Wednesday

I've got a temp gig this week working a conference downtown. Unlike the bigger conferences that are typically held at venues like the Mascone Center, we're at the lovely Palace Hotel. The current structure was built a century ago to replace the one destroyed in the great earthquake of 1906. It is a marvel of Beaux Arts design, impressive enough to warrant it's own City Guides tour.

It was raining buckets when I went to work at 6AM this morning, but it cleared up completely before noon. This is the sky that greeted me when I emerged from BART this afternoon on my way home.

A View from the Pier

We've been experiencing a 'false Spring,' as my neighbor called it, and today I rode my bicycle over to Crissy Field for a picnic lunch. After wandering around on foot and taking some photos, I snagged a picnic table with a view. I was soon joined by several small black birds, for whom I left the crumbs of my pb&j sandwich when I departed.

Steepest Street

I found this piece on the steepest blocks in San Francisco over at Streetsblog SF. I spent the last six weeks of 2008 at the top of the Church & 22nd Street block mentioned in the post and some of the comments. It is not uncommon to hear "Oh, shit!" from unknowing automobile drivers cresting the hill. Predictably popular with boot camp sergeants putting their grunts through morning drills, this block is, sadly, also the site of not a few scooter accidents.

I have many photos taken from atop the hill, but none of the hill itself, so I'm attaching a random shot I found on the web.