Cole Turns 30, with a Little Help from Anchor Steam Brewery

{The venerable Anchor Steam label.}

The day before Cole turned 30 (thereby becoming obsolete, according to some), we both took the day off work to tour the one and only brewery in San Francisco, Anchor Steam.  We'd been passing the building and inhaling the sweet smell of hops during our trips to Potrero Hill but had never been able to get in on a tour.  Turns out you have to reserve a spot weeks in advance.  Once I heard that my baby wanted to celebrate her birthday with some beer and history, I got on the horn and wrangled us a couple of spots.

{The brewery's Art Deco stylings.}

Even six weeks in advance, all I could get was a ten a.m. tour.  Competition is evidently fierce for this free, two-hour tour.

{Original sign in tasting room.}

The tour was REALLY good (and not just because our guide encouraged us to try all eight of Anchor Steam's offerings).  Because I recommend that any visitor to San Francisco take this tour (whether you're a beer-swiller or not), I won't recite all of the fun historical facts I learned.  Let's just say that Anchor Steam as a beer has survived a lot of trials and tribulations from its start in the late 1800s by two German immigrants to its present day status.  The brewery is even expanding to a warehouse next door but has no plans to leave the city, which I think is cool.

{A brewer hard at work monitoring some vats.  I dig his onesie.}

{Our tour guide, Joe, who did a dang good job quenching our collective thirst.}

{The Humming Ale, so named because as of 2009, the brewery is humming along.}

{Some of the vintage signs displayed in the tasting room.}

{Lush.}

{This was me really just playing with my camera.  Dark ale atop an original keg.}

{Collection of vintage Anchor Steam bottles lining the bar.}

After bidding Anchor Steam farewell, we headed up to Russian Hill to eat at Swan's Oyster Depot, which is Cole's favorite restaurant in the city.  We sat at its long marble counter and she had another Anchor Steam and a selection of oysters.  I had a delicious dungeness crab cocktail.  

We spent the rest of the day basking in the unseasonably beautiful weather (sun and 65 degrees!), reading in a coffee shop, baking/eating cake, and opening presents.  Yay for birthdays!

Dynamo Donuts

{image via}

Dynamo Donuts will be our first (and last) stop tomorrow morning before we head south to Monterey Bay for the aquarium and then back north to Santa Cruz for the night.  We've devoured these donuts twice now (both times with Sam, incidentally) and they are easily the best donuts I've ever tasted.  It's not just the imaginative flavors (Candied Orange Blossom, Maple Bacon, and Pumpkin Nutmeg, to name a few), but also the texture and freshness.  The Spiced Chocolate donut is simply not to be missed.  As we discovered last time, Dynamo also has an extremely cute back garden in which to enjoy your breakfast goods and coffee.

So great is Cole's love for donuts that she may have cooked up this road trip just to make a stop at Dynamo.  I wouldn't put it past her at all.

Thai Chile, Honey Thyme, Secret Breakfast

...are all totally imaginative ice cream flavors available at various ice cream shops in San Francisco.  Secret Breakfast, in particular, is one that has come up in my conversations with Karie several times now.  As a result (and also due to the general Shira love for ice cream), we started joking around about doing an ice cream tour of the city.  We decided then and there that it would be doable (and not even all that guilt-inducing) if we walked between locations.  We surmised that we could hit 4 or 5 shops in an afternoon.

{photo from Daily Candy}

This is perfect timing because Karie and Sam are coming for a visit at the end of this week today!  They are making the seemingly-endless slog up I-5 as I type.

Not one to procrastinate, last week I started designing the route for our tasty tour.  Though this city boasts great ice cream shops in the double digits, I narrowed my list to five.  Our tour will take us on a lopsided loop through Noe Valley, the Inner and Outer Mission, Duboce Triangle, and Bernal Heights.  I adjusted it so that we'll go through or past some of the nicest parks in the city--Holly Park, Dolores Park, Precita Park, and Bernal Hill Park.

I'm calling this undertaking "3 Girls, 5 Ice Cream Shops, 7.1 Miles."

Which shops made the oh-so-elite list, you ask?  Well, I chose Mitchell's, Bi-Rite Creamery*, Three Twins, Humphry Slocombe, and Maggie Mudd.

Practical considerations for this tour include wearing comfortable shoes, bringing a large amount of water, and limiting ourselves to one scoop at each joint. 

Of course, as I was mapping out the route, I started to calculate the probability of us burning more calories on our walk than we were planning to ingest at the ice cream shops.  Even with our 7.1 mile loop, which does include hiking up the north side of Bernal Hill (very steep in places), I don't think we'll burn more than we take in.

But that's okay.  You only live once.

Here's my ice cream-tastic Google map of the route:


View Larger Map

*Bi-Rite is not new to us.  But we love it so much, especially its heavenly salted carmel ice cream, that it simply had to be included.

Steps or Slide?

I forget when this was, but on one of our many walks through Bernal Heights we stumbled upon something so intrinsically awesome and wonderful that I think I actually squealed with delight.  We had taken a walk up to the top of Bernal Hill (which is all parkland and open space) and decided to explore the west side of the neighborhood by taking a flight of stairs down the hillside, back into the area of streets and houses.  Bernal Hill actually has several cool stairways cut into the hillside, and the one we took this day was almost jungle-like, with leafy trees and vines and ferns everywhere.

It deposited us onto a cute street with a lot of cute houses, and across that street we found another stairway to take us further down the hillside.  Repeat one or two more times, with more cute streets and cute houses and stairways. 

Then, across the next street, we came to a small clearing with a sign painted in the familiar green "SF Rec & Parks" color.  It was a mini-park, set into the hillside, with the usual set of steps leading down to the street below. 

But it also had the most awesome set of TWO SLIDES!  This mini-park offers you a choice:  step or slide to your destination.  The slides are side by side, so you can slide with a companion next to you.  They're fast slides, and long, and shaded, so you could never get burned on them.  That day, we took the slides, of course, as a couple of older tourists photographed it all from the top.  The slides spit us out into more leafy trees and a beautiful succulent garden.  It was SO FUN.

Weeks later, I am still marvelling at those slides.  ONLY IN SF.  For some reason, that mini-park with its slides gets me more than anything else I've seen or experienced here.  When a flight of stone steps would have done the trick, this city chose to transform the simple action of ascending or descending into something utterly fun and whimsical.

I actually found some history about the slides here:

"A more boisterous park amenity--the city’s longest pair of outdoor slides--greets visitors to Bernal Heights Mini Park just a few blocks away at Winfield and Esmeralda. In the late 1970s, neighborhood activists, with help from then-Mayor George Moscone, turned the empty corner lot into a garden spot with spectacular views and a twin, 42-foot sloping steel slide. The highlight of its dedication in 1979 was the photograph of Mayor Dianne Feinstein flying exuberantly down the chute."

Next task is to find that photo of DiFi choosing the slide over the stairs.

Polk Gulch & Russian Hill: Part Three

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!

Polk Gulch & Russian Hill: Part Two

The climb up Union to Hyde Street led us to the original Swensen's Ice Cream Shop.  We stopped for a cone and, as directed by the card, to appreciate the "low hum of the cable car tracks" on Hyde Street.

I think Cole looks somewhat grim in this photo because she had realized that my Swiss Orange Chip was far better than her Carmel Marble.  I shared with her.

We then headed up to Lombard Street, where a throng of tourists was snapping photos and speaking in various languages at the top of the hill.  The view was amazing--you can see Alcatraz, Coit Tower, and the Bay Bridge all from the top of the street.  Not to mention the homes and gardens along the switchbacks.

We again followed the card's advice:  "Savor the glorious views from this popular perch, watch the cable cars climb Hyde's steep incline, and peer down Lombard Street, the city's most scenic and famous street, paved in signature pink brick and lined with abundant  hydrangeas and handsome homes.  Built in 1922 with an astonishing eight switchbacks packed into one block, the street was designed to make the hilltop accessible to automobiles."  And accessible it is--I wonder how the Lombard residents like having tourists driving down their street all day long.  On second thought, they're probably too busy eating truffles and being waited upon in the sanctity of their mansions to even notice...

After descending the crooked street, the card wanted us to check out the Diego Rivera mural at the San Francisco Art Institute on Chestnut, but since it was Sunday and probably closed, we bypassed that.  Raincheck!  Instead we wandered further into the neighborhood, climbing more hills and happening upon this idyllic little park. Fay Park has both a house and the garden that were bequeathed to the city by their wealthy owner.

I can't even begin to describe how good this garden smelled...roses were in bloom everywhere!

Tomorrow I'll post about more hill climbing as we looked for Macondray Lane...

Polk Gulch & Russian Hill: Part One

We have a deck of San Francisco city walk cards that friends gave to us and yesterday we chose #7:  Polk Gulch and Russian Hill.  It was a really fun afternoon, starting at Pacific and Polk and ending at Macondray Lane, the area that Armistead Maupin used as his inspiration for Tales of the City.  I saw a lot of things I'd never seen before:  new parts of Polk Street, the original Swensen's Ice Cream Shop, and Lombard Street in all its glory (yes, I know, it was sad that I'd never actually been there before).  We logged several extremely steep hills and probably at least 4 or 5 miles on our walk.  So no guilt for indulging in a Swensen's cone!  Swiss Orange Chip, of course :)

We were hungry for lunch upon arriving at the intersection of Pacific and Polk, so we stopped at the famous cheese shop there, Cheese Plus, and sat outside to eat our sandwiches.  It was sunny and in the 60s, with a nice breeze (that later turned into a full-fledged gale).  But at noon the weather was perfect for an outside lunch.

This shop has every sort of cheese imaginable, along with an impressive selection of wine and chocolate, as well as a machine that grinds peanuts into peanut butter right before your eyes!

After lunch, we followed the card's directions:  "Over the course of the next few blocks, you'll pass a string of small shops, including the eclectic Molte Cose (#2044), which carries assorted baubles, and the Russian Hill Bookstore (#2234).  Be sure to check out Prize (1415 Green), around the corner.  Back on Polk, the popular Boulange de Polk (#2310) carries authentic French pastries in a cozy setting."

While we missed Prize, and did not stop in to the Boulange, seeing as how we had just eaten, we did linger in Molte Cose and Bella Cose, where I saw this lovely vintage wedding dress, among many other amazing vintage finds.  The Russian Hill Bookstore was similarly enticing, with a lot of new and used books as well as a great selection of paper goods.

Checking back in with the card, it advised us to "Turn right on Union and left on Hyde--note Swensen's Ice Cream (#1999) and the low hum of cable-car cables circulating under the tracks--and stop at Lombard."

Getting up to Hyde via Union Street was a major climb.  Here's Cole partway up.

More to come tomorrow, starting with our visit to Swensen's!

Typical

It turns out that the Divisidero Streetscape Project, which has been proceeding in a series of very loud and dusty steps since we moved into our apartment last March, is finally almost complete.  Our district supervisor has planned a party for a day or two before we move.  It feels a bit unfair that after enduring all of the torn up streets, incredible vibrations from huge construction machines, and general chaos, we're not going to be in the immediate vicinity to reap the benefits of this project.  Guess that means we'll have to come back to our beloved Divisidero often to enjoy it!

I went to a couple of neighborhood meetings (because I'm a nerd like that) where a City of San Francisco planner talked about what would be happening on the project.  Besides resurfacing the street itself, they widened the medians to accomodate new streetlights and planted red maples along the medians.  They also filled in all of the empty tree spaces along the sidewalks.  Best of all, they're creating a parklet in front of Mojo, a bike cafe along Divisidero, by reclaiming the parking spots in front of the shop.  This parklet is one of several around the city where unused paved areas are being repurposed as outdoor spaces for people to enjoy.  I think it's awesome!

They've started working on the parklet and here's a mockup of how it's going to look. I'm not a huge fan of the bamboo planters (I would have gone with small trees or something), but I have faith that it'll turn out well.  The bright green is definitely a nice contrast to Mojo's bright orange.  I have no doubt that the space will soon be teeming with sweaty cyclists decked out in bike gear, enjoying a post-ride beer.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head*

We're in the middle of a huge rainstorm. It's been raining on and off since Saturday, making for extremely good sleeping and lots of pitter-patter rain sounds. Early yesterday afternoon, the sky cleared up (just long enough for Chanelle and I to make it to and from Starbucks) but then the rain and thunder came back. I realized after I stepped outside this morning that I should have opted for the big, black, industrial umbrella instead of my tiny, cute, insubstantial umbrella. I wish Mayor Newsom would declare a rain day so we could all stay home and watch the rain from our windows.

This weather is inspiring me to make something like this lovely project I saw on feeling stitchy:

*I admit to having this song on my iPod. What? It's good.

Skywalk

I saw this old skywalk between Market and Mission downtown on Saturday. I risked the stares of a few men who live in the nearby rent-by-the-week hotels in order to take a picture. I'd like to know which department store owned this lovely skybridge and who owns it now. Looking down the street, we could see someone moving around in front of the skywalk's windows. How cool would it be to live on a skywalk?

On second thought, NOT A GOOD IDEA when you live in an earthquake zone.