San Francisco

After Santa Clara, we drove on to San Francisco to spend most of the week.  My ex-husband's cousin Susan and her partner Kris live outside of the city but also have a condo in San Francisco and generously offered it to us for our stay.  Susan met us at the condo, showed us around, and graciously took us out to a fantastic dinner at Prospect before heading home for the night. It was so great to see her and catch up on all the family news.  And how lucky are we that they let us stay in their gorgeous condo?  Here are a few views from inside looking out.  

Before we turned in our rental car, we drove out to Grass Valley to visit an old friend of Rich's, also named Rich.  They lived together in what Rich calls "the house of a thousand faces" (actually, I think his brother George came up with the name due to the revolving door of roommates and visitors) when they were in their late 20's/early 30's.  They had not been in touch in many years but reconnected through their mutual friend Cole not long ago.  

Rich and Rich

 Rich and his girlfriend Susan

They were very welcoming and several hours were spent in reminiscing and recounting old times.  Let me just say I am probably glad I did not know Rich then.  :) 

The next day we decided to wander around the Mission District in San Francisco.  Above, a "worker owned cooperative" grocery store--oh, heavens, creeping socialism!  :)

 Lots of cool houses that are probably unaffordable to the people who have traditionally lived in the area.

 My favorite part: the awesome colorful left wing murals everywhere!

 "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us."

 Masks

 Alley Cat Books

 I liked this one best--hope you can click on it and enlarge it and see it up close

 Malcolm

 Cesar

 Dog Eared Books

Good question: Who would Jesus bomb?

We walked for several hours, had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant and took the bus back to the Embarcadero.  We always find riding the bus quite interesting.  I had a funny fellow passenger sitting next to me.  Every time the bus made a stop, he'd call out, "Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, come on now, come on now..."  He later took out a whole roasted chicken and began to eat it, throwing the bones on the floor.  When our female driver finished her shift and was briefing the guy taking over, the passenger began to holler, "Let her go, let her go, let her go, come on, come on, bye bye, bye bye, bye bye,  you're holding us up, we gotta go, come on now, let her go, let her go, bye bye, bye bye."  Later, an elderly man in a wheelchair came onboard and this dude starts berating him a little bit, saying, "come on, man, you're holding up the bus, come on, come on!" 

After a busy day, we were happy to come home to our lovely condo and relax for the evening.  We love San Francisco--what a great city!