After some wandering and serious hill climbing (we're talking hills so steep that stairs are cut into the sidewalks), we headed over to Macondray Lane, taking a brief detour to enjoy a view.
This is what the way up to Macondray Lane looked like--sidewalk stairs and hobbit houses.
Finally, we turned left into Macondray Lane. According to our trusty card, this is "a narrow, tree-lined cobblestone pedestrian alley. This is the street upon which Armistead Maupin based Barbary Lane in his beloved Tales of the City series." I've seen the PBS series; now I need to read the books.
Macondray Lane was pretty spectacular, with beautiful homes lining on side of the alley and a lush wall of vegetation lining the other.
At first I thought these metal stairs were part of the inspiration for Barbary Lane's fabled stairs, but those were still to come. On the right is the view from the end of Macondray Lane, looking out at the bay and Coit Tower.
These have to be the stairs that inspired Maupin. I love them! They take you from the alley down to the street.
At this point, we bid farewell to Macondray Lane and climbed a few more hills to get back to Polk Street. We were wandering on our own now, with no help from the card. Back on Polk, we stopped to marvel at the old Alhambra Theatre, now home to Crunch Fitness, a trendy gym. But timeless in its architecture.
We explored the rest of Polk Street, taking it almost to the bay. We stopped at an interesting garage sale and scored a great lamp, which we then had to carry on the rest of our adventure. Taking Bay Street west, we walked over into the Marina area and turned left onto Fillmore. We explored Fillmore for awhile and then turned onto Union Street, where we collapsed at Nettie's Crab Shack for a drink and some crab cakes. By this point our feet were weary and it had turned chilly and windy outside.
It was a great day, though, filled with new sights, strolls, shopping, and ice cream. A perfect Sunday!
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