The Nino File

A couple of weeks ago, I had a work meeting in San Francisco for a couple days and Holly accompanied me. We went a day early and walked around the area near Fisherman’s Wharf, The Cannery, and Ghiradelli Square. We even wandered into an art gallery and quasi-purchased a couple of LeRoy Neiman works. (I may explain the quasi part later.) And we rode a cable car from the waterfront until the end of the line where we were ceremonially dumped in unfamiliar territory.

Looks like we’re in the right place

Sea Lions at the Wharf

Gharadelli Square: yummy chocolate!

The Cannery: not much there

The next morning, we headed over to Alcatraz, which was pretty cool.

I had forgotten about the Indian occupation of the island in the late 60s

Broadway looking (fuzzily) down to Times Square

D Block–home of the infamous Bird Man of Alcatraz

There are tons of birds nesting on the island

Then I went off to my meeting for the next several days, while Holly toured the city on her own. She must have walked 15 miles on Friday and Saturday.

Chinatown

Supposedly, a street sign on Nob Hill

Lombard Street

Clock Tower at the Ferry Building

On Friday night, I went on a tour of the Bay (spouses not invited).

Alcatraz

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Bay Bridge and San Francisco

On Saturday, I went to the Oakland A’s game against the Indians. A’s won 6-1. Sabathia struggled as did nearly every Indians batter. And McAfee Coliseum–not exactly state of the art.

Sizemore at the plate

Meanwhile, Holly was touring the Golden Gate Park, including the Japanese Tea Garden and the Botanical Garden.

A fountain

A tree

A flower

The entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden?

Inside the Japanese Tea Garden

So I didn’t get to see too much of the city, so we’ll have to go back some day. Holly enjoyed being untethered for a couple of days (thanks Ma for taking care of the kids!).

Now back to the art quasi-purchase. Holly never buys anything on impulse, but somehow we walked out the gallery having committed to purchase a couple of pieces unless she cancelled by Sunday evening. I won’t go into all the details, but I’ll say that, after several voicemails were left and not returned, we are not purchasing either of the pieces and she is extremely unhappy with the dealer. It is entertaining to watch her work sometimes.