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.