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.