Mosaic stairway in San Francisco

San Francisco has many famed stairways, like the Filbert Street steps, which is probably to be expected in a city this hilly.  In the Golden Gate Heights neighborhood on the west side of the city, there’s a beautiful mosaic stairway created as a community art project.  Located on 16th Avenue, the staircase has over 160 steps.

From the ocean to the sky…

Detail of a step

The sun and the moon sections at the top are my favorite parts.

As a reward for climbing up, at the top are beautiful views of the city.  On a clear day, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge to the north.

The big strip of trees in this photo is Golden Gate Park.

And you can see straight down to the ocean.  There are islands out there, believe it or not.  You just can’t see them very often.

Grand View Park is at the top and also offers amazing views of the city.

The stairway is in a residential area and along with the park, is a fun way to spend a couple of hours and watch the sunset.

Hello WordPress

Welcome!  I’m excited that I’ve finally managed to import my sadly neglected old Typepad blog that I started several years ago to WordPress.  I have two other WP blogs now and it just makes sense to have them all in one place.

On this blog, I’ll be sharing photos and such of San Francisco and the Bay Area and my travels, quotes, and whatever else inspires me.

I attended Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences for the very first time the other week.  It was a bit hectic, but interesting, and I surprisingly ran into a few people I knew.  My favorite part of the museum has always been the Steinhart Aquarium.  So, of course I had to spend some time down there, wandering around amongst the seahorses and jellyfish.  I used to dream of being a marine biologist (and now I’m studying to be a librarian!) and still love visiting aquariums.

These were taken with a camera phone, so please forgive the quality of the third pic! 

I hope you come back to visit again or follow this blog!  Coming soon – pictures of my epic trip to Iran!

Bouquets to Art

Well, I’m really behind on this post, but that’s okay.  In March, I went to see the annual Bouquets to Art exhibit at San Francisco’s De Young Museum.  For this exhibit, floral designers create bouquets inspired by art works in the museum.  It was my first time at this event, although I admit that I have purposely always avoided it.  The exhibit lasts for only one week and is wildly popular and busloads (literally) of people come from all over to see it.  As you might imagine, it was crowded to the point you could barely walk around.

The bouquets were quite lovely, but it was hard to take pictures and I eventually gave up.  Although I’m glad I went and everything I saw was pretty, the crowds were uncomfortable and blocked the views of a lot of the bouquets, and I probably won’t be going back in the near future!

Here’s some photos that I did manage to capture while navigating the crowds.  Where possible, I tried to also capture the artwork that inspired the floral arrangement.

This was an enormous sort of chandelier arrangement in the entry hall.

You can see the art in the background that this arrangement is based on – an illustration of the Bay Bridge.

A detailed view.

Two more arrangements inspired by the Bay Bridge exhibit.

This was for the black and white modern art you can see a glimpse of.

This was one of my favorite arrangements.  I loved the purple lilies.

A bit more detailed view of the above arrangement.

This one was hard to get a good picture of, so sorry, but it was one of my favorites of the whole exhibit.  It is slices of wood joined together, with air plants interspersed throughout.  It was really large – maybe six feet high?

Here’s another great one, inspired by the Japanese screen you can see in the background.  I love the orchids and plants on the top.

This one was inspired by the painting on the right, which has always been one of my favorites from the permanent collection. The painting is Winter’s Festival by Willard Leroy Metcalf, 1913.

And I believe this was inspired by the dancer in the painting on the right.  The painting is called Outdoor Stage, France by Everett Shinn, circa 1905.  Also one of my favorites.

There were many amazing and impressive floral arrangements and it was worth going to see, but a bit too hectic to try to see each year!

San Francisco SPCA tour

I recently had the chance to get a behind the scenes tour at the San Francisco SPCA through a friend who works there.  I was able to learn about their amazing programs, like therapy dogs, the spay and neuter clinic to help reduce the number of kitties and doggies in shelters, and their vet hospital, which offers free and discounted care to people who need help getting medical treatments for their pets.

This is the animal care center.  All of the little red dots are heart-shaped pet tags!

I saw the adoption center and went into the hospital where some dogs were getting dental treatments. I also got to walk around the back halls of the animal care center, where cats and dogs are helped and treated while getting ready to be placed in the adoption center. 

And best of all, I got to hold a little kitten!

Soooo cute!  I wanted to take home all the animals I saw!  But, my friend said he didn't want to have to check me for kittens before leaving, so I cooperated.  I know they're all going to go to good homes.

I didn't get to see a lot of dogs because many were out on walks, or were barking so much the rooms were just too loud to go into.

I met this guy in my friend's office.  I would love to have an office with a built-in kitty (or dog)!  I don't know how I'd get any work done, though…

Great tour, great organization.  I got my own cat from here 14 long years ago.  It was interesting to see the behind the scenes and learn more about what they do. 

Point Reyes

I've neglected this poor little blog lately.  I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with this space.  Grad school has also been busy, but I'm so happy because the other day I realized I only have six more classes to go, so I can be done by summer or fall 2015 sessions, depending on which classes I can get into to fulfill the requirements.  So excited! 

Despite the craziness and exhaustion, I'm still trying to make time to get away on little trips.  Last weekend, I went to the Point Reyes National Seashore for a short hike, hoping to see the elk that live on a reserve in the park.  

We had a little picnic, then headed off.

It's a beautiful trail that winds around for views of the ocean. 

There were wildflowers blooming everywhere!  Poppies, buttercups, wild irises, and more.

It was so nice to stroll through the flowers while seeing views like this.  (PS These shots aren't blurry, there was fog….).

We did see some elk, in the valley pictured above.  There were about a dozen of them and they were too far to get a picture of.  But, we had binoculars so we were still able to spot them and see them grazing and walking.  It was great.

A panoramic shot I took.

At the trailhead is the old Pierce Point Ranch, built in 1858 and now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Next, we headed over to nearby Point Reyes Station, a tiny town of only about 800 people.  The main street is only a few blocks long, but is quite nice.   

This building is from 1898.  I can't believe a town this small can support a bookstore.  That's awesome.

I thought the tiny post office was cute. 

Getting to Point Reyes is really easy from San Francisco, and the entire park is enormous.  I hope to go back soon to see the Point Reyes Lighthouse and hike some of the other trails.  But there's also so many other places I'd like to visit!  Next up is a day trip to Santa Cruz in a couple of weeks.

Magnolias in bloom

This weekend, I visited the San Francisco Botanical Garden to see the gorgeous magnolias in bloom. 

Magnolia loebneri, a hybrid of magnolia stellata (further below) and a Japanese magnolia.

I love the sort of stripes on the Magnolia soulangeana petals.  Like a natural ombre!  The common name is saucer magnolia.  It's also a hybrid. 

 Sprenger's magnolia, a native of China.  This was spectactular. 

The petals are huge!

Magnolia stellata, the star magnolia, native to Japan. 

 Zen magnolia, native to China.  These smell amazing!

Magnolia dawsonia, from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in China.

Magnolia denudata, the Yulan magnolia, the official flower of Shanghai. 

Lovely!!

Muir Woods

I went with the honey to Muir Woods recently.  I still can't believe I had never been there!  We had actually tried to go several times during the summer, but it was always too crowded so we couldn't get in.  The great thing about Muir Woods is that it's close to San Francisco, but it's almost too close as it gets incredibly crowded. At any rate, we finally made it there and had a great morning walking around.

I liked how new growth was growing from a fallen tree.  Similar trees were all over the park




We went over to Pelican Inn for lunch, an adorable recreated English Inn and Tavern.

It was beautiful, so we ate on the lawn.  While we were eating, I noticed something moving across the blanket from the corner of my eye and it was a baby snake!  It moved too fast to get a picture, unfortunately.  I was very surprised to see a snake!

The Inn has lots of historical ephemera inside

From then, it was on to Muir Beach.  It was incredibly windy, so we ended up not staying long, but it was
very pretty and hopefully we can go back on a better day.



A beautiful day!

Impressionism exhibit

I just had the chance to see the Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay exhibit at the De Young museum.  It was spectacular!  I have to admit that I never studied art and don't know too much about it, but I have always loved many Impressionist pieces so I was super excited to go see this exhibit.   It was a really big collection and in the beginning, it was organized by painter: Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, etc.   There was also a large section from the Pont Aven school. 

Two of the highlights for me were seeing Starry Night Over the Rhone by van Gogh

and a few different pointilist paintings by Seurat and Signac.   It was amazing to see the detail in person. 

Of course, a lot of people know A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Seurat because it was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is admittedly where I first saw it too!  It wasn't at this exhibit, but I did get a chance to see it in Chicago a few years ago and it's what I know best by him.

Pretty much everyone was leaning over the barriers to be able to see the details better, including me! I would definitely go back to see everything again and since it doesn't close for over a month, I am sure I will.  It was incredibly crowded, but well worth it.

I also went to see the Japanesque exhibit, which is in conjunction with the bigger Impressionism exhibit. The Japanesque exhibit shows how Japanese prints influenced the impressionist movement.   I've seen a lot of Hiroshige and Hokusai prints in my day, but this was a beautiful collection of those artists plus others.  What made it great, however, was seeing the Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower by Henri Riviere at the end.  They showed Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji and how it influenced Riviere.   The views show the tower being built, as well as views from various angles in Paris, sometimes only the very tiniest part of the tower being seen.  I think I may have to go back and get the book!

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the exhibits, but I did wander around the permanent collections and found some other beauties.

Henry Benbridge
Mrs. Robert Shewell, Jr. (Sarah Boyer Shewell), circa 1775

Edmund Charles Tarbell

The Blue Veil, 1899

Charles Courtney Curran

Afternoon in the Cluny Garden, 1889

Thomas Dewing

Elizabeth Platt Jencks, 1895

Friday Favorites – Mary Engelbreit Halloween and more

A few of my favorite blog posts from this week!

A Mary Englbreit inspired Halloween on Bluebird Papercrafts.  I really miss Mary Engelbreit magazine.  As soon as I subscribed, it went out of business 😦

A tutorial for soldered jump rings from HeArt Collective.   A really helpful technique that I'll have to practice.  My soldering is still a bit lumpy sometimes.

 Pretty pumpkin images and a pumpkin latte recipe on French Garden House.  Yum!

A sort of recipe for pink pasta on Hardaker and Pope.  Ive been wanting to try making my own pasta for awhile and this sounds like a fun recipe to try out.

Some free pretty postcard images on Little Pink Studio.  I love vintage postcards and the birthday one is adorable.

 
I'm not even really into baseball, but I am getting caught up in the Giants World Series fever here in San Francisco.  Lots of the buildings downtown and our city hall are lit up in orange in honor of the Giants and after last night's huge win, I'm hoping they win the series!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch with Barbe

Over the weekend, I had lunch with my friend Barbe to catch up on her recent trips to Chicago and Ohio and life in general.  Going down to meet her, I couldn't figure out why her neighborhood was so much more crowded than usual until I saw the enormous battleship in the San Francisco bay and remembered it was Fleet Week.  I always seem to forget unless I hear the Blue Angels zooming around.

I think this was the ship I saw and it was a surprise to see it docked right by the piers

(pic from Fleet Week site)

Anyway, we grabbed lunch at Panera and chatted for a couple of hours.  It was pretty interesting to hear her stories about her trip and to hear what an Ohio accent sounds like.  Unfortunately, Barbe is moving out of the city soon, probably back to the Midwest or East Coast, so this might be our last outing together before she leaves.  It's kind of sad to think of her leaving the city, but it really is the best move for her at this time.  Some days I dream of moving somewhere where I can get an entire house for only $19,000 and have a ton of space and other days I really like living in a really urban – yet somehow very tiny – city.

We haven't had many chances to see each other this year – dang it, should have taken a picture! – so she gave me a couple more belated birthday gifts, which was a fun surprise.

Kimono fabric barrettes and a pretty chandelier crystal pendant

And a collage she made plus a vintage print

Hopefully we'll have the chance to get together another time before she takes off across the country and maybe I'll remember a camera!

I also picked myself up a huge Sharpies pack on sale the other day

I don't know about you, but I love Sharpies and I couldn't believe the whole pack was on sale for only $10.  I snatched them right up!  I love impulse shopping!