April 13, 2007

  • I went for a similar ride this morning to the one on Thursday. Up Corbett to Portola, down Woodide to Dewey to Taravel. Here's a pretty pic of looking up forest hill from Durantes:

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    The weather was so beautiful at the beach I wanted to move there. Not so much wind, shining sun, warmish, delightful. Don't I look delighted??

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    But soon the fog will roll in and stay there until, say, September. So I think we'll stay put in the Castro. Instead of coming up on Geary, I took Cabrillo which has a nice bike lane and far fewer lights than Geary and is faster, safer, and all around better of a transit route. From there I rode around USF over to Golden Gate and took Golden Gate to Laguna to Post and then in through union Square. I love my new red jacket that I got from Pearl Izumi. I need to get a couple new fleeces that go under it but then again, there's always a ton of bike stuff that I need.

    Jeff came and took me out to lunch.  I love it when he does that.  We took a little walk through Chinatown after lunch.  Hello gorgeous!

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    Then we headed over to Tiffany's to get our wedding rings polished.  I hadn't realized how crappy mine was looking until we got them polished.  Now it looks new again.  The glamour!  Then we we headed over to Macy's to check out the flower displays.  Union Square was especially pretty:

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    I think the displays at Macy's were better last week when they were fresher and they were only OK.  Tried a few new fragrances but found nothing that suited me.  The Fresh Patchouli smelled like a mixture between Certs and Nyquil.  Ouch!  It was better on the dry down but who wants to smell that??  After that we headed down to an art gallery to see my friend Lisea's photographs.  Very, very pretty.

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    Walking back to my building we looked at the Flood Building that is slowly be converted into the new Ritz Carlton Residences.  It was the ugly, white, washington Mutual building when I moved here and I can't believe that they ever covered up this gorgeous facade with that cheesy sixties veneer.  It's hard to photograph but it's a beautiful beautiful building and I can't wait until it's finished.

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    Thursday, April 12

    I spent a good part of Thursday on my bike. I got up early and took Corbett up to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taraval and then down to ocean beach. It was pretty windy at the ocean but really pretty. Here's a pic of a cargo vessel carrying USA made crap somewhere else:

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    I came back on Geary which is busy but pretty in the morning and then took Masonic to Presidio to Post and came in through Union Square. I felt pretty good and it was really cold but lots of fun. Jeff's still on spring break so I went home for lunch. Jeff made me an enormous lunch that included ribwich, french fries and both a fruit and a green salad. I was stuffed. What is a ribwich you ask?? Do you remember the McRib sandwich from McDonalds?? Would you be more inclined to enjoy such a thing if you knew it was a vegan item completely unincumbered by meat and whatever gruesome process it took to get meat into that shape? If so, the ribwich is the lunch for you.

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    I managed to make it back to work without blowing any spokes and got a lot of work done before the end of the day. I went for a long ride after work as well. I had class, so I had to end up at city college. My goal was to do the big hill heading into McLaren Park on Mansell up from Bayshore. It isn't easy getting to Bayshore and especially not at rush hour. I started out by taking Third street down to 16th st. The new mission bay construction is so cool! It's going to be such a neat neighborhood when they're done! From 16th, I got over to Pennsylvania St to see some of the original houses on Potrero Hill. So pretty and the views from up there were fabulous.

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    Then, I tried to get to Bayshore. My first attempt was the bike path off of Cesar Chavez under the 280. It unceremoniously dumped me back on Cesar Chavez going the opposite direction than I had started. Ouch! So I took some side streets and miraculously found a bike route that got me down to Oakdale. There's this random Restaurant at Oakdale and Bayshore called "The Old Clam House" that claims to be from 1861. The building looks old enough for that but you gotta wonder how a restaurant without a drive through window could stay open in that neighborhood. Bayshore and Oakdale with no parking. Ouch!

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    I had to wait for the crack ho to trundle by before I could take these pics. Sketchy! From there I headed down Bayshore but ended up in the wrong lane at another freeway crossing and ended up on Alemany on a busy street without much of a shoulder. Disaster! I managed to survive it and finally crossed at St Mary's Park. I'd pretty much given up on going up Mansell as it was pretty late, so I thought I'd just go into the park up to the overlook at Visitacion and Mancell that I like and leave it at that. I wasn't able to find the side entrance to the park. I don't know how I missed it. It's on Cambridge FYI so I ended up way too far over and finally connected with Persia. At this point I needed to get to class so I abandoned the idea of McLaren and headed to City College. I managed to photograph some of the beautiful murals on the side of a school at Persia and Moscow in the Excelsior.

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    Then I took Ocean up to class. I rode home the usual way. Tersesita to Portola to Corbett to Ord. Jeff left me a huge dinner-- I love it when he doesn't have to go to work. I was not allowed to speak while "Ugly Betty" was on. I went to bed early, because I wanted a ride on Friday morning.