaf stir-fry. 

Museo Italo Americano

We recently joined The Italian American Museum of San Francisco http://museoitaloamericano.org/. It's just down the hill at Ft Mason, where we've been attending a movie series about The Life of Verdi. On display this week is artwork, some done with pasta, some with rosary beads.

Yes, woven Pasta

Italianate Column in Pasta

Sophia Loren in Rosary Beads

Memorial Day

We attended a beautiful and moving Memorial Day ceremony at the Presidio last week. Bands, colors presentation, speakers, poet, all-servicemen-women all-wars presented, fly-over.

Trolley Tour

We thoroughly enjoyed a Trolley Tour on Sunday, a joint venture between SF City Guides and the Market Street Railway (Bill's love!). All aboard had a fun ride (with docents from both organizations) on the Embarcadero, to the Castro, and back to the Railway Museum for refreshments. When we passed Lotta's Fountain I gave the guide my cell phone to play the aria sung by Luisa Tettrazzini in 1909 (Romeo and Juliet). All was very festive. The trolley on which we traveled was a 1950s SF trolley. Bill's eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Scarlet Slippers trolley from Newark.

Bill & Beth circled

Bay to Breakers

Au naturale

Enjoyed the zany Bay to Breakers 'race' today. 50K registered, at least 50K more walked as we watched from the Hayes Street Hill. Here's a teaser of the type of costumes worn or not worn. We can't go again without costume. So, next year, maybe we'll derive a Wrigley's Gum costume and entitled ourselves 'GUMMERS'! Click on and enlarge the collage to see all the photos we took. Soooo many black swans, all sorts of animals, crazy hats/clothes, Victorian-dressed ladies and gentlemen, a bag(s) lady, a terrorist, bacon slices!, muffin tops, Blue Men, even a Stanford 'bush' look-alike, and, of course, many au naturale!

Off to 'work'

The Docent off to work

Bill loves trolleys! When a kid he'd ride his bike to the depot in Newark (NJ) to see the trolleys, talk to the conductors, and just hang around. He found a perfect fit in San Francisco as a volunteer steward for the historic Market Street Railway http://www.streetcar.org/. At the end of the line at the Castro, Bill spends a couple of hours every other Saturday spiffing up the (13) trolleys in rotation in service that day; sweeping, picking up trash, replenishing the supply of brochures, answering tourists' questions. His jacket says he's a Docent - how cool!


The fleet of trolleys is from around the world, Milan, Sydney, London, Barcelona, USA cities. Bill is awaiting arrival of his beloved Newark trolleys 'Scarlet Slippers', so named for their red wheels.


A perk he gets at his job are some of the sights at the Castro - like a couple of guys hanging out wearing hats only!

Graduation!

Had a great day - we're official San Francisco City Guides.
http://www.sfcityguides.org/

Darth Vader and friends

Inventor (digital) & gardens

At the opening of George Lucas's (Star War's creator) complex in the Presidio in 2005, he said he chose San Francisco for the site of his empire because it is where 'digital' was invented. The complex is surrounded by beautiful gardens with lovely walkways, and Jedi master Yoda greets visitors atop a  stone fountain at the front door.

Darth Vader and a few of his other friends stand in the lobby. Amazingly, also placed prominently in the lobby is a beautiful marble IBM typewriter. How could something I've used earlier in my life already be set in stone!!

Yoda Fountain

The one and only!

'My' old IBM typewriter!

Not attending Royal Wedding!

In December 1994 Bill spent two hours with Prince William - and his mother and kid brother - when they traveled together in the first class cabin of a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Denver. He was hoping for an invitation to the Royal Wedding, but  Prince William must have forgotten the time they spent together! We'll just have to settle for tea and crumpets before the 'telly'.

Our 'Finals' - Group Tours

Part of my group tour yesterday on Historic Market Street, which is now Bill’s assigned tour, was a stop at Lotta’s Fountain. This is an architectural tour with stories that surround the history of the buildings / monuments / transportation on 'The Path of Gold'.

Lotta Crabtree

I told the story of Lotta Crabtree, the darling of San Francisco entertainment in the 1850s, who repaid the City with a gift of a fountain that became the central meeting place at the time of the 1906 earthquake, and today still a gathering place. 








Luisa Tetrazzini, the greatest opera singer of her day, was also beloved by San Franciscans, and in the aftermath of the earthquake gave the City a gift of a concert on Christmas Eve 1910 at Lotta's Fountain. Expecting 10K to attend, 150K thonged the streets, and the crowd best loved the an aria from Gounod’s Romeo & Juliet which, with its many high notes, could be heard two blocks away! I then played an Itunes recording of her singing this piece, but here’s a YouTube of her singing The Last Rose of Summer she also sang at the concert.

Tetrazzini Concert at Lotta's Fountain

Turkey Tetrazzini was named after Luisa, widely believed to have been created by the chef at the Palace Hotel in honor of this popular woman of 'girth'!

Assigned our City Guides tours!

Garden Court / Palace Hotel

Yea, we passed our 'final' exams - group mock tours along Historic Market Street. Next class we graduate! We don't become guides quite then yet, though. We're each assigned a mentor, gather information from other guides for our assigned tours, work all that through with our own research and interest, and practice, practice and then practice with our mentor (and maybe even you who are nearby!), and then we'll be unleashed to represent the city of San Francisco. Bill was assigned Historic Market Street: Path of Gold http://www.sfcityguides.org/desc.html?tour=40, and I was assigned Billionaire's Row: Outer Broadway Architecture http://www.sfcityguides.org/desc.html?tour=34. Bill's assignment was his second choice, mine was my first choice. Any of the tours we had requested we know we would enjoy guiding; any research we had done for our mock tours made us love them all! We celebrated a successful day with a martini at the famous Palace Hotel.

President Obama in town

Tent in front of home of fundraiser

Barack Obama was in town today for a couple of fundraisers. One event held by (CEO Salesforce) at $35Kpp, yes, $35,000, was located near us, so we walked over to Jackson & Walnut Streets to take in the experience of his arrival. Enjoyed waiting and chatting with a number of people in the neighborhood. Just before his arrival, a string of approximately 50 motorcycles appeared (those who block off side streets along the route, but all together now that the motorcade had arrived). Then, as shown in the video a string of limos, only one of which was whisked into the onsite tent. Of course, not a glimpse of the President but one more easy-to-get-to fun thing to do while living in San Francisco.

April 18, 1906 - 5:13am

Bill DelMonte / 105-year-old survivor

Where were you this morning? We were at the 105th commemoration of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake at Lotta's Fountain on Market Street, the central meeting place after the earthquake to find survivors. (I'll talk more about Lotta's Fountain in another post.) One of three living survivors was there - Bill DelMonte, 105 years old, three months at the time of the earthquake. He was interviewed and very sharp; he was an 'investor' who gained and lost a couple of fortunes. The other two survivors are 108-year-old women but they didn't get there this morning; the MC said they "wanted to sleep in!" In addition to speeches by city officials, a wreath was hung, there was a moment of silence at 5:13am after a minute of sirens, as heard in the video below, and we all sung "San Francisco Open Up Your Golden Gate".

Wreath Hanging at Lotta's Fountain

Pacific Cafe

Queueing at Pacific Cafe

Went all the way out Geary Street almost to the ocean for dinner tonight at the Pacific Cafe. It felt like we could have driven to San Mateo with the distance travelled, so spoiled we are with the many restaurants near our apartment and downtown. We had heard (on KQED's Check Please program) how good this seafood restaurant is, so we took the reviewers advice and queued up at 4:45p, sipped on complimentary wine and waited for Pacific Cafe to open. Well worth the queue; we had a delicious dinner.

KQED Performance

KQED studio after performance

We had a very interesting and lovely experience today at a KQED reception/taping of a performance by Richard Glazier, pianist/storyteller, http://www.richardglazier.com/ who plays popular American songs by composers Gershwin, Arlen and others. He knows the history of many composers / librettists and tells interesting stories about them. Of the pieces he played, he had us sing along with Embraceable You, actually very poignant, and he ended playing Rhapsody in Blue. The show, An Evening with Richard Glazier, will be aired on KQED June 7, and later on other public tv stations. Look for the show, enjoy, and maybe you'll see us in the audience.

Bill with Richard Glazier in studio

Mock Tour continued (2)

Firehouse / Washington Street

A really interesting place is the 1893 Victorian-style Firehouse on Washington Street that was converted into a home in 1964. The 'firehouse' has had well known owners - former California Governor Jerry Brown, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, and previous to the current owner, John Traina, Danielle Steele’s (author) former husband. Like any firehouse(!), this one has wide open spaces, and a couple of cool fire poles. Rumor has it that the current owners plan to convert the garage into a basketball court for their children.

Author Danielle Steele / former Spreckels mansion

An aside that Danielle Steele's mansion, built in 1913 by the late Adolph Spreckels (sugar), is further east in Pacific Heights and a wee bit larger than the firehouse owned by her former husband. Danielle (still) lives in this pretty cool mansion.

Mock Tour continued

Melvin Belli / attorney

I have a personal experience with Melvin Belli, the late San Francisco celebrated attorney reportedly to have won over $600M in judgments for his clients (and nationally famous as JFK's assassin's (Lee Harvey Oswald) murderer's (Jack Ruby) defense attorney in the 'Trial of the Century'). In the 1960s, he hired me as an administrative assistant but even before I left my other job he asked me to his apartment for some 'night' work and to travel with him to Denver to 'investigate' a case. Pretty big red flag that I would be choosing a lifestyle not meant for me, so I never did work for the flamboyant attorney. Later, happily, I became a "Billy" girl and not a "Belli" girl! In the late 70s to early 90s, Belli lived in this 1920's Tudor Revival 11,000 sq ft mansion on Broadway, with leaded glass windows and elaborate moldings, a 3000 bottle wine cellar, a ‘ballroom-sized’ living room, a four-car garage, elevator, lush gardens and a heated swimming pool. 


The mansions along Broadway sit atop Pacific Heights with cascading levels at the 'back' (really at the 'front' with magnificent views) not seen from the street. There's an unknown quote about the SF hills that goes, “When you get tired of walking around in San Francisco, you can always lean against it.” 

Mock Walking Tour

SF former Mayor

In our training for SF City Guides Walking Tours http://www.sfcityguides.org/ we were given assignments to present a 10-minute mini walking tour. I chose to make a snippet of Billionaire's Row, aka the Gold Coast, at the end Broadway as it meets the Presidio. Discussion about mansions should be informative architecturally and/or include anecdotes, stories. In the case of a SF former Mayor, I pointed out her home down the stairs and noted that it's usually evident when she's in residence when a security guard is seen around and about.

Oil Tycoon & Philanthrophist

On the first block of Broadway is a (philanthrophist) oil tycoon's mansion. In 2008, they held a fundraiser for Barack Obama in their 'ballroom' for 400 monied San Franciscans. At a reported ticket cost of $2300pp, the funds raised translates to over $1M.


More of my mini tour in next blog.

Wave Organ

Lots of stuff to post. Yesterday we took a walk along the waterfront out a long jetty to see and 'hear' a Wave Organ, an acoustic sculpture, a series of underwater pipes that interact with the waves of the Bay and convey sound at several pipe different stations. 

The effects produced vary depending on the level of the tide but include rumbles, gurgles, sloshes, hisses and other wave sounds. We enjoyed coffee and a muffin sitting on one of the stone platforms near the mouths of pipes, listening. Not much 'music' at low tide; but enjoyed the experience nonetheless. Some of the stone pieces were salvaged from the demolition of a cemetery which added interest to the setting.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

David and Gina, and Kyla and Cassidy came up to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year with Gina's family. We had a good time with all, including a wonderful Chinese Banquet to which Susan Luo and Frank Luo graciously invited Bill and me to attend. We took all to a children's opera film of the Elixir of Love at the SF Opera, and Kyla keeps asking to see an opera again - yeah, another opera lover! We played with Kyla and Cassidy for a couple of afternoons, including enjoying a Croque Monsieur (grilled cheese to them) at one of our favorite sidewalk cafes Chouquet's http://www.chouquets.com/ 


We're traveling to North Carolina tomorrow to stay with Bill's sister Betty for a week  - going through Chicago right after the blizzard. Nice choice of routing, not!!

Tenant / Owner Evening

We had a lovely evening with the owners of the condo where we're living. Vickie and Gil are doing much the same as we - renting their home to us and enjoying living in Carmel Valley as we are doing here in San Francisco. We met at a 42nd Street Moon Theater Jazz Review featuring well-known (but not to us) Broadway singer/dancer Karen Ziemba, in which many old-time songs with great lyrics were sung. Then we had an excellent dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant Le Colonial http://lecolonialsf.com/, where we enjoyed the camaraderie (and wonderful food) together.

Beautiful day, beautiful sunset

Just gorgeous and lovely today in San Francisco, as evidenced by this beautiful sunset, photo taken from our apartment towards the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito.

Chinatown Walking Tour

Bill and I will start training as City Guides in a couple of weeks; classes run for six full Saturdays over the next three months. We understand that there are terrific speakers in addition to training, and we're really looking forward to starting. http://www.sfcityguides.org/ When classes are almost complete we will be assigned a specific tour from a list that we submit as our preferred tours, and mentored before we start guiding our own tour.

It so happens that our neighbors are both City Guides, and we took Kay's tour today of Chinatown. She gave us lots of history and took us to some of the alleys and by-ways of Chinatown where China customs are very strong. We also went into a couple of food markets on Stockton Avenue where it felt like we we back in Tokyo with crowded stores selling live fish, turtles, frogs, even birds. Kay also took us four flights up to the incense air-filled Tin Now Temple crowded with many people offering paper items to a (shrine) fire to take to their deceased loved ones. We toured one of the specialty shops devoted to selling these paper items - shirts, shoes, houses, radios, jewelry, even mobile phones - all paper. After our tour, Kay and her husband Harry and Bill and I had excellent dim sum at the gigantic New Asia Restaurant.

http://www.sfnewasia.com/

Sunset Walk at Chrissy Field

Enjoyed a beautiful sunset walk at Chrissy Field. We started in bright sun at 4:30 and by 5:00 fog drifted in just as a cruise ship was passing under the Golden Gate bridge.

Best Pizza in San Francisco

Our vote for the best pizza in San Francisco is at Caffe BaoNecci in North Beach (Green & Columbus). This is a small family-run restaurant (they're from Lucca) that serves delicious (very) thin-crust pizza. I asked if they would make us a plain crust, brush it with olive oil, salt it and serve in pieces. I've had this many times in Montecatini (near Lucca) and have craved it often, and BaoNecci's was made to a 'T'. Bill thinks the eggplant parmesan here is delicious as well.
http://www.caffebaonecci.com/caffebaonecci/Welcome.html
Rose's Cafe on Union Street (Cow Hollow) also has delicious thin-crust pizza, and they too made the plain oiled and salted crust for us, which was almost as good as BaoNecci - Rose's crust just slightly thicker but still very thin. Rose's Cafe is very a popular restaurant.
http://www.rosescafesf.com/
We also had pizza at Tony's Pizza Napoletana in North Beach (Union & Stockton) which we liked, a little thicker pizza that we're used too, also a very popular restaurant and always crowded.
http://www.tonyspizzanapoletana.com/
We have yet to go back to Tomasso's in North Beach which we ate at a few years ago, and to A16 on Chestnut Street in the Marina, which was recommended to us.
http://tommasos.com/
http://www.a16sf.com/
These are just pizza restaurants; we have other Italian favorites, too, which I'll write about soon.