Monday afternoon I headed to the city to attend a small gathering at the Univ. of San Francisco campus. It's a little over 2 miles from Market Street, so a completely doable distance for walking. I've walked back to Market from the school a couple times (it's mostly downhill) so walking uphill didn't seem like too much for me at all.. (nothing compares to the Great LA Walk I've attempted a couple times, so whatever.. easy stuff!)
my stats:
short walk uphill to the Univ. of SF campus..
I walked as far as Starbucks and stopped in to get a drink and something to eat, then walked the rest of the way to the school (only a couple blocks) from there.
the clouds looking especially amazing Monday above the Sutro TV Tower.. I've been fortunate to be near the campus at different times of day and it always looks so cool there.. morning fog or fading light.. or in this case, bright blue sky with moderate cloud coverage.
St Ignatius on the USF campus against the swirling evening sky.
another of Sutro Tower and the hills beyond from the USF campus.. not quite 5pm..
It's a shame USF is so out my reach, because it really is an accessible campus and a walkable campus.. and the views.. well.. I love the views, of course.
So, what made it a "long walk on Fulton" was that I didn't plan to walk back to Market. I wasn't sure what time I'd be done or if it was a good idea to walk through Civic Center after sunset.. I just started walking and figured if I felt unsure in the darkness, (or if one came along,) I'd hop on the bus.
San Francisco City Hall at night..
I'm not saying one should or shouldn't walk in the city at night, but I admit to having doubt that it would be an option before I left Berkeley, and didn't plan for it. However, the weather was good and I felt fine, secure..
I didn't need the sweater I brought (I always expect it to be chillier than in Berkeley) I was hot when I first arrived in the city before I started my walk.. and in the evening I really didn't need to be wearing my sweater, either.
Walking through Civic Center I thought I would feel uncomfortable and yes, while there were a couple sketchy areas.. In front of the Asian Art Museum (no surprise for me given my previous passing discomfort with the mentally ill there) and Civic Center/ UN Plaza area outside the BART station.. So had I taken the bus, I don't think it would have spared me any anxiety.. FWIW, outside BART was the only place I was worried for my person, and taking a bus wouldn't have helped.
The nice thing, is that the walk to & from the school gave me lots of time to think about things: to take in my day, to contemplate how school is going for me, to organize my week, to reflect on little pieces of conversations I had through the day and the evening.
Long walks are ideal for me to be "alone" with my thoughts.. though I was far from alone, as usual. There were plenty of people walking to their own destinations with me but not with me. I was alone with myself in the city and that was fine.
Mirror of the World.. it will be my best friend today.. We will have many adventures.. and then I will move on to something else hopefully.. a bit of reading for US History.
Wedging relationships with various books between other things on-going, and going on. I feel I am abusing the books and not giving them the attention they deserve, but what can you do? I think that often is the way with education. So much to go into the process, everything gets granulated into the mix to form tasteless biscuts of facts. This is where the love for learning is lost. This is where I wish I had 30hrs in a day to tell you how much everything is truely connected to each other.
The age of reason and art. Truth no matter how ugly. Passion and storytelling. Love with no illusions. Justice.
If you want to 'getaway' without leaving the neighborhood there's not a better place to go on a mini vacation than Cole's.
Cole's was the place I went back in June 2006 for "Brother Mike" Schneider's 100th Rate a Restaurant meetup.. I can't say I could feel anymore like a tourist than I did that day.
It was talk of downtown that fateful day with Eric Richardson of Blogdowntown and Celia and Jim (Winstead) that put to mind the things we were lacking out in the burbs.. that put our wheels spinning to eventually move downtown.
We did move downtown October 2006, and we're pretty happy. DTLA lacks many of the conveniences we were used to living in the Bay Area (where Sean is originally from) but it's a city in transition. It feels like it's kicking the training wheels off after having not been up to speed in a while. Lots of bumps along the way.. It's not the city our friends think it is.. not the booming glamorous metropolis our out-of-state friends imagine; nor is it the grimy, crime-ridden death trap that some not so local think it might be.
I like my neighborhood, I like downtown. If I'm going to live in SoCal this is where I'm glad to be.. Just enough community spirit and activism and just small-town enough to make it cozy.
I'm going off the track for a reason I guess because having lunch at Cole's made me ruminate on that. The years that people have tried to make it here, find their own local spot and their own niche.. I don't hang out at Cole's. Since it's transition from hole-in-the-wall hangout to clean, retro chic. It's a hangout of another kind. Still worthwhile, still historic.. and they do make those dip sandwiches.
I'm not going to go on about whose is better.. I will say I am a big fan of the bacon potato salad. It's always a treat.. and for another time, the once New Orleans resident in me noted the Zapp's chips in the host station at the entrance (on our way out of course). Assuming there's a next time.. I might have to go with that just so they keep them in stock.
The thing is, we don't go to Cole's too often.. maybe one or two times a year for all the years we've lived here. Few enough times I always feel like a tourist when I eat here and can enjoy the cushy booths and the quiet solitude of not running into anyone in particular. At night it's a totally different story, with plenty of locals and Westsiders and business folks fresh off work hitting up the Association or trying to squeeze into Varnish, the little "speakeasy" in the back.
I'm not a bar scene kind of person.. I think those days are long gone for me. I do like the neighborhood scene though, and that's enough.
