Today was John's birthday. Surprisingly, instead of opting for the traditional breakfast-in-bed, he was up and about early. It was a great move because it meant we could have a family breakfast together before Ali and Sophie went to work. Ali had prepared all the breakfast food and it was a nice way to start the day.
We worked out how much money we needed to put onto our electronic transit cards on our phones, and topped them up for our trip for the day and our return to SFO airport. With just a 10-minute walk to the train station we jumped on the BART train, changing at the next stop to take us all the way to 24th Street in the Mission District. Ali had suggested a wander down the length of Valencia St, which was interesting for its street art and the attractive Victorian villas which lined the street.
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| Valencia Street |
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| Wall art off Valencia St |
A&S warned us about the number of homeless people we would encounter in the Mission District, and told us, on no account, to stray into the Tenderloin District. We anticipated seeing quite a few people begging or sitting/sleeping in doorways, but it was pretty distressing to instead see significant numbers of people typically by themselves, drooping on or off their feet, in their wheelchair or on a curb, sitting beside a shopping trolley containing their few ragged belongings, some totally out of their mind and barely functioning. Their physical and mental health must be at the extreme limit. We saw a few pairs of social workers going amongst them asking if they were alright (or seeing if they were alive?). It was disturbing and we wonder what efforts the San Francisco authorities are making to try and address it. Given the problem is now considered by many to be worse than when we were here in 2017, it is either an unsolvable problem or not being dealt with.
We continued walking down Market St to the Union Square which we remember from the last time we were in San Francisco in 2017. On the way we passed some noteworthy sights. John found the fleets of little 3-wheeler traffic enforcement vehicles distinctly angular and unappealing, whereas he loved the fleet of old-time trams which run down some of the main streets.
The walk was very good. With GPSMyCity each notable sight has a 1-2 minute audio commentary, which we were setting off as we approached it. A range of buildings, mostly older, and the basis for a nice little explore.
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| Morris Gift Shop, Frank Lloyd Wright 1948 |
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| Peeping inside the Morris Gift Shop |
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| Union Square |
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| Hallidie Building 1918, just the 2nd glass curtain wall in the USA |
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| 555 California St |
We paused for lunch in Chinatown, finding a funny little restaurant run by one overworked Chinese man who was greeter, waiter, cook and cashier. He got quite behind and spent a lot of time saying "sorry" as he tried to get people fed. However, a nice meal of noodles and a hot pot, just the ticket before climbing the hill to the last point on the walk, the Cathedral.
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| Chinatown gate |
From there we headed down to the Ferry Building for a quick look, then back up to Salesforce Park. This was an amazing park half a block wide and 2 blocks long, all up on the 4th floor! It has various areas, including a bamboo forest, a redwood forest, performance areas, plenty of seating and more. Amazing!
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| San Francisco street scene |
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| The extensive Salesforce Park - on the 4th floor of a building. |
One of our main aims for the day was to visit the Museum of Modern Art. We arrived to find a $25 entry fee which was a bit of a shock, but on reaching the counter found it was a free day, being the first Thursday of the month. A pleasant surprise, which we were very grateful for as we didn't find the exhibitors to our taste at all. We think the current curator must love abstracts, which neither of us particularly like, as most of the art of display was abstract. A very good section of photographs was the highlight.
Flagging by now, we jumped on the metro and headed back home. A long and interesting day out.
Alastair and Sophie had booked us into a newish Mexican restaurant for dinner. Bombera was excellent - we all had a very tasty meal and were very well looked after. Ali and Sophie bumped into friends there, who knew the owner-chef, who came over and said Hi to us all, and then extended it to a birthday message on our desserts and a pot of tea to round off the meal. A lovely evening out.
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| John's birthday dinner at Bombera |
