Thursday, May 22, 2008

A Walk Around San Fransisco Town

My free day was, in a word, a blast. I was so busy leading up to this trip that I never planned what to do when not at the University. My only real thought was to visit the awesome people at Borderlands Books, but I never got my act together to give them the heads-up. No matter, it was more fun to walk in and it slowly dawn on them that I'm not normally part of their natural surroundings. The store is as beautiful as people say it is -- calming, especially in contrast to the chaos of my office. Alan, Jude, and Cary were gracious hosts but I have to admit, it was Ripley the Hairless Cat that stole my heart.

Cory Doctorow will be reading and signing books tonight. Anyone in the area, this should be a fun night. I'll be working but if I have the time, I will run over an try to catch a bit of event.

Without much ambition for the rest of the day, I simply walked and walked...and walked. I went to the De Young museum and saw some great works, but the sun and the drive to simply keep moving drew me back on the streets and walking again. I saw
Haight Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, lots of residential neighborhoods, found a tennis ball (which I'll bring home for Fiona), a super-ball, and two science fiction paperbacks neatly laid out on stretch of brink wall (which I gave to Borderlands), almost by accident, I found the Pacific Ocean (which required crossing a highway and cutting under a fence) and then back to the hotel. Low on ambition, high on mind clearing easy activity.

7 comments:

Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

But you're not wearing flowers in your hair!! (My favorite song BTW by Scott McKenzie from 1967)

ces said...

I was in Frisco May 2-6, and that's what we did - walk and walk and walk. And ride the cable cars of course!

We spent most of our time in the northeast section though - except for a visit to the Mission & Castro districts south of Market. And the Exploratorium of course - it & a visit to Five & Diamond & the cable cars were the only planned excursions - we just let the whether & our feet guide us.

I love Frisco!!!

John D. said...

Borderlands rocks.

Josh Jasper said...

Hah. We missed each other by about. one week. I was there last friday and saturday.

andillustrations said...

These are great photos of San Francisco. It was a pleasure meeting yesterday at the Portfolio Review at AAU. (especially since I'm a frequent visitor to your)
Make sure to check out the ferry building if you still have some free time.

Kelly Tudor said...

Hi, I'm a student at Ringling and I heard there's a slight possibility you might be judging our ILLEST of ILL show at the beginning of the year.

I wanted to check out your work and I found you were in San Francisco! I was just there about a week ago. I had no idea the Academy of the Arts was having a show. Wish I would have gone inside, I must have walked by there buildings about a million times. I'm sure the show was a blast and I hope to meet you at Ringling in the fall!

~Kelly

Irene Gallo said...

bob -- none...that I know of.

Angela -- I had a great time meeting all of you. From what I saw, you guys gt a top-notch education.

John -- Indeed!

Josh, Ces -- it would have been funny to run into you. I'm often amazed how small the world is and how often I randomly run into people in cities that neither party is at home in.

The machine -- no one has talked to be about Ringling, but that's another one of the super-schools. I'd see what ya'll are doing down there. And Florida s warm!