Thursday, July 26

I overslept!  Hate that.  I'm going to have to start using a more assertive alarm that Mr. Poe is going to hate.  I coughed down breakfast and took Rufus on a slightly shorter walk and then rushed to get out of the house and went on a shorter bike ride.  I took Corbett to Clayton to Parnassus to Judah to 9th Ave and into the Park.  I stopped by the Shakespeare Garden which always looks so lovely in the morning and today was no exception:

This garden is pretty all the time.  Sun, Rain, Fog---  all pretty.  Cheered me up quite a bit!  From there I continued along to Stowe Lake.  There are a couple of rustic looking buildings around the lake.  This is the most successful of them:

Then I cut over to JFK and then went through the Rose Garden to Funston to Lake to 25th Ave and into the Presidio.  It was very foggy in the Presidio this morning.  Then I got a flat!  I need a new rear tire and I've been getting a lot of flats because of it.  Here's my bike while I was changing the tube with the supports of the Golden Gate Bridge access road in the background

I went through Crissy Field which is and took this picture of the recently restored tidal ponds.  It's crawling with birds and very pretty.

I continued to the East side of the park and took this picture of a fog shrouded Alcatraz:

Then I continued along the Marina Green to Fort Mason to Aquatic Park to Columbus and into the Financial District.  A little rushed and it always sucks to get a flat but otherwise a fun ride.

Wednesday, July 25

After work I headed out Hayes Street.  I don't spend a lot of time in Hayes Valley and it was really fun.  This building is at Hayes and Van Ness.  It's an old school that's now an administrative building and it's really finely detailed:

Then I continued up Hayes to the new Hayes Green.  It's such a change from how it looked from just a few years ago when the freeway cut through it:

There was some kind of concert going on:

I continued up Hayes into the NOPA neighborhood.  There are a lot of beautiful Victorians everywhere you look.  These were at Hayes and Lyons:

Then I continued up Hayes to Stanyon and then Golden Gate to Arguello to Cabrillo and then down to the Ocean.  I went down Ocean Beach to Ulloa and then came back up on that, making my way over to Taravel at 16th ave and then Dewey to 7th Ave to Clarendon.  I got home and changed and took Rufus to the dog park.  He loves to see all his friends!  His friends include everybody.

He had lots of fun running around and playing with the dogs but we had to go home and get him some dinner.  Afterwards, I walked him with Mimi Douglass to Romain to Corbett to Clayton to Deming to Uranus to Roosevelt to Lower Terrace and then down the Vulcan steps.  Everybody was pretty tired after that and I was able to get a rare photo of a calm but not asleep Rufus:

Mimi was great on the walk and only growled once (which is probably a record).  She really seems to be warming up to the activity level as well which is terrific.  I couldn't be happier about that.  Total bike mileage:  34.3

Wednesday, July 25

I got up and took Rufus for his walk.  We went up the saturn steps and took Clifford Terrace to Ashbury to Frederick to Buena Vista West to Upper Terrace and then Roosevelt down to Lower Terrace and home on the Vulcan steps.  It was foggy, cold, and wet yet again.  Gotta love that California sunshine!  I took my favore toute of Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the Ocean.  I came up the coast and took Geary to 34th ave and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  It was pretty gloomy up there but these lion sculptures cheered me up, mostly because they reminded me of the stylised lions from Portsmouth Square yesterday.

I think it's a trade off living on Lake Street of gorgeous house vs crappy weather.  I don't know that I could live in all that fog but there's tons of fabulous houses for people who don't mind it:

I continued on Lake Street and to Arguello.  Then I went into Presidio Terrace and rode around a little.  That neighborhood is even gorgeous when it's socked in with fog:

I went down Washington into Presidio Heights.  The fog was starting to lift and it wasn't quite as wet.  There's lots to see in Presidio Heights:

I took Washington to Steiner to Post and came into the Financial District.  Fun ride even though it was a little gloomy.  I even kind of like the cold and wet rides.  More evidence of my lunacy.

Tuesday, July 24

The weather was a little schizophrenic after work.  The fog had started to roll in and it was cool and very windy but there was still a blinding amount of sunshine.  It was a little disorienting.  I headed out Columbus into Fishermans Wharf.  I took this picture looking up at Ghiradelli Square from Aquatic Park:

Then I headed over Fort Mason through the Marina and into the Presidio.  Once I got a little inland the winds dies down a little.  The Presidio was, as always, very beautiful:

I headed out the Arguello Gate and down Arguello into Golden Gate Park.  There's an old Romanesque Revivial structure there that's currently used as an art studio.  I believe the correct description of this 1887 building would be "architecture porn":

I haven't been able to find out a lot about this building.  I'll update this post when I do.  I headed out 9th ave and up into Forest Hill.  I turned out on Pacheco took it to Dewey to 7th Ave to Clarendon to Twin Peaks and then home on 17th.  I got chenged in a hurry because I was supposed to take Rufus to meet up with Chris and Sofi, the worlds sweetest dog.  They played and played and played and got tired out pretty quickly.  It was really cold in the dog park so we headed  back to my place where the playing continued.  I discovered that if they started to play too rough I could break it up with cookie time because they both know that they have to sit and behave themselves for cookies.  Mimi was beside herself but we managed to get her calmed down because she likes Sofi but she wasn't crazy about all the antics going on in her house.  They left and we had dinner and then I walked Mimi and Rufus Corbett to Pemberton tro Villa Terrace to Twin Peaks to Clayton up to Mount Olympus and then back on Clifford Terrace.  You can see the fog settling into the city from the steps up to Mount Olympus:

Then I went home and went to bed.

I went home for lunch and everybody behaved themselves.  Rufus is still having some digestive issues so he can't eat all the snacks Mimi gets so I snuck her a jerky treat when he was off sniffing around the back yard.  When he got back in he sniffed her up and down and she totally let him because she knows she's getting treats he doesn't get and she loves that. 

We had some power outages in the financial district in the afternoon and after my computer had clicked off for the fourth time I went for a walk in Chinatown.  The playground in Portsmouth square has some interesting sculpture in it. 

It's a little "Lion King" but I'll be it's very popular with kids and that's why it's there.  I think it's kind of neat too:

I walked down Grant for a while and there is no shortage of cool stuff to look at:

  

  

Then I turned onto Columbus and came back through Little Chile. 

I found this interesting mural in an alley:

And then lounged at a table further down the street.  See I'm not in bike clothes all the time!

I cut through the garden at the Transamerica Pyramid on my way back.  It has a pretty fountain with cool little frog scuptures:

 

Tuesday, July 24

I got up early and took Rufus for his morning walk.  It takes him a long time to wake up in the morning and he was still yawning halfway down the block.  I didn't make it to McLaren Park last night like I'd wanted because I was starting to get a flat on my rear wheel and I didn't want to have to change a tire in the Excelsior.  So, I went this morning.  Not much to see.  There was as much fog as yesterday and there was practically no visibility anywhere until almost 8AM.  I took Corbett to Portola to Fowler to Teresita to Foerster to Judsom to Phelan to Ocean.  I almost wiped out on the slick tracks at Balboa Park but I managed to catch it.  Then I hooked up with Persia and headed into the park:

There wasn't much to see because of the fog and so I didn't linger.  I headed out on Cambridge and followed that to the footbridge into St Mary's Park.  Then I took Justin to Agnon to Crescent to Murray to Holly Park.  Even Holly Park was socked in with fog!

Then I took Elsie to Cortland to Coleridge into Bernal Heights.  I love Bernal Heights.  The hills their are nuts but there are lots of pretty buildings to look at.  This house wasn't too exciting except that it had this really vivid polychromed trim:

And it was continued onto other places on the house:

Gorgeous!  I'm not sure when this house was built but it's really finely detailed and has beautiful plantings:

I came out on Mission and saw one on Mimi's favorite bars:

It was getting pretty late so I headed to the Financial District on Folsom and into work.

Monday, July 23

I headed off after work south of Market.  I wanted to photograph a derelict church on Folsom Street.  There's a bunch of them in San Francisce.  Usually they've been shut down because of retrofitting expenses. This is St. Joseph's built 1913:

It's a pretty church and I"m going to go with Spanish Baroque style.  There's still a large day care center on the grounds run by Catholic Charities and there'a a really pretty mosaic on one of the outer walls that I had a hard time getting a good picture of because of traffic.  Here are a few details:

I headed over to South Van Ness to check out a the mansions that are on that street from about 19th to 23rd.  None of them look like they're luxury housing today, but maybe people will start renovating them because they are fabulous and well located in the Mission.  That neighborhood didn't burn after the earthquake and there are lot of Victorian gems to look at:

Some of them were kind of fortress like.  I think the neighborhood's a lot better than it used to be and it's probably unnecessary:

  

I was starting to get a flat tire so I cut my ride short.  I did some hills instead and went home via Liberty which is pretty steep!  I went home and took Rufus to the dog park and then we had dinner.  Then it was time to walk the dogs again.  Mimi was pretty good on her walk.  She barked at a couple of dogs but she's getting much less fearful I think and at the end of the walk we went back to the dog park and Rufus played with a Portuguese water dog named Maya and she only complained a little.  Then we went home and went to bed. 

Went home for lunch and Rufus and Mimi are still sleeping off the weekend.  She's getting along with him a whole lot better the last couple of days and now only wants him dead a tiny bit.  The tone of her bark at him has become much higher pitch and seems to be less of a threat and more of play thing.  We're getting a new furnace today and there are people running around the house and Rufus is exhausted keeping tabs on things.  It's hard being the king:

You can see him slowly falling asleep here.  This is a video off of my camera and clearly it sucks.  I'm working on getting a new one.  And by working on getting a new one I mean pressuring my husband to get me a new one for our Anniversary next month.

Monday, June 23

I'm finally getting used to my morning schedule.  I can tell because I started waking up at about 4:30 as opposed to when my alarm went off like all last week.  I had breakfast and walked Rufus and then got ready and set off on my bike.  It was FOGGY.  There was very low visibility almost the whole time.  I took Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and then down to the coast and it was a cold, wet, foggy mess.  Luckily I was wearing a lot of layers because it was pretty miserable.  I went up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor and then came back on Lake to Arguello to Euclid.  By the time I got to Euclid it was starting to dry up a little so I took a few pics on the way in.  This is the bridge over Webster street in Japantown:

This is Union Square looking down Stockton Steet to the Palomar hotel:

Looking down Kearny towards California:

Sansome looking towards market.

I still had a great ride despite all the fog and wet.  But I'll admit I could have used less of both of those things.

Sunday, July 22

I actually managed to get Jeff on his bike.  It took threats but I did it.  We headed over to lake Merced via the Mission.  We took Valencia to Tiffany to San Jose Ave to Wilder to Diamond.  There's a new juice place at the corner of Wilder and Diamond in Glen Park whose name I'm crazy about:

Then we headed up Monterey and hung out at the Sunnyside Conservatory a bit.  Jeff thinks it's a little run down but I love it there and they have these enormous palm trees:

Hello Gorgeous!

Then we headed up Monterrey and made out way over to Ocean and the Eucalyptus to Middlefield to Lake Merced.  We went round the lake and came up through the park and stopped at the Rose Garden (Why can't I stay away from the Rose Garden??):

And even one of us both:

Then we headed home through the Haight and had a big lunch.  There's a new building they're just finishing down the street and they're starting to show it.  It was really really nice but I still like our place better.  I took Rufus to the dog park where he played with some Chows who had previously only wanted to play with one another.  But who can say no to sweet little Rufus??

We stayed for half an hour and then went up to the upper dog park and he ran around with those dogs for a while. Then we went home and had dinner and then I went back to the dog park to meet my friends Chris and David and Sofi, the worlds sweetest dog.  He's really growing.  I really noticed it when I saw the two of them together.

They played for about a half an hour and then I took him home.  We got Mimi and went for a nice long walk.  By then, all the dogs were very, very tired as were the humans so we went to bed.  Yes it was only 9:15.  Shut up I get up before 5!